' 


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PREFACE. 


THE  following  pages  contain  the  life  of  an  eminent  citizen  of 
the  Eepublic.  The  compiler's  object  has  been  to  present  him,  as 
he  moved  along,  from  point  to  point,  in  his  own  thoughts  and 
actions. 

Most  of  General  CASS'S  time  has  been  passed  in  public  occupa 
tion;  and,  hence,  the  propriety  of  bringing  out  this  work  during 
his  life-time. 

It  is  believed  that  no  topic  of  public  concernment,  for  fifty 
years  past,  has  been  introduced,  upon  which  General  CASS  has 
not  expressed  his  views.  In  most  instances,  official  position 
required  him  to  do  so.  Readers  may  differ  as  to  the  value  of 
these  views;  but  all  will  concede  that  his  history  would  be 
imperfect  without  them.  To  do  justice  to  him,  the  compiler,  in 
some  instances,  has  presented  his  entire  argument  —  especially 
upon  the  British  claim  to  the  right  of  visitation  and  search. 

Questions  of  the  most  exciting  character  have  arisen,  to  which 
General  CASS  was  necessarily  a  party.  He  never  shrinked  from 
his  just  responsibility:  but,  in  so  doing,  he  has  often  been  criti 
cised,  and  his  opinions  and  actions,  sometimes,  roughly  assailed. 
In  this  compilation?  the  writer  has  not  a  vended  these  points. 

321745 


IV  PREFACE. 

Without  intention  to  open  afresh  any  wound  that  time  may  have 
healed,  events,  as  they  occurred,  have  been  impartially  given. 

In  short,  the  intention  has  been,  to  give  a  true  and  unreserved 
record  of  the  life  and  times  of  a  man,  who  has  made  his  way 
through  the  world  and  attained  a  lofty  position  in  its  annals, 
unaided  by  the  influence  of  family  or  wealth,  indebted  solely 
to  his  own  judicious  efforts  and  native  abilities  :  thus  furnishing 
another  example  in  proof  of  the  priceless  goodness  of  a  govern 
ment  that  diffuses  its  blessings  upon  all  alike,  the  low  as  well  as 
the  high — the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Introductory — Birth  of  Mr.  Cass — His  Ancestors — His  Father  in  the  Wars — His  Pa 
rents  Emigrate  to  Ohio — Mr.  Cass's  Education — Exeter  Academy — A  Test  of 
his  Disposition — The  Everetts  and  Daniel  Webster — His  Health  and  Amuse 
ments — Dependent  upon  his  own  Resources — Goes  South — His  Residence  in 
Delaware — School  Teaching — Success — Views  of  Slavery — Crossing  the  Alle- 
ghanies — Stops  at  Marietta — Acquaintance  with  Judge  Meigs — Reads  Law — Mr. 
Baccus — Admission  to  the  Bar — Professional  Life — His  Marriage — Blennerhas- 
eett — Aaron  Burr — Elected  Member  of  Legislature — Burr's  Conspiracy — Mr. 
Cass's  Action — Mr.  Graham — President  Jefferson — Mr.  Cass  appointed  Marshal 
— His  Success  as  an  Advocate — His  Politics — An  Important  Question — Impeach 
ment  of  Judges — Mr.  Cass's  Argument, 13 


CHAPTER    II. 

Indian  Confederacy — Tecumseh  and  the  Prophet — Relations  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain— Gov.  Meigs's  Proclamation— War  of  1812— Mr.  Cass's 
Views — Volunteers  his  Services — Commissioned  Colonel — His  Speech  to  the 
Troops  at  Dayton— Its  Effect — General  Hull— Plan  of  the  Campaign— Rendez 
vous  at  Urbana — March  to  the  Maumee — Hardships  and  Trials — Declaration  of 
War — Disaster  on  Lake  Erie — Council  of  War — Col.  Cass  present — Advises  the 
Invasion  of  Canada — Disinclination  of  Gen.  Hull — Advice  of  Col.  Cass  adopted 
— Passage  of  Detroit  River — Landing  in  Canada — Hull's  Proclamation — Col. 
Cass  urges  prompt  movement  on  Maiden — Hull's  Delay — Col.  Cass  visits  Mai 
den  with  Flag  of  Truce — Return  to  Camp — Leads  a  Detachment  against  the 
Enemy — The  Engagement  at  the  Aux  Canards— His  Heroic- Conduct—  His  Re 
port  to  Hull— Col.  Cass's  Courage— Hull's  Timidity,  33 

CHAPTER   III. 

Armistice  on  Niagara  Frontier— Hull  favors  the  Re-crossing  of  Detroit  River— Col. 
Cass  Remonstrates — Battle  of  Brownstown — Evacuation  of  Canada — Engage 
ment  in  the  Woods  of  Magunga— Col.  Cass  volunteers  to  lead  a  Detachment 


VI  CONTENTS. 

through  the  Wilderness  to  th"e  River  Raisin — Gen.  Brock's  arrival  at  Sandwich — 
Summons  the  American  Fort  at  Detroit — Bombardment — Hull's  Surrender — In 
dignation  of  Col.  Cass  and  the  Troops — His  return  from  the  River  Raisin — Dis 
position  to  Fight — Breaks  his  Sword,  41 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Gen.  Brock's  surprise  at  his  Success — His  Report — Col.  Cass  a  Prisoner  of  War — On 
his  Parole — Interview  with  Gen.  Brock  at  Maiden — Gen.  Hull  ordered  to  Mon 
treal—His  Report— Effect  of  the  News— The  Ohio  Volunteers  on  Parole — Reach 
Cleveland — Col.  McArthur,  senior  officer,  orders  Col.  Cass  to  Washington — Col. 
Cass  departs — Sickness  at  Martinsburgh — The  War  Department  Informed — Mes 
senger  despatched — Col.  Cass  reaches  Washington — His  Official  Letter — Hia 
Return  to  Marietta — His  Conduct — Opposition  to  his  Report — Mr.  Rush — CoL 
Cass's  Letter  to  the  Editor  of  the  National  Intelligencer — Mr.  Eustis — His  Clerk 
— False  Impressions, 48 

CHAPTER    V. 

Action  of  War  Department — Of  Congress — General  Assembly  of  Ohio — Confidence 
in  Col.  Cass — Colonel  in  U.  S.  Army — Raises  a  Regiment — Elected  Major  General 
of  the  Militia — Appointed  Brigadier  General  in  U.  S.  Army — Joins  the  Army, 
under  Gen.  Harrison  at  Seneca  Town — Ardor  of  his  Command — Gen.  Harrison's 
Confidence  in  him — The  Enemy  at  Lower  Sandusky — Major  Croghan — His  Gal 
lant  Defence — Artifice  of  the  British  Officers — Gen.  Harrison  marches  to  Sandus 
ky — Perry's  Victory — Embarkation  on  Lake  Erie — Harrison  assigns  Command 
of  the  debarkation  to  Gen.  Cass — Arrival  at  Maiden — Proctor's  Retreat — Council 
of  War— Pursuit  of  Proctor— Battle  of  the  Thames— Defeat  and  Flight  of  Proctor 
— Pursued  by  Gen.  Cass — Harrison's  Testimony  to  Gen.  Cass's  Personal  Exer 
tions — His  Bravery, 66 

CHAPTER   VI. 

Gen.  Cass  in  Command  of  the  North-western  Frontier — Fixes  his  Head  Quarters  at 
Detroit — Letter  from  Gov.  Meigs — Surprise  of  Gen.  Cass— Appointed  Governor  of 
the  Territory  of  Michigan — Acceptance — Resigns  the  Office  of  Marshal — Sum 
moned  to  Albany  as  a  Witness  on  Hull's  Trial — His  Journey — Cuts  open  the 
Mail  Bags — Reports  the  Burning  of  Buffalo,  from  Cold  Spring — Incident  at  the 
Genesee  River,  near  Rochester— Arrival  at  Albany— His  Testimony— The  Char 
ges — Sentence  of  the  Court  Martial — President's  Action — An  Examination  of  the 
Trial,  its  Proceedings,  and  Hull's  Defence— His  Imbecility, 81 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Gen.  Cass  returns  to  Detroit — Situation  of  the  Fortress — Resigns  the  Command  of 
Brigadier  General — Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs— His  Policy— Appointed 
Commissioner  to  Treat  with  the  Indians — Holds  a  Treaty  at  Greenville — Sur- 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

rounded  by  Five  Thousand  Indians — Their  Threats — His  Intrepidity — The  Trea 
ty — Sends  Reinforcements  to  Gen.  Brown — The  Inroads  of  Hostile  Indians 
— He  disperses  them — His  Pet  Indians — Colonel  James — Correspondence — • 
Gen.  Cass's  rejection  of  British  Interference  in  the  Civil  Affairs  of  Michi 
gan — Treaty  of  Peace — Removal  of  his  Family  to  Detroit — British  Arrogance 
— Boarding  of  American  Vessels — Gen.  Cass  Remonstrates — Its  Effect, 97 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  North-west  Territory — Civil  Government  of  Michigan — Land  Titles — Condition 
of  Michigan  at  close  of  the  War — Currency — Extent  of  the  Territory — Gen. 
Cass  feels  the  Responsibility  of  his  Position — Imputed  Frauds  on  the  Indians — 
How  he  performed  his  Duties — Appointed  to  treat  with  Ohio  Tribes  of  Indians — 
Treaty  of  Fort  Meigs — Aversion  of  the  Chiefs  to  Remove — Wisdom  of  Commis 
sioners — Large  Cession — Military  Road — The  detroit  Gazette — The  People 
against  a  Change  of  Government — Public  Survey — Emigration  into  the  Territory 
— The  Six  Nations — Gen.  Cass's  views  of  the  duties  of  an  Indian  Commissioner — 
Negotiates  a  Treaty  at  St.  Mary's — Council  at  Saginaw — His  Popularity  with 
the  Indians — Election  of  Delegate  to  Congress — Its  Benefits, 106 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Gen.  Cass's  Indian  Superintendency  Extended — His  views  of  Governmental  Policy 
— He  recommends  a  Peaceful  Expedition  into  the  Superior  Country — His  Let 
ter  to  Secretary  of  War — The  Secretary's  Reply — Expedition — Plaster  of  Paris 
Discovered — His  Letter  upon  the  Subject — Ordered  to  Procure  Cessions  of  Land 
at  Sault  St.  Marie — Departure  of  Expedition — Arrival  at  the  Sault — Indian 
Council — Gen.  Cass's  Fearlessness — His  Success — Journey  to  the  Sources  of  the 
Mississippi — Return — Report  to  the  War  Department, 117 

CHAPTER   X. 

Progress  of  Settlement — Land  Sales — Gen.  Cass's  Purchase — Scarcity  of  Roads — 
Public  Surveys — The  Population  of  Michigan — Extinguishment  of  Indian  Title — 
His  Journey  to  Chicago — Treaty  with  the  Indians — He  prohibits  the  Use  of 
Whisky — The  Pardoning  Power — New  Counties — Public  Conveyances — Travel 
ers — He  recommends  a  Change  of  Government — Legislative  Council, 141 

CHAPTER    XI. 

First  Session  of  Legislative  Council — Gen.  Cass  Delivers  his  Message — His  recom 
mendations — His  views  of  Political  Power — Of  Schools  and  Education — The 
Copper  Mines — Treaty  with  the  Chippewas — Council  of  Prairie  du  Chien — Gen. 
Cass's  Prudence  and  Tact — The  Gopher — Hunter's  Narrative —  Its  Exposure — 
The  Customs  and  Traits  of  the  Indians— Their  Language,  Religion,  and  Depopu 
lation — Gen.  Cass's  Description, 149 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XII. 

The  Year  1826 — Gen.  Cass  again  traverses  the  Lakes — Holds  an  Indian  Council  at 
Fon  Du  Lac — Indians  Appear  with  the  British  Flag — A  Treaty  Concluded — 
"Repairs  to  the  Wabash — In  Council  with  Pottawatomies  and  Miarnies — His 
Speech  to  them — Concludes  Treaties — The  Legislature — Territorial  Boundaries — 
The  Message — Accountability  of  Public  Officers — Qualifications  Requisite — 
Democratic  Tone  of  his  Messages, 174 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

Another  Negotiation  with  the  Indians — Journey  to  Lake  Winnebago — Hostile  Feel 
ing  among  the  Winnebagoes — Descends  the  Wisconsin  River — Personal  Danger 
at  an  Indian  Village — Providential  Escape — Attack  on  the  Miners — "War  Messa 
ges — Gen.  Cass  organizes  the  Miners  for  Defence — Alarm  at  Fever  River — He 
Juastens  to  St.  Louis — Gen.  Wilkeso.n  orders  on  Troops — Rapidity  of  Gen.  Cass',* 
Movements — Arrival  at  Green  Bay— Treaty  of  Butte  De  Morts — Singular  Occur 
rence — Cause  of  Indian  Difficulties — British  Agents — The  North  American  Re 
view — Article  of  Gen.  Cass, 185 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

Effect  of  the  Article  in  the  Review — The  Lake  Communication — Gen.  Cass's  Literary 
Efforts — Treaty  of  Green  Bay — His  Labors — Historical  Society  of  Detroit — His 
Address — Hamilton  College — Oration  before  the  Alumni — Degree  of  LL.  D.  207 

CHAPTER    XV. 

Gen.  Cass  resigns  the  Office  of  Governor — President  Jackson  invites  Gen.  Cass  to 
the  Head  of  the  War  Department — His  Acceptance — Public  Demonstration  at 
Detroit — Address  of  Major  Biddle  in  behalf  of  People  of  Michigan — The  Reply 
— The  Congratulations, 231 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

Gen.  Cass  assumes  the  Duties  of  Secretary  of  War — The  Cabinet — Reforms  Introduced 
— His  Family — His  Indian  Policy — His  First  Report — Indian  Difficulties  in  Geor 
gia — Gen.  Cass  reviews  the  Decision  of  the  Supreme  Court — Its  Influence,  239 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

Black  Hawk  War — Peace— Treaties  of  Cession  with  the  Winnebagoes,  Sacs  and 
Foxes— Gen.  Cass's  efforts  to  effect  Reforms  in  the  Army— The  United  States 
Bank— Nullification — Letters  to  Gen.  Scott — The  Action  of  South  Carolina — 
Letter  to  Mr.  Ritchie — The  Virginia  Legislature — The  Mission  of  Mr.  Leigh — 
The  Happy  Termination, 263 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Gen.  Cass  calls  the  attention  of  Congress  to  Intemperance  in  the  Army — Richard 
M.  Johnson  moves  formation  of  National  Temperance  Association — State  of 
Society  in  Washington — Gen.  Cass  invited  to  deliver  an  Address  in  the  Capitol 
— Accepts — Extracts  from  the  Address — Entire  Interdiction — Gen.  Jackson  Re- 
inaugurated — Gen.  Cass  offers  to  Vacate — Gen.  Jackson  refuses  Permission — 
The  Alabama  Trouble— Letters,..  ..  276 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Removal  of  the  Deposites — Popularity  of  the  Administration — Mr.  Clay's  Resolutions 
— Their  Effect  on  Gen.  Jackson's  Mind — The  American  Historical  Society — Gen. 
Cass  delivers  an  Oration — Extracts — The  Auditory — Their  Feelings  on  the  Oc 
casion,  283 


CHAPTER   XX. 

The  Florida  War — Its  Origin — Its  Conduct,  whilst  Gen.  Cass  was  Secretary  of  War 
— An  Examination  of  Testimony  given  before  a  Military  Court  of  Inquiry  at 
Frederick, 296 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

Battle  of  New  Orleans — Intimacy  between  Gen.  Jackson  and  Gen.  Cass — The  Latter 
at  the  Request  of  the  Former  prepares  an  Authentic  Account  of  the  Battle — Ap 
pears  in  the  Democratic  Review — Defences  of  the  Country — Gen.  Cass's  Report 
on  the  Subject, 314 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Gen.  Cass's  Health — Desire  to  leave  the  Cabinet — Accepts  the  French  Mission — 
Voyage  across  the  Atlantic — Reception  at  the  Court  of  St.  Cloud — Gen.  Cass  as 
a  Diplomatist — His  Duties — His  Memoranda  of  Court  Customs — French  Life — 
An  Emeute — French  Manners — French  Knowledge, 323 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 

Gen.  Cass  visits  Italy— Greece— Egypt— Syria— His  Tour— His  Memoranda— Gen 
eral  Reflections— His  return  to  Paris, 337 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 

Gen.  Cass  resumes  his  Official  Duties— His  Position  at  Court— Intimacy  with  the 
King— Jealousy  of  England— His  Memoranda  Relative  to  Louis  Philippe,  hia 
Court  and  Government— The  Reasons  for  Publication— Charges  made  against 
Gen.  Cass  Examined— Their  Refutation, 374 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXV. 

Ambition  of  England— Quintuple  Treaty — The  Chamber  of  Deputies— Gen.  Cass 
Determines  to  Resist  the  Treaty, 399 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 
The  Appeal  of  Gen.  Cass  to  the  People  of  France, 403 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 

Gen.  Cass  protests  to  the  French  Government— Notifies  the  Secretary  of  State — 
Treaty  not  Ratified — His  Course  approved  by  the  President — The  Protest  to  the 
French  Government, 428 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

Disappointment  of  England— The  Washington  Treaty — Gen.  Cass  resigns  his  Mia- 
sion — The  Correspondence — England's  Construction  of  the  Treaty, 435 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

Gen.  Cass  retires  from  the  French  Court — Public  Dinner — Arrival  at  Boston — En 
thusiasm  of  the  People — Their  Address  to  Gen.  Cass — Arrival  at  New  York — 
Public  Demonstration — Letter  of  Mr.  Dickerson — Gen.  Cass's  Reply — The  Pnb- 
lic  Press — Arrival  at  Washington — Tour  to  Detroit — Reception  at  Home,..  481 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

Private  Affairs — Gen.  Cass's  Pecuniary  Troubles — His  Wish — Named  for  the  Presi 
dency— Letter  to  the  Indiana  Committee— The  Cincinnati  Meeting — Gen.  Jack, 
son's  Letter, 488 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

Gen.  Cass  delivers  an  Oration  at  Fort  Wayne — The  Celebration — Preparations  for 
the  Presidential  Election— The  Candidates— The  Texas  Question— Gen.  Cass's 
Views — The  National  Democratic  Convention  of  1844 — Letter  of  Gen.  Cass  to 
the  Delegates  from  Michigan — The  Whig  Convention — The  Democratic  Ticket- 
Support  of  Gen.  Cass— The  Result, 496 

CHAPTER   XXXII. 

Gen.  Cass  Elected  Senator — President  Polk — His  Message — The  Monroe  Doctrine- 
Gen.  Cass's  Views— His  Speech  to  the  Senate., 509 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

The  Oregon  Question — Gen.  Cass  addresses  the  Senate — His  Opinions — Extracts 
from  his  Speech— His  Reply  to  Col.  Benton— The  Treaty  of  Oregon— The  Sen 
ate  in  Executive  Session, 515 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

National  Fortifications — Unsatisfactory  Relations  with  Great  Britain — War  with 
Mexico— The  Three  Million  Bill— The  Sabbath— Wilrnot  Proviso— President's 
Recommendation  —  Gen.  Cass  advocates  Appropriations  —  Extracts  from  his 
Speech — For  Vigorous  Prosecution  of  the  War, 563 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

Prospects  of  Peace — The  Three  Million  Bill  again — Wilmot  Proviso  again — Gen. 
Cass  on  the  Proviso — Peace  with  Mexico — The  Nicholson  Letter — Its  effect  on 
Public  Opinion, 601 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

Harbor  Appropriations — Views  of  Gen.  Cass — The  Chicago  Convention — The  Famous 
Letter — Gen.  Cass's  Official  Acts  for  Harbor  and  other  Public  Improvements — 
His  Speeches  and  Votes — His  Vindication, 619 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

Foreign  Governments — Gen.  Cass's  Sympathies  with  the  King-ridden  People — Aus 
trian  Intercourse — Gen.  Cass  favors  Suspension — Extracts  from  his  Speech — Ire 
land — The  Distress  of  the  People — Gen.  Cass  moves  an  Appropriation  in  their 
behalf — His  Relations  with  Mr.  Polk's  Administration — Yucatan, 637 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

The  Baltimore  Convention  of  1848 — The  New  York  Difficulties — Gen.  Cass  again 
Named  for  the  Presidency — His  Nomination — Resigns  his  Senatorship — The 
Canvass  before  the  People— The  Buffalo  Convention — The  Clay  Letter  of  1825— 
The  Result, . .  648 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

Re-election  to  the  Senatorship — Gen.  Cass  proceeds  to  Washington — Reception  in 
New  York  City— Campbell  P.  White  and  others  Address  him— Invited  to  a 
Public  Dinner— His  Letter  of  Declension— In  the  Senate  again— Wilmot  Pro 
viso—Instructed  to  vote  for  it— Declines— Instruction  repealed— Gen.  Cass's 
Motives  Impugned— Charged  with  Inconsistency— The  Refutation, 662 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XL, 

The   Compromise  Measures — Committee  of  Thirteen — The   Report — The   Debate— 
The  Union  Party, 694 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

Opposition  to  the  Compromise  Measures — California — Public  Meeting  in  New  York 
— Gen.  Cass  Present — What  he  said  to  the  People — How  they  received  it — Re- 
elected  Senator  for  Six  Years...  709 


CHAPTER    XLII. 

Gen.  Cass  again  at  his  Post — Preparations  for  another  Presidential  Contest — Gen. 
Cass  a  Candidate — His  Friends — The  Nominating  Canvass — Baltimore  Conven 
tion — The  Result— The  Cuban  Question — The  Views  of  Gen.  Cass, 717 


CHAPTER    XLIII. 

President  Pierce — His  Inaugural — The  Nebraska-Kansas  Bill — Gen.  Cass's  Position, 
Views,  and  Votes — The  attack  of  Col.  Benton — Gen.  Cass  repels  it— His  Speech 
—Extracts, 727 


CHAPTER    XLIV. 

Gen.  Cass's  Aversion  to  everything  British — The  Second  War — The  Clayt'/n-Bul- 
wer  Treaty — The  Homestead  Bill — The  Employment  of  Indians — The  Anglo- 
Freuch  Declaration — Slavery  again — Legislative  Instructions — The  Senator's 
Reply — Know  Nothingism— Age  of  Gen.  Cass — His  Habits — Residence — Death 
of  Mrs.  Cass — Gen.  Cass's  Private  Affairs — His  Property — His  views  of  the 
Past  and  Future — The  Termination, 748 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


OF 


LEWIS   CASS. 


CPIAPTEK  I. 

Introductory — Birth  of  Mr.  CaSa — His  Ancestors — His  Father  in  the  Wars — His  Parents  emigrate  to 
Ohio— Mr.  Cass'  Education — Exeter  Academy — His  Disposition — The  Evoretts  and  Daniel  Webster 

His  Health  and  Amusements — Dependent  on  his  own  Resources — Goes  South — His  Residence  in 

Delaware — School  Teaching — Success — Views  of  Slavery — Crossing  the  Alleghanies — Stops  at  Mari 
etta — Acquaintance  with  Judge  Meigs — Reads  Law — Mr.  Baccus — Admission  to  the  Bar — Profes 
sional  Life — Ilia  Marriage — Blennerhasset — Aaron  Burr — Elected  Member  of  the  Legislature — 
Burr's  Conspiracy — Mr.  Cass'  Action — Mr.  Graham — President  Jefferson — Mr.  Cass  appointed 
Marshal — His  Success  as  an  Advocate — His  Politics — An  Important  Question — Impeachment  of 
Judges — Mr.  Cass'  Argument. 

The  lives  of  individuals  furnish  materials  for  a  history  of  the 
nation.  Fullness  and  authenticity  are  secured,  if  the  events 
which  chequer  the  career  of  the  actor  are  compiled  during  his 
lifetime,  fresh  from  memory.  If  the  history  of  a  nation  is  worth 
preserving,  it  is  not  essential  to  pause  for  the  purpose  of  consider 
ing  the  propriety  or  necessity  of  such  compilation,  especially  if 
the  leading  incidents  are  intimately  connected  with  the  develop 
ment  of  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  country.  The  student 
who  reads  to  gain  a  mere  information  of  events,  as  well  as  the 
philosopher  who  lays  deep  the  foundation  of  knowledge,  accom 
plish  their  several  purposes  with  far  greater  satisfaction,  if,  instead 
of  being  confined  to  cursory  glances  and  meagre  generalities,  they 
can  go  behind  the  curtain  and  behold  and  study  at  leisure  all 
the  objects,  scenes  and  details,  which  fill  up  the  panorama  of 
society,  and  expose  to  their  gaze  the  springs  of  change  and 
government. 

The  following  pages  will  disclose  to  the  reader  a  minute  and 
true  history  of  the  life  and  character  of  an  eminent  citizen  of  the 


14  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

American  Republic.  Having  occupied,  for  fifty  years,  a  promi 
nent  and  highly  influential  position  among  his  fellow  citizens,  and 
taking  an  active  and  responsible  part  in  the  bold  and  progressive 
movements  of  society,  the  government,  and  the  world,  strange  in 
deed  would  it  be  if  he  had  not  encountered  many  tempestuous  seas 
and  experienced  the  ill-will  of  rivalry  and  ambition.  Never  back 
ward  in  a  manly  expression  of  his  sentiments  upon  all  topics  sub 
mitted  to  his  consideration — whether  pertaining  to  individuals,  the 
community  in  which  he  lived,  or  the  nation  at  large — his  motives 
and  actions  have  frequently  been  subjected  to  the  severest  canons 
of  criticism.  But  time  unravels  all  things  ;  and  conscious  of  the 
rectitude  of  his  own  purposes,  and  willing  to  be  tried  by  this  infal 
lible  test  of  truth,  he  has  moved  on  in  the  career  of  life  with 
undisturbed  serenity,  until  he  has  attained  a  lofty  position  in  the 
annals  of  his  country. 

In  the  village  of  Exeter,  in  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  may 
be  seen  a  small,  unpretending,  wooden  dwelling-house,  which  has 
withstood  the  wear  of  the  elements  upwards  of  three-quarters  of  a 
century.  It  was  occupied,  in  the  year  1782,  by  Theophilus  Gil- 
man,  and  on  the  ninth  day  of  October,  in  that  year,  in  this  house, 
Lewis  Cass  was  born. 

His  ancestors,  on  the  side  of  both  father  and  mother,  Cass  and 
Oilman,  were  of  Puritan  descent,  tracing  their  origin  to  the  first 
settlers  of  New  England,  and  their  names  are  to  be  found  in  the 
records  of  the  early  colonial  proceedings. 

His  father,  Jonathan  Cass,  was  a  fair  representative  of  the  sub 
stantial  yeomanrj-  of  New  England,  who,  struggling  with  the 
disadvantages  of  straitened  circumstances,  and  of  a  very  limited 
education,  by  the  power  of  intellect  and  force  of  character,  added 
to  virtuous  principles,  attain  for  themselves,  by  unceasing  exertion, 
an  honorable  position  in  life,  and  only  rest  from  their  work  until 
they  rest  in  the  grave.  While  a  lad,  and  indeed  until  the  age  of 
early  manhood,  he  was  employed  in  the  severe  labors  which  at 
tended  the  settlement  of  the  country,  and  during  a  portion  of  it, 
in  cutting  logs  and  making  lumber,  then  the  employment  of  the 
winter —  hard  and  exposed  work —  but  which  furnished  almost 
the  only  article  of  exportation,  supplying  the  means  of  the  West 
India  trade.  It  was  a  harvest,  to  be  reaped  only  in  the  cold  sea 
son,  when  the  swamps  were  frozen,  and  the  ground  covered  with 
many  feet  of  snow,  and  when  men  and  cattle  were  secluded  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  15 

deep  forests,  encountering  hardships  and  privations,  which,  if  they 
tried  the  human  system,  no  doubt  left  a  favorable  impress  upon 
the  character  of  the  country. 

When  the  Revolution  broke  out,  his  father  was  about  nineteen 
years  of  age.  Animated  by  the  spirit  of  the  times,  he  entered  the 
army  as  a  private  soldier,  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Lexington, 
and  remained  in  it  until  its  disbandment,  in  1783,  when  he  left  it 
a  captain,  which  rank  he  obtained  by  his  gallantry  and  good 
conduct.  During  that  period,  he  was  in  the  battles  of  Bunker 
Hill,  in  both  the  battles  of  Saratoga,  in  that  of  Long  Island,  of 
"White  Plains,  of  Trenton,  of  Princeton,  of  Germantown,  of  Bran- 
dywine,  in  the  expedition  of  Sullivan  up  the  Susquehanna  into 
the  western  part  of  New  York,  and  in  almost  all  the  active  opera 
tions  of  the  army  in  the  Northern  and  .Middle  States.  He  was 
recommended  by  the  New  Hampshire  delegation  in  Congress,  as 
the  first  marshal  of  that  State  under  the  Constitution,  and,  as  one 
of  the  senators  wrote  to  him,  the  question  was  not,  who  was  the 
man,  but  will  he  accept  ?  So  many  revolutionary  officers  had, 
however,  been  appointed,  that  it  was  thought  best,  by  General 
Washington,  not  to  add  to  their  number.  Without  his  own 
knowledge,  he  was  appointed  a  captain  in  the  army,  upon  its 
organization,  and  immediately  ordered  to  the  West,  and  for  some 
time  commanded  the  fort  at  the  mouth  of  French  Creek,  upon  the 
Alleghany. 

He  afterwards  joined  Wayne's  army,  as  a  major,  in  command 
of  the  Third  Regiment,  and  was  stationed  at  Fort  Hamilton,  the 
site  of  the  present  town  of  that  name  in  Ohio.  In  1799,  he  re 
signed  his  military  commission,  and  removed,  with  his  family,  to 
Wakatomaka,  upon  the  Muskingum  river,  a  few  miles  above 
Zanesville,  and  established  himself  upon  a  tract  of  land,  in  the 
United  States  Military  District,  being  the  first  choice  which  fell 
to  him  by  lot,  in  the  location  of  the  revolutionary  bounty  land 
warrants.  Here,  for  thirty  years,  he  lived  the  peaceful  life  of  a 
iarrner,  esteemed  and  respected,  carrying  into  his  retirement  the 
fruits  of  a  long  and  varied  experience,  an  experience  aided  by 
reading  and  observation,  and  by  a  strong  and  vigorous  intellect, 
and  fulfilling  the  best,  of  all  duties,  the  duties  of  private  life,  with 
a  purity  of  purpose  and  a  sense  of  honor,  ever  operating  and  never 
questioned.  He  died  in  1830,  calmly  and  resignedly,  and  watch 
ing  the  approaches  of  death  upon  the  bed  of  sickness  with  as  little 


16  LIFE  AND  TIMES  , 

fear  as  he  had  encountered  them  on  the  battle  field.  So  composed 
was  he,  that,  when  the  last  struggle  came,  he  observed,  "  This 
then  is  death ! 5?  and  thus  he  died. 

His  venerable  consort  followed  him  to  the  grave  in  the  course 
of  two  years  afterwards.  She  was  a  native  of  New  Hampshire, 
of  masculine  intellect,  strictly  attentive  to  the  duties  of  her  house 
hold,  and  in  the  absence  of  her  husband  in  the  wars,  had  the  sole 
charge  of  their  family. 

Major  Cass  was  the  type  of  his  class  ;  a  representative,  and  a 
faithful  one,  of  that  band  of  patriots  who  hazarded  all  they  had 
and  all  they  hoped  for,  in  the  great  contest  into  which  they  entered 
for  the  assertion  of  human  rights,  and  for  the  resistance  of  foreign 
tyranny.  The  whole  history  of  human  devotedness  and  exertion, 
contains  no  chapter  equal  in  patriotism,  in  courage,  in  suffering, 
in  self-sacrifice,  in  examples  of  public  and  of  private  virtue,  and  in 
all  the  best  elements  which  adorn  our  nature,  to  that  which  records 
the  story  of  the  American  Revolution.  For  seven  long  years, 
against  the  most  powerful  nation  then  on  the  face  of  the  globe, 
without  pay,  almost  without  clothing  or  provisions,  and  through 
trials,  whose  description  we  may  read,  but  whose  extent  we  can 
never  appreciate,  did  the  men  of  that  day  maintain  their  own 
Revolution,  and  the  cause  of  their  country,  without  the  shadow 
of  change  until  the  new  republic  took  her  station  among  the  inde 
pendent  nations  of  the  world. 

Lewis  Cass  had  two  brothers  and  two  sisters,  himself  being  the 
eldest  of  the  five.  One  of  the  brothers,  Charles  L.,  is  dead,  and 
held  a  captain's  commission  in  the  United  States  Army.  The 
other  brother,  George,  is  a  farmer,  residing  in  the  town  of  Dresden, 
in  the  State  of  Ohio.  The  two  sisters,  Mrs.  Silliman  and  Mrs. 
Munroe,  are  widows,  the  former  residing  in  the  State  of  Missouri, 
and  the  latter  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  All  are  respected  and 
esteemed  throughout  the  circuit  of  their  acquaintance. 

Young  Lewis  evinced  great  precocity  in  acquiring  the  rudiments 
of  education,  and  showed  more  fondness  for  books  than  for  boyish 
amusement.  His  father  having  been  absent  from  home  for  several 
years,  engaged  in  the  wars  at  a  trifling  pecuniary  compensation, 
and  that  liquidated  in  exchange  for  a  depreciated  currency,  was 
without  wealth  and  ill  prepared  to  afford  his  son  the  benefit  of  a 
collegiate  education.  There  was  an  academy,  however,  at  Exe 
ter,  under  the  charge  of  Benjamin  Abbott,  and  the  name  of  young 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  17 

Cass  was  entered  upon  the  roll  of  its  pupils  in  the  year  1792. 
Although  scarcely  ten  years  of  age,  yet  such  was  his  disposition 
to  acquire  knowledge  and  become  familiar  with  the  classics  of  other 
times,  that  he  applied  his  youthful  mind  to  the  labor  before  him 
with  unremitting  assiduity  ;  and  what  by  some  is  regarded  as  a 
burthen,  to  him  was  a  source  of  pleasure.     The  Exeter  Academy 
is  his  Alma  Mater.     The  Principal  was  an  accomplished  scholar. 
To  a  strong  intellect,  well  stored  with  learning,  he  added  a  reason 
able  but  rigid  discipline  for  the  government  of  the  young  minds 
committed  to  his  direction.     Young  Cass  was  naturally  kind  and 
obedient,  slow  to  fancy  injuries, but  prompt  to  repel  and  chastise, 
if  in  his  power,  real  aggressions.     Many  incidents  are  related  of 
his  academic  career,  demonstrative  of  his  disposition  in  this  respect. 
He  was  favored  with  a  robust  constitution,  and  seldom  detained 
at  home  by  sickness.     He  was  a  descendant  of  a  hardy  race.    But 
although  he  had  no  reason  to  anticipate  disease,  yet  he  had  the 
good  sense  to  take  proper  care  of  his  health,  and  to  refrain  from 
an  indulgence  in  those  pleasures  whose  inevitable  tendency  is  to 
weaken,  rather  than  strengthen,  both  body  and  mind.   The  number 
of  young  men  in  attendance  at  the  Academy,  from  Exeter  and 
vicinity,  was  large  for  those  days,  and  during  a  portion  of  the 
time  he  had  for  companions  at  that  seat  of  learning,  the  distin 
guished  Buckingham  and  Salstonstall,  and  Daniel  Webster.     The 
latter  was  esteemed  by  his  associates,  but  he  did  not  then  give 
promise  of  those  commanding  powers  of  intellect  which,  later  in 
life,  placed  him  among  the  most  eminent  men  of  the  age  in  which 
he  lived.     Dr.  Abbott  was  well  qualified,  by  firmness  and  discre 
tion,  to  exercise  a  moral  power  over  young  men,  and  by  his  virtue 
and  learning,  to  prepare  them  for  the  duties  of  life.     For  more 
than  half  a  century  he  occupied  this  station,  and  then   retired 
voluntarily,  with  the  respect  of  the  community  and  the  gratitude 
of  all  who  had  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  his  supervision.     Both  the 
Everetts — 'Alexander  and   Edward — enjoyed  the  benefits  of  his 
tutelage.     Young  Cass  remained  at  the  Academy,  diligently  pur 
suing  the  usual  course  of  studies,  until  1799,  when,  in  the  seven 
teenth  year  of  his  age,  he  began  to  look  forward  to  the  future,  and, 
scanning  the  various  employments  of  mankind,  to  determine  what 
should  be  his  occupation  to  gain  a  livelihood.     His  father  had 
returned  from  the  wilds  of  the  North-western  territory,  and  gave 
a  glowing  account  of  the  boundless  extent  of  tillable  land,  watered 
2 


18  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

by  ever-running  springs  and  large  rivers,  but  covered  with  heavy 
forest  trees,  and  the  woods  filled  with  wild  beasts,  there  being 
liardly  but  two  spots  where  the  arm  of  the  frontier-men  had  made 
a  clearing  and  let  in  the  sun,  the  one  at  Marietta  and  the  other 
at  Cincinnati.  The  vonnff  student  had  not  been  accustomed  to 

«/  Z3 

farming,  and  believed  he  should  make  a  sorry  business  of  it  if  he 
made  the  attempt,  especially  in  that  far-off  region.  His  father, 
however,  with  the  consent  of  his  mother,  had  concluded  to  emigrate 
there  as  soon  as  was  practicable,  and  settle  upon  land  acquired 
by  his  own  bravery. 

Young  Cass  was  thus  thrown  upon  his  own  resources  at  this 
early  period  of  his  life;  but  with  a  well  educated  mind  and  healthy 
body,  he  repined  not  at  his  lot,  and  felt  himself  equal  to  the 
emergency.  He  determined,  with  the  consent  of  his  parents,  to 
visit  the  southern  country,  and  there,  by  teaching  or  some  other 
respectable  employment,  earn  the  means  to  defray  his  necessary 
expenses  whilst  acquiring  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  law  to  enable 
him  to  practice  at  the  bar  of  the  courts.  Accordingly  he  soon  bid 
farewell  to  the  Academy  and  the  companions  of  his  youth,  and  left 
Exeter  with  his  father  and  family  for  Wilmington,  in  Delaware, 
where  his  father  was  stationed  for  a  few  months  for  military 
service,  and  where  for  a  short  time  Lewis  was  employed  in  teaching 
in  an  academy  at  that  place.  He  was  there  when  Gen.  Wash 
ington  died,  and  witnessed  the  burst  of  grief  through  the  whole 
country,  a  tribute  as  well  to  his  own  transcendental  worth,  as  to 
the  feelings  of  the  American  people.  He  made  several  valuable 
personal  acquaintances,  whose  friendship  he  retained  through  life. 
The  city  of  Wilmington  was  pleasantly  situated  upon  an  arm  of 
the  majestic  river  which  washes  the  eastern  banks  of  the  State  in 
its  course  to  the  ocean.  The  surrounding  country  was  in  a  high 
state  of  cultivation,  and  yielded  a  large  revenue  to  the  owners. 
The  great  thoroughfare  leading  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore, 
passed  through  Wilmington,  and  vessels  of  large  tonnage,  coast 
wise  and  foreign,  visited  its  wharves.  The  plantations  were 
covered  with  slaves,  and,  for  aught  that  appeared,  were  content 
with  their  lot.  They  loved  their  masters  and  mistresses,  and  were 
treated  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  household.  So  far  as  his  personal 
comforts  were  concerned,  it  was  a  pleasant  residence,  and  he  had 
no  reason  to  indulge  in  gloomy  forebodings  of  the  future,  or  tc 
doubt  success  and  prosperity.  But  his  thoughts  were  upon  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  19 

Great  West ;  and  wheresoever  he  might  go,  he  deemed  it  advis 
able  there  to  study  his  profession,  and  pursue  his  business.  He 
had  heard  so  much  concerning  the  country  beyond  the  mountains, 
from  the  lips  of  his  lather,  had  thought  so  much  about  it,  and 
blessed  with  a  mind  capacious  enough  to  grasp  its  future  greatness 
in  wealth  and  power,  that  he  no  longer  was  skeptical  of  the  choice 
his  interest  required. 

From  Wilmington,  Major  Cass  with  his  family  repaired  to 
Harper's  Ferry,  where  they  resided  a  brief  time,  and  where  Lewis 
often  contemplated  with  admiration  the  gigantic  natural  features 
which  give  interest  to  that  remarkable  spot,  exploring  its  recesses 
with  ever-increasing  admiration.  The  scenery  itself,  and  Mr. 
Jefferson's  graphical  description  of  it,  left  impressions  which  time 
has  not  effaced.  Leaving  Harper's  Ferry,  they  removed  to  Win 
chester,  where  Lewis  often  conversed  with  General  Morgan,  of 
revolutionary  memory,  and  listened  hour  after  hour  to  anecdotes 
told  by  him,  and  by  a  Mr.  Bush,  the  innkeeper,  of  the  early  life 
and  conduct  of  Washington,  who  was  stationed  for  some  time  at 
the  fort,  whose  dilapidated  walls  were  then  visible.  It  was 
impossible  to  hear  these  narratives,  and  witness  the  interest  of  the 
speakers,  without  the  conviction  that  there  was  something  in  the 
character  and  bearing  of  the  great  American,  which  almost  in  the 
infancy  of  his  career  gave  the  promise  of  future  distinction,  as  it 
gave  the  proof  of  ascendency  over  his  associates  and  companions. 
From  Winchester — hospitable  and  delightful  Winchester,  which 
has  left  pleasant  memories  of  those  days— they  traveled  the  route 
known  as  Braddock's,  to  Cumberland,  and  thence  across  the 
mountains  to  Pittsburgh.  Here  Lewis  first  saw  General  Harrison. 

o 

who  was  then  on  his  way  to  Indiana,  of  which  he  had  just  been 
appointed  governor  by  Mr.  John  Adams.  General  St.  Clair,  the 
governor  of  the  North- western  territory,  was  also  there,  as  was 
also  General  Wilkeson,  at  that  time  the  Commissary  General  of 
the  Army.  General  St.  Clair  was  a  most  interesting  relic  of  the 
revolutionary  period;  tall,  erect,  though  advanced  in  years,  well 
educated,  gentlemanly,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  world,  and 
abounding  in  anecdotes,  descriptive  of  the  men  and  the  scenes  he 
had  encountered  in  his  eventful  career.  He  had  been  an  officer 
of  the  British  army,  before  the  Revolution,  and  had  served  in  the 
campaign  under  Wolfe,  which  terminated  in  the  capture  of  Quebec. 
Resigning  his  military  commission,  he  established  himself  at  a 


20  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

valley  in  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  became  a 
pioneer  of  the  settlement.  The  Revolution  found  him  here,  with 
his  plans  for  life  all  formed,  and  with  a  fair  prospect  for  their 
accomplishment.  But  it  called  him  from  his  chosen  employment, 
and  he  obeyed  the  call.  His  military  experience  designated  him 
as  one,  to  whom  the  country  should  look  for  one  of  its  higher 
officers,  and  his  political  sentiments  were  in  unison  with  those 
which  everywhere  animated  the  people.  He  became  a  major 
general,  and  acquired  the  confidence  of  Washington.  But  he 
was  unfortunate  in  the  commencement  of  his  service,  and  the 
misfortune  and  consequences  adhered  to  him  through  life.  His 
retreat  from  Ticonderoga,  though  his  conduct  passed  the  ordeal 
of  a  court  of  inquiry  and  was  approved,  was  very  unaccountable 
to  the  public,  which  too  often  judges  the  wisdom  of  measures  by 
the  result,  and  he  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of  it.  He 
served,  however,  with  an  honorable  reputation  through  the  whole 
Revolution,  and  subsequently  he  was  elected  a  delegate  to  Congress 
from  Pennsylvania,  and  ultimately  became  the  President  of  that 
body,  then  the  first  position  in  the  nation.  On  the  accession  of 
General  Washington  to  the  presidency,  he  was  confirmed  in  the 
office  of  governor  of  the  North-western  territory,  to  which  he  had 
been  appointed  by  the  Continental  Congress,  and  soon  after  a 
major  general,  commanding  the  army.  In  this  latter  capacity, 
he  organized  an  expedition  to  the  Indian  country  to  repress  the 
hostile  tribes  who  fo*  years  had  been  committing  terrible  ravages 
upon  our  frontiers.  His  means  were  incompetent,  and  his  force 
undisciplined,  and  at  Fort  Recovery  he  suffered  the  most  signal 
defeat  which  our  arms  have  ever  encountered  in  Indian  warfare. 
He  soon  after  resigned  his  military  commission,  and  was  succeeded 
by  General  Wayne,  who,  under  more  fortunate  auspices,  restored 
our  ascendency  by  his  decisive  victory  at  the  foot  of  the  Rapids 
at  Maumee.  General  St.  Clair  continued  to  serve  some  years 
after  the  election  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  governor  of  the  Korth-west- 
ern  territory,  but  on  the  eve  of  the  formation  of  the  State  Gov 
ernment  he  was  removed,  in  consequence  of  some  improper  inter 
ference,  and  eventually  retired  to  his  primitive  location  at  Ligo- 
nier.  There,  some  years  after,  Lewis  Cass  saw  him  for  the  last 
time,  in  a  rude  cabin,  supported  by  selling  supplies  to  the  wagoners 
who  traveled  the  road,  one  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  the 
mutations  which  chequer  life. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  21 

Pittsburgh,  when  young  Lewis  first  saw  it,  was  little  more  than 
a  village,  but  it  possessed  an  intelligent,  enterprising  population,  and 
among  these,  men  who  deservedly  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the 
country,  like  Col.  O'Hara,  Gen.  Nevill,  Maj.  Denny,  and  others. 
At  that  time,  the  principal  part  of  the  old  British  fort  was  stand 
ing  at  the  point  where  the  Alleghany  joins  the  Monongahela. ' 

At  Pittsburgh,  Maj.  Cass  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army, 
and  descended  the  Ohio  river,  to  Marietta,  in  one  of  those  Ken 
tucky  boats,  as  they  were  then  called,  which  furnished  the  only 
means  of  traveling  down  the  river.  Sometimes,  indeed,  although 
at  rare  intervals,  a  keel-boat,  from  New  Orleans,  passed  up,  after 
a  journey  of  six  months,  pulled  by  twenty  half-naked  Creoles,  the 
only  ascending  communication  between  the  Delta  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  the  upper  portion  of  the  great  tributary,  drawing  its 
supplies  from  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  What  a  difference 
between  the  slow  and  toilsome  process  and  the  rapid  intercourse 
now  created  by  the  practical  development  of  the  powers  of  steam, 
a  difference  as  startling  as  the  change  from  the  solitude  of  the 
lonely  stream,  fringed  with  a  primitive  and  gigantic  forest,  to  the 
busy  hum  of  human  industry,  which  salutes  the  ear  for  thousands 
of  miles  in  succession.  So  little  was  the  country  prepared  for  the 
miracles  of  this  mighty  agent,  that  a  few  years  later,  when  our 
young  adventurer  was  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  Ohio,  an 
incident  occurred,  which  taught  him  a  profitable  lesson,  and  led 
him,  ever  afterwards,  to  express,  with  becoming  moderation,  his 
dissent  from  any  proposition  of  improvement.  At  the  session  of 
the  legislature,  a  petition  was  received,  asking  an  exclusive  right, 
by  the  petitioners,  to  enjoy  the  use  of  their  invention  for  steam 
navigation  upon  the  waters  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  of 
Ohio,  and  offering,  as  a  consideration,  to  propel  boats  up  stream  at 
the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  The  proposition  was  considered  so 
unreasonable,  ridiculous,  perhaps,  is  the  word,  as  to  be  unworthy 
of  serious  consideration,  and  was  contemptuously  thrown  aside 
without  action.  Such  has  been  the  case  writh  many  important 
discoveries  made  in  advance  of  the  age  by  sagacious  minds,  and 
condemned  in  their  inception,  but  redeemed  by  subsequent  suc 
cess.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  great  canal  project  of  New  York, 
zealously  advocated  by  De  Witt  Clinton,  but  which,  for  years, 
encountered  every  opposition  that  party  prejudice,  reason  or  ridi 
cule  could  urge  against  it,  and  rendered  more  obnoxious  by  an 


22  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

obnoxious  name — the  Big  Ditch.  But  the  Big  Ditch  has  become 
one  of  the  great  rivers  of  the  world,  the  rival  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  the  superior  of  many  mighty  streams,  renowned  for  their  size 
and  for  the  extent  of  country  which  they  drain. 

From  Pittsburgh  to  Marietta,  the  country  was  almost  in  a  state 
of  nature,  the  solitude  broken  occasionally  by  the  cabin  of  the 
settler  and  by  the  deadened,  but  still  standing,  timber,  which 
marked  the  field  where  his  first  efforts  were  applied  for  the  sub 
sistence  of  his  family. 

Major  Cass,  with  his  family,  landed  at  Marietta  in  October, 
1800,  and  remained  there  a  few  months,  and  then  removed  to  his 
land  upon  the  Muskingum.  Lewis  remained  at  Marietta,  and 
became  acquainted  with  Governor  Meigs,  who,  at  that  time,  occu 
pied  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory, 
and  soon  entered  his  office  as  a  student  at  law.  He  continued 
under  the  tuition  of  Governor  Meigs  a  few  months,  when  he  left 
his  office  for  that  of  Mathew  Baccus,  a  distinguished  counselor  at 
law  in  the  same  village.  Mr.  Cass  remained  with  Mr.  Baccus 
until  December,  1802,  when  he  was  licensed  to  practice  in  the 
courts  of  the  Territory.  He  immediately  commenced  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  although  not  then  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and 
is  now  the  only  survivor  of  the  Ohio  bar  of  that  period.  The 
territorial  statute,  relative  to  the  age  of  the  applicant  for  admis 
sion  to  the  bar,  was  silent. 

Emigration  to  Ohio,  at  this  time,  was  large,  and  increasing 
with  every  year.  Friends  wrote  back  to  friends,  in  New  England 
and  adjoining  States,  and  family  after  family  disposed  of  their 
mountain  homes  for  the  broad  and  fertile  valleys  of  the  western 
country.  The  population  was  large  enough  to  authorize  a  conven 
tion  of  the  people  for  the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution,  and 
they  exchanged  their  territorial  government  for  that  of  an  inde 
pendent  member  of  the  confederacy. 

Mr.  Cass,  while  a  student  at  law,  had  gradually  extended  his 
acquaintance  at  Marietta,  Zanesville,  and  vicinity.  He  was  looked 
upon  as  a  young  man  of  great  promise  and  marked  ability,  and 
when  he  commenced  business  for  himself,  his  clients  came  to  him 
instead  of  his  seeking  them.  He  devoted  his  time  and  learning 
diligently  to  the  work.  He  rose  rapidly  in  the  estimation  of  the 
people,  and  was  regarded,  by  the  courts,  as  an  ornament  to  the 
profession.  The  circle  of  his  legal  fame  widened,  and  ere  three 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  23 

years  had  completed  their  cycle,  lie  was  distinguished,  along  the 
banks  of  the  river  Ohio  and  upon  the  northern  frontiers  of  the 
State,  as  the  eloquent  advocate  of  Zanesville,  where  he  then  re 
sided.  Nor  was  his  fame  confined  to  this  branch  of  his  profes 
sional  duties.  The  sound  of  his  name  had  penetrated  far  back 
into  the  solitary  clearings  of  the  wilderness,  and  when  disputes 
of  boundaiy  and  title  arose  among  those  isolated  communities,  no 
man's  judgment,  save  him  who  sat  upon  the  wool-sack,  backed 
by  the  sovereign  power  of  a  State,  commanded  higher  respect, 
or  was  followed  more  implicitly,  than  that  of  Lewis  Cass.  He 
acquired  reputation,  however,  faster  than  money.  The  latter 
commodity  was  a  rare  article  in  those  days  in  Ohio.  The  products 
of  the  earth  were  regarded  as  possessing  intrinsic  value,  and  con 
stituted  the  principal  currency  in  trade.  If  the  settlers  could  get 
silver  enough  to  pay  for  their  lands,  that  was  deemed  sufficient 
for  all  practical  purposes.  It  was  customary,  with  the  legal  pro 
fession,  to  receive  their  fees  and  retainers  in  grains,  and  then,  like 
the' merchants,  forward  them  to  the  nearest  cash  market,  up  or 
down  the  river,  and  sometimes  as  far  as  New  Orleans. 

In  those  days,  the  judge  and  the  lawyer  mounted  their  horses, 
and  rode  one  and  two  hundred  miles  to  a  court,  and  then  to  an 
other,  and  another  yet,  and  through  woods,  following  a  mere  bridle 
path,  crossing  the  swollen  streams  upon  their  horses,  while  swim 
ming,  and  thrown  together  at  night  into  a  small  cabin.  The 
school  of  Democritus  had  far  more  disciples  among  them  than 
that  of  Heraclitus  ;  and  sometimes  amusing  incidents  occurred  on 

O 

these  journeys.  Mr.  Cass,  upon  one  occasion,  when  riding  his 
circuit,  had  occasion  to  cross  the  Sciota  Salt  Creek,  suddenly 
raised  by  heavy  rains,  and  was  unhorsed  by  the  breaking  of  the 
saddle-girth.  His  horse  was  a  bad  swimmer,  who,  instead  of 
advancing,  after  losing  his  footing,  amused  himself  by  sinking  to 
the  bottom,  and  then  leaping  with  his  utmost  force;  and  he  con 
tinued  this  new  equestrian  feat  until  rider,  saddle,  saddle-bags, 
and  blankets  were  thrown  into  the  water,  and  the  recusant  animal 
emerged  upon  one  side  of  the  creek,  and  the  luckless  rider  crawled 
out  upon  the  other  as  he  best  could,  while  the  luggage  commenced 
its  voyage  for  New  Orleans.  But  the  troubles  of  the  day  were 
recompensed  by  the  genuine  democratic  comforts  of  the  evening, 
when  the  hospitable  cabin  and  the  warm  fire  greeted  the  traveler, 
and  a  glorious  supper  was  set  before  him,  of  venison,  turkey,  or 


24  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

bear's  meat,  fresh  butter,  hot  corn  cake,  sweet  potatoes,  and  apple 
sauce.  The  sturdy  English  moralist  may  talk  of  a  Scotch  supper 
as  he  pleases,  but  he  who  never  sat  down  to  that  meal  in  the 
west,  forty  years  ago,  has  never  seen  the  perfection  of  gastronomy. 
And  then  the  animated  conversation,  succeeded  by  a  floor  and  a 
blanket  and  a  refreshing  sleep  ! 

The  primitive  court-house,  built  of  logs,  and  neither  chinked 
nor  daubed,  but  with  respectable  interstices  big  enough  to  allow 
the  passage  of  a  man,  was  another  of  the  features  in  the  life  of  the 
legal  practitioner  of  those  times,  quite  different  from  those  of  to-day. 
And  in  this  sanctuary  of  justice,  as  well  as  in  other  public  houses, 
the  court  and  the  bar,  and  the  suitors  and  the  witnesses,  were 
mingled  in  indescribable  confusion.  There  were  many  men, 
however,  of  high  intellectual  endowments,  and  who  have  since 
occupied  distinguished  positions,  who  were  then  members  of  the 
Ohio  bar.  The  court  and  the  lawyers  were  necessarily  brought 
into  close  contact  with  each  other.  It  was  no  time  for  the  dignity 
of  horse  hair  and  big  wigs.  They  traveled  together  in  the  prim 
itive  mode,  on  horseback.  The  hotels  were  log-cabins,  the  court 
houses  log-cabins,  and  the  jails,  about  the  same.  The  beds  were 
puncheon  floors,  (puncheons  are  rough  planks,  split  from  logs 
before  saw-mills  were  in  use,)  and  the  rides  were  long  and  severe, 
varied  occasionally  by  the  pleasure  of  swimming  a  rapid  and  over 
flowing  river,  at  the  hazard  of  the  lives  of  horse  and  horseman.  Bat 
the  evenings,  and  especially  the  evening  meals,  were  glorious,  and 
there  was  plenty  of  kind  feeling. 

In  the  summer  of  1806,  Mr.  Cass  married  Elizabeth  Spencer, 
daughter  of  Dr.  Spencer,  of  Wood  county,  in  the  State  of  Virginia, 
and  formerly  from  Lansingburg,  in  the  State  of  New  York. 

Mrs.  Cass  was  a  lady  of  refined  mind,  of  modest  and  accom 
plished  manners,  tenderly  attached  to  her  husband,  and  beloved 
by  a  large  circle  of  friends.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cass  passed  many 
davs  during  the  summer  of  their  marriage  on  a  delightful  islet  in 
the  Ohio  river,  about  fourteen  miles  below  Marietta.  They  were 
the  guests  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Herman  Blennerhassett,  whose  elegant 
hospitality  was  freely  tendered  to  their  guests. 

Blennerhassett' s  residence  has  been  made  memorable  by  the 
gorgeous  description  of  Mr.  Wirt,  who  made  large  drafts  upon 
his  imagination,  on  the  completion  of  his  picture.  Mr.  Cass  knew 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blennerhassett  well.  Mr.  Blennerhassett  was  an 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  25 

Irish  gentleman,  of  a  highly  cultivated  taste,  and  who  had  become 
involved  in  some  of  the  political  movements  in  Ireland,  which  had 
rendered  it  necessary  for  him  to  emigrate.  He  came  to  this  coun 
try,  and  after  visiting  Marietta,  was  persuaded  to  purchase  the 
upper  part  of  the  island,  which  bears  his  name,  and  where  he 
erected  a  strong  and  comfortable  house,  and  where  he  made  many 
tasteful  improvements.  But  his  selection  was,  for  him,  a  very 
unfortunate  one.  In  the  habits  of  his  life,  society  was  essential  to 
him.  He  was  no  farmer,  nor  calculated  to  encounter  the  rough 
obstacles  of  frontier  life.  On  the  island  he  was  in  utter  seclusion, 
and  soon  began  to  find  that  he  had  chosen  unwisely.  He  pos 
sessed  an  extensive  library  and  philosophical  instruments,  and  his 
house  was  furnished  with  taste  and  luxury.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cass 
spent  many  a  happy  hour  there.  Mrs.  Blennerhassett  was  a  highly 
accomplished  lady,  elegant  in  her  manners,  beautiful  in  form  and 
feature,  and  fitted  to  adorn  society  in  any  country  whatever.  It 
may  well  be  supposed  that  persons  with  such  accomplishments, 
tastes  and  habits,  soon  felt  the  loneliness  of  their  situation,  at  that 
early  day,  looking  out  upon  the  high  hills  below  th e  Kan awa  upon 
one  side,  and  the  farmers  of  Belpec  upon  the  other. 

Aaron  Burr  visited  this  retreat  of  domestic  happiness ;  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Blennerhassett,  enamored  with  his  genius,  for  hours 
would  entertain  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cass  with  the  conversations  of  the 
ex  vice-president.  Although  improper  designs  were  occasionally 
whispered  against  Mr.  Burr,  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  it 
did  not  occur  to  the  mind  of  Mr.  Cass  that  he  was  weaving  a  web  in 
which  to  entangle  the  chivalrous  and  open-hearted  Blennerhassett. 
The  expedition  of  Miranda,  the  prospect  of  a  rupture  with  the  Span 
ish  government,  the  growing  importance  of  New  Orleans,  the  future 
position  of  the  Mississippi  valley  in  the  commercial  transactions 
of  the  world  ;  all  these  topics  were  occasionally  adverted  to  in 
their  casual  and  random  conversations.  Mr.  Burr  was  looked  upon 
as  an  adventurer,  and  visiting  that  region  of  country  for  the  pur 
pose  of  selecting  land  for  subsequent  purchase.  Possessed,  in  an 
eminent  degree,  of  the  faculty  of  persuasion,  and  an  adept  in  con 
cocting  real,  or  fanciful  inducements,  to  captivate  the  minds  of 
those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  subsequent  developments 
showed  what  progress  he  made,  in  this  respect,  at  that  place.  He 
found  the  Blennerhassetts  in  a  frame  of  mind  ready  to  receive 
his  impressions.  What  specific  project  he  held  out,  is  left  to 


26  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

conjecture,  but  he  soon  acquired  an  ascendency  over  them,  and  they 
joined  in  his  projects.  There  is  no  need  of  saying  that  this  fatal 
error  led  to  the  ruin  of  this  accomplished  Irish  gentleman. 

Mr.  Cass  continued  to  apply  himself  diligently  to  his  profession. 
Ohio  had  taken  her  position  as  a  State,  and  state  legislation  had 
commenced.  But,  as  her  population  increased,  and  cultivated 
territory  expanded,  it  was  evident  that  more  wisdom  and  knowl 
edge  of  legal  rights  and  remedies  were  required,  on  the  part  of 
her  legislators.  Mr.  Cass,  without  solicitation,  was  elected  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Ohio  legislature,  and  took  his  seat  on  the  first  Monday 
of  December,  1806,  at  Chillicothe,  then  the  capital  of  the  State. 

A  few  days  prior  to  the  assembling  of  the  legislature,  John 
Graham,  chief  clerk  in  the  Department  of  State,  at  "Washington, 
visited  Chillicothe,  by  order  of  President  Jefferson,  for  the  purpose 
of  communicating  with  Governor  Tiffin,  then  the  executive  of  the 
State,  and  ascertaining  who  was  true  to  the  Union.  The  reputed 
plans  of  Mr.  Burr  occupied  much  of  the  public  attention.  The 
mystery  which  shrouded  them  alarmed  the  general  government, 
and  gave  rise  to  a  multitude  of  conjectures  ;  and  many  disheart 
ening  reports  concerning  the  instability  of  the  people  beyond  the 
mountains,  and  their  want  of  attachment  to  the  federal  Union, 
reached  the  ears  of  the  President.  Some  said  the  design  was  to 
sever  the  Western  from  the  Eastern  States,  and  others,  that  it  was 
in  contemplation  to  take  possession  of  Orleans,  seize  the  specie 
there,  and  then  invade  Mexico,  to  conquer  it. 

Mr.  Graham's  mission  to  Chillicothe  resulted  in  a  special  mes 
sage  from  Gov.  Tiffin  to  the  Ohio  legislature,  immediately  upon 
its  assembling.  The  message  recapitulated,  for  the  information 
of  that  body,  the  supposed  schemes  of  Mr.  Burr,  and  urged  prompt 
action  to  ferret  them  out,  and  bring  the  guilty  to  condign  punish 
ment.  The  message  was  considered  in  secret  session,  and  referred 
to  a  special  committee.  It  was  important  that  the  members  of 
this  committee  should  be  trusty  and  capable  men.  This  was  Mr. 
Cass'  first  appearance  in  any  legislative  body,  and  young  he  was 
in  years.  But  such  was  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  by 
his  associates,  that,  by  universal  consent,  he  was  placed  upon  the 
committee,  with  Gen.  Massie  as  chairman.  The  committee  put 
themselves  in  communication  with  Mr.  Graham,  and  acted  with 
all  the  prudence  and  energy  demanded  by  the  crisis.  They  were, 
presently,  in  possession  of  incontrovertible  evidence,  that  Colonel 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  27 

Joseph  Barker,  of  that  State,  had  contracted  for  the  building  of 
a  large  fleet  of  small  boats,  suitable  for  the  navigation  of  the  Ohio 
river;  that  a  large  quantity  of  provisions  were  warehoused,  and 
many  head  of  cattle  were  quartered  at  different  points,  and  all  for 
the  same  destination  down  the  river ;  that  large  numbers  of  young 
men,  dazzled  with  the  prospect  of  military  renown  and  wealth, 
had  promised  to  join  the  enterprise  ;  and  the  committee,  there 
fore,  had  no  hesitation  in  believing  that  the  enterprise  was  war 
like  and  treasonable,  notwithstanding  the  protest  of  some,  that 
the  design  was  to  go  to  New  Mexico,  and  there,  under  Miranda, 
establish  a  new  government ;  and  of  others,  that  it  was  a  party 
emigrating  to  lands  taken  up  by  Mr.  Burr,  on  the  "\Yashita  river, 
in  the  State  of  Louisiana. 

Accordingly,  the  committee  reported  a  law,   drafted   by  Mr. 
Cass,  authorizing   the   governor  to  call   out  the  militia,  and  to 

7  O  O  ' 

arrest  all  persons  engaged  in  any  warlike  enterprise.  There  were 
some  members  of  the  legislature  who  hesitated,  and  were  inclined 
to  give  credence  to  the  idle  rumors  afloat,  and  doubted  the  neces 
sity  of  passing  such  a  law,  intimating  that  it  might  be  used 
wrongfully,  and  to  the  annoyance  of  the  people.  When  the  bill, 
for  the  suppression  of  this  conspiracy,  was  tinder  consideration, 
the  committee  relied  upon  Mr.  Cass  to  explain  and  urge  its  pas 
sage.  He  was  ready  to  do  his  duty,  regardless  of  the  personal 
animosities  which  might  be  engendered  in  consequence.  Mr. 
Burr  occupied  a  foremost  position  among  the  prominent  men  of 
the  day,  and  this  was  the  first  public  act  of  condemnation  leveled 
against  him,  as  wanting  in  fidelity  to  his  country,  from  any  legis 
lature,  convention,  or  any  body  of  men,  acting  deliberately  and 
in  concert.  Here  the  ball  was  to  be  set  in  motion,  without  a 
certain  knowledge  how  far  the  conspiracy  extended,  if  it,  in  fact, 
existed,  or  how  much  strength  it  had  at  command.  But  the  young 
legislator  possessed  firmness  and  courage  equal  to  the  occasion, 
and  in  advocating  the  passage  of  the  bill,  said  he  was  well  aware 
that  its  provisions  were  important  and  the  penalties  heavy,  bnt 
that  he  could  see  a  justification  for  supporting  it,  in  the  rumors 
which  were  then  afloat,  threatening  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of 
the  State — the  rumors  that  daily  acquired  new  credit  and  addi 
tional  confirmation,  and  which,  he  believed,  were  well  founded. 
Shall  we  sit  still,  silent  spectators,  said  he,  and  not  endeavor  to 
prevent  illegal  steps  being  taken  in  this  State  ?  Grant  that  the 


28  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

provisions  of  the  bill,  and  all  we  can  do,  should  prove  to  be  unne 
cessary,  still  we  ought  to  act.  By  common  report,  we  are  told 
that  great  talents,  treasure  and  enterprise  are  engaged  in  a  scheme 
which  threatens  ruin  to  the  country,  and  he  wished  to  see  a  law, 
such  as  the  bill  before  the  House,  immediately  passed,  for  it  could 
not  be  done  too  soon.  Perhaps,  while  we  are  now  debating,  the 
plan  may  be  carrying  into  effect — a  plan,  the  means  for  effecting 
which,  have  no  doubt  been  duly  weighed  by  those  at  the  head  of 
it.  He  could  not  doubt,  for  a  moment,  but  that  the  officer  to 
whom  the  execution  of  the  law  was  to  be  entrusted,  would  do  his 
duty,  and  would  not  improperly  use  the  power  vested  in  him. 
His  words  not  only  evidenced  wisdom,  but  his  just  regard  for  the 
rights  of  a  citizen,  and  carried  conviction.  The  bill  passed,  and 
became  a  law. 

The  promptness  of  the  legislature  was  seconded  by  the  public. 
The  militia  were  called  out  by  the  governor,  the  boats  seized,  and 
the  enterprise  broken  up,  so  far  as  Ohio  was  concerned. 

But  Mr.  Cass  did  not  stop  here.  In  view  of  the  reports  daily 
reaching  that  capital,  of  what  was  transpiring  upon  the  confines 
of  the  State  of  Kentucky,  and  lower  down  on  the  Mississippi  river, 
he  believed  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  legislature  to  solemnly  an 
nounce  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  the  views  of  Ohio  upon 
this  subject,  and  to  assure  the  President  of  the  steadfast  attach 
ment  of  the  people  to  the  general  government.  Hence,  he  drafted, 
as  briefly  as  was  consistent,  an  address  to  the  President,  which 
was  unanimously  adopted  by  both  houses  of  the  General  Assem 
bly,  and  is  here  given,  because  it  testifies,  not  only  to  the  early 
patriotism  of  Mr.  Cass,  but  his  sincere  regard  for  the  democratic 
institutions  of  his  native  country  and  his  fidelity  to  Mr.  Jefferson. 
It  certainly  can  not  be  read  by  any  American  without  gaining  his 
full  approbation.  He  expressed  the  sentiments  of  a  patriot  and 
a  statesman,  and  worthy  of  the  citizen  of  a  democratic  republic. 

CHILLICOTHE,  December  26th,  1806. 

On  Thursday  last,  Mr.  Lewis  Cass  introduced  the  following 
resolution,  which  was  agreed  to,  and  passed  both  houses  without 
one  dissenting  voice : 

JResolved,  unanimously,  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State 
of  Ohio,  that  the  Governor  be  requested  to  transmit  to  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  the  following  address : 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  29 

To  THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  ESQ.,  President  of  the  United  States : 

gIR: — At  a  time  when  the  public  mind,  throughout  the  Union, 
is  agitated  with  alarming  reports,  respecting  the  existence  and 
design  of  a  party  hostile  to  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the 
country,  we  deem  it  a  duty  incumbent  on  us  to  express  to  the 
Executive  of  the  Union  our  attachment  to  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  and  our  confidence  in  its  administration.  What 
ever  may  be  the  intention  of  desperate  and  abandoned  men,  re 
specting  the  destruction  of  that  constitution  which  has  raised  us 
to  our  present  elevated  rank  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
which  is  our  only  security  for  the  future,  we  trust  they  will  find 
very  few  advocates  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  We  express  the  feelings 
and  opinions  of  our  constituents,  when  we  say,  that  no  acts  of 
intriguing  men  —  no  real  or  visionary  prospects  of  advantage  — 
will  ever  induce  us  to  sever  that  bond  of  union,  which  is  our  only 
security  against  domestic  violence  and  foreign  invasion. 

Believing  that  the  fundamental  maxims  of  rational  liberty  have 
guided  you  in  the  administration  of  our  government,  we  hesitate 
not  to  express  our  full  and  entire  confidence  in  your  councils  and 
conduct.  Enjoying  every  blessing  which,  as  men  and  as  citizens, 
we  could  desire,  and  in  a  country  fertile  in  nature's  choicest  gifts, 
we  should  deem  it  presumptuous  indeed  to  hazard,  by  intestine 
dissensions,  these  incalculable  advantages.  We  trust  that  public 
attention  has  magnified  the  danger;  but  should  the  design  in 
agitation  be  as  destructive  as  represented,  we  have  no  doubt  that 
all  fear  will  shortly  be  dissipated  before  the  indignation  of  our 
citizens.  That  you  may  live  long  to  enjoy  the  confidence  and 
attachment  of  the  American  people,  is  the  sincere  and  unanimous 
wish  of  the  legislature  of  Ohio. 

The  handsome  reply  of  Mr.  Jefferson  to  the  above  address, 
shows  how  highly  that  great  statesman  estimated  the  energy  and 
courage  of  Mr.  Cass,  and  the  fidelity  of  Ohio  to  the  federal  Union. 
It  was  addressed  to  the  governor,  and  read  as  follows : 

WASHINGTON,  February  2d,  1807. 

SIR  : — -The  pressing  business,  during  a  session  of  the  legislature, 
has  rendered  me  more  tardy  in  addressing  you,  than  it  was  my 
wish  to  have  been.  That  our  fellow-citizens  of  the  west  would 
only  need  to  be  informed  of  criminal  machinations  against  the 


30  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

public  safety,  to  crush  them  at  once,  I  never  entertained  a  doubt. 
I  have  seen,  with  the  greatest  satisfaction,  that  among  those 
who  have  distinguished  themselves  by  their  fidelity  to  their 
country,  on  the  occasion  of  the  enterprise  of  Mr.  Burr,  yourself 
and  the  legislature  of  Ohio  have  been  the  most  eminent.  The 
promptitude  and  energy  displayed  by  your  State,  have  been  as 
honorable  to  itself  as  salutary  to  its  sister  States  ;  and  in  declaring 
that  you  deserve  well  of  your  country,  I  do  but  express  the  grate 
ful  sentiments  of  every  fellow-citizen  in  it.  The  hand  of  the 
people  has  given  a  mortal  blow  to  a  conspiracy,  which,  in  other 
countries,  would  have  called  for  an  appeal  to  arms,  and  has  proved 
that  government  to  be  the  strongest,  of  which  every  man  feels  him 
self  a  part.  It  is  a  happy  illustration,  too,  of  preserving  to  the 
State  authorities  all  the  vigor  which  the  constitution  foresaw  would 
be  necessary,  not  only  for  their  own  safety,  but  for  that  of  the 
whole. 

In  making  these  acknowledgments  of  the  merits  of  having  set 
this  illustrious  example  of  exertion  for  the  common  safety,  I  pray 
that  they  may  be  considered  as  addressed  to  yourself  and  the 
legislature  particularly,  and  generally  to  every  citizen  who  has 
availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  given  of  proving  his  devotion 
to  his  country. 

Accept  my  salutations,  and  assurances  of  great  consideration 
and  esteem. 

(Signed,)  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

His  Excellency,  Gov.  TIFFIN. 

Few  transactions,  in  any  country,  ever  excited  a  greater  sensa 
tion  than  this  alledged  conspiracy  of  Aaron  Burr.  The  crime 
charged  was  of  the  deepest  dye;  and,  if  successful,  of  incalculable 
consequences.  The  accused  was  a  person  of  the  highest  eminence, 
both  for  talents  and  political  position.  Conspicuous  persons  were 
implicated  in  the  supposed  plot,  and  the  party  violence  which 
marked  the  period,  mingled  itself  into  conflicting  opinions,  which 
these  transactions  naturally  created.  And  when  Mr.  Burr  was 
arrested,  and  was  arraigned  for  trial,  the  public  scanned,  with  eager 
curiosity,  every  step  in  its  progress.  At  this  day,  it  is  difficult  to 
reconcile  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Burr  with' the  dictates  even  of  common 
sense.  To  judge  by  his  projects  and  arrangements,  he  must  have 
been  a  very  over-rated  man.  He  never  had  the  slightest  chance 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  31 

of  success,  and  became  a  mere  adventurer,  whose  designs  were 
unredeemed  by  great  plans,  or  by  corresponding  intellectual  power 
to  carry  them  into  effect.  Mr.  Jefferson  supposed  that  his  aim 
was  to  separate  the  Western  from  the  Eastern  States  ;  one  of  the 
most  ridiculous  projects  that  ever  entered  into  the  head  of  man. 
Mr.  Jefferson,  like  every  body  else,  deceived  by  rumor,  supposed 
there  was  a  very  extensive  conspiracy,  whose  ramifications  were 
artfully  combined,  and  spread  everywhere.  His  impressions  may 
be  gathered  from  the  authority  he  gave  to  Gov.  Tiffin,  to  remove 
every  postmaster  west  of  the  mountains  who  should  be  reason 
ably  suspected  of  being  unfriendly  to  the  unity  of  the  nation. 

The  President  was  not  an  inattentive  spectator,  or  indifferent  to 
the  result  of  Mr.  Burr's  trial.  It  resulted  contrary  to  his  expecta 
tions,  and  such  was  his  chagrin,  that  he  and  Chief  Justice  Mar 
shal,  who  occupied  the  bench  on  the  trial,  at  Richmond,  Virginia, 
never  spoke  to  each  other  afterwards.  Of  a  far  different  charac 
ter  were  his  feelings  towards  those  who  had  the  firmness  and 
civil  courage  to  aid  the  government  in  exposing  the  conspiracy, 
and  baffling  a  project  which  was  generally  believed  to  be  of  a 
revolutionary  character,  having,  for  its  ultimate  object,  the  division 
of  the  federal  Union.  His  confidence  in  the  integrity  and  patri 
otism  of  Mr.  Cass  was  such,  that  in  the  succeeding  year  of  1807, 
he  tendered  the  latter  the  office  of  United  States  marshal,  for  the 
State  of  Ohio ;  and  his  warm  friendship  to  Mr.  Cass  continued 
unabated  to  the  end  of  his  days. 

Mr.  Cass  was  somewhat  reluctant  to  accept  the  appointment, 
lest  the  discharge  of  its  duties  might  interfere  with  his  profes 
sional  business.  Michael  Baldwin  had  held  the  office  for  several 
years,  but  he  became  addicted  to  inebriety,  and  the  President  was 
unwilling  to  continue  him  any  longer.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  such  a 
horror  of  this  vice,  that  he  upon  one  occasion  remarked,  that  if  he 
was  to  serve  his  term  of  office  over  again,  his  first  inquiry  always 
should  be,  whether  the  applicant  for  office  was  liable,  from  habit 
and  association,  to  become  a  drunkard. 

More  on  account  of  the  source  from  whence  the  office  came,  and 
the  kind  manner  in  which  it  was  offered,  than  for  its  limited 
emoluments,  Mr.  Cass  accepted  it,  and  qualified  for  the  discharge 
of  its  duties.  He  continued  to  practice  his  profession  for  several 
years  successfully  at  Zanesville,  and  in  consequence  of  holding  an 
office  under  the  general  government,  he  was  not  again  returned 


32  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

to  the  legislature  of  Ohio.  He  was  employed  as  an  advocate  in 
many  important  cases.  It  was  during  this  period  of  his-  life,  a 
question  arose  in  Ohio,  which  was  much  discussed,  and  upon 
which  public  opinion  was  divided,  and  occasioned  intense  excite 
ment  among  the  people.  The  point  at  this  day  may  appear  ridic 
ulous,  but  it  was  then  of  vital  interest. 

It  seems  now  to  be  universally  conceded,  that  the  supreme 
judicial  tribunal  in  each  state,  has  the  right  to  determine  in  the 
last  resort,  the  constitutionality  of  a  law.  Such  was  not  the  doc 
trine  at  the  time  of  which  we  speak.  Judge  Todd,  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  Judge  Pease,  president  of  a  circuit,  were  both  impeached 
for  deciding  that  an  act  of  the  legislature,  giving  certain  jurisdic 
tion  to  justices  of  the  peace,  without  a  trial  by  jury,  was  uncon 
stitutional.  Believing  that  the  doctrine  maintained  by  the  legis 
lature — that  the  judiciary  have  no  right  to  determine  the  uncon- 
stitutionality  of  a  law — would  be  fatal  to  liberty,  by  rendering  the 
law-making  power  an  unlimited  one,  in  common  with  some  other 
members  of  the  bar,  Mr.  Cass  volunteered  to  defend  the  judges. 
They  were  acquitted,  and  this  dangerous  heresy,  of  the  omnipo 
tence  of  a  legislature,  soon  disappeared.  But  during  the  progress 
of  the  discussions  arising  out  of  the  matter,  there  was  great  agita 
tion  in  the  State  ;  and,  at  one  time,  the  prospects  were  alarming. 
The  trial  lasted  many  days.  The  legislature  retained  some  of  the 
ablest  and  oldest  lawyers  in  the  State.  Mr.  Cass  brought  to 
the  case  great  legal  research  and  industry.  His  argument  was 
unanswerable,  and  carried  conviction  to  the  minds  of  his  hearers. 
This  effort,  the  cause  for  which  he  plead,  and  the  triumphant 
verdict,  extended  his  professional  reputation  among  the  people  all 
over  the  State. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  33 


CHAPTER  II. 

Indian  Confederacy — Tecumseh  and  the  Prophet  —  Relations  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain — Governor  Meigs'  Proclamation — War  of  1812 — Mr.  Cass'  Views — Volunteers  his  Services — 
Commissioned  Colonel — His  Speech  to  the  Troops  at  Dayton — Its  Effect — General  Hull — Plan  of 
Campaign — Rendezvous  at  Urbana — March  to  the  Maumee — Hardships  and  Trials — Declaration  of 
War — Disaster  on  Lake  Erie — Council  of  War — Colonel  Cass  advises  Invasion  of  Canada — Disincli 
nation  of  Hull — Advice  of  Colonel  Cass  adopted — Passage  of  Detroit  River — Landing  in  Canada — 
Hull's  Proclamation — Colonel  Cass  urges  Prompt  Movement  on  Maiden — Hull's  Delay — Colonel 
Cass  visits  Maiden  with  Flag  of  Truce — Return  to  Camp — Leads  a  Detachment  against  the  Enemy — 
The  Engagement  at  the  Aux  Canards — His  Heroic  Conduct — His  Report  to  Hull — Colonel  Cass' 
Courage — Hull's  Timidity. 

In  the  summer  of  1811,  the  people  of  Ohio  were  alarmed  at 
the  appearance  of  a  hostile  confederacy  among  the  Indians  on  the 
north-western  frontier.  Menacing  preparations  had  been  discov 
ered,  under  the  direction  of  the  renowned  chief,  Tecumseh,  and 
his  twin  brother,  Elskwatawa,  surnamed  the  Prophet.  These  two 
remarkable  savages  belonged  to  the  Shawanese  nation,  distin 
guished  for  its  warlike  predilections.  Tecumseh  was  the  master 
spirit,  and  took  upon  himself  the  departments  of  war  and  elo 
quence,  success  in  these  being  the  direct  road  to  eminence  and 
chieftainship;  but  in  order  to  hold  enslaved  the  minds  of  his 
countrymen,  by  their  strong  bent  to  superstition,  Elskwatawa 
invested  himself  with  the  attributes  of  a  sacred  character.  Pre 
tending  to  be  favored  with  direct  and  frequent  communications 
with  the  Great  Spirit,  by  tricks  and  austerities,  he  gained  belief, 
and  drew  around  him  the  awe-struck  Indians  from  great  distances. 
It  was  generally  believed  that  secret  agents  of  the  British  govern 
ment  were  continually  inflaming  their  passions  and  prejudices 
against  the  whites,  representing  that  the  latter  were  mere  intru 
ders,  and  picturing  to  the  minds  of  Tecumseh  and  the  Prophet, 
the  scheme  of  dividing  between  them,  not  onlv  the  sovereignty 

O  */  O        */ 

of  the  Shawanese,  but  that  of  all  the  border  confederacies.  Signs 
of  hostilities  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  began 
to  loom  up  in  the  distant  horizon,  and  were  freely  commented 
upon,  by  the  paid  stipendiaries  of  the  crown,  around  the  council 
fires.  The  brothers,  watching  these  signs,  and  believing  that  an. 
opportunity  would  soon  occur,  were  collecting  their  followers  on 
the  AVabasli,  in  the  Territory  of  Indiana.  William  II.  Harrison, 
then  governor  of  that  Territory,  was  directed  to  march  against 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

them  with  a  military  force,  consisting  of  regulars,  under  the  com 
mand  of  Colonel  Boyd,  united  with  the  militia  of  the  Territory. 
He  met  them  at  Tippecanoe,  and  defeated  them.  This  event 
occurred  on  the  7th  of  November.  Tecumseh  was  absent,  stirring 
up  the  various  tribes,  and  calling  upon  them  to  unite  with  him  in 
the  great  war  dance  against  the  settlers  on  the  frontier. 

In  the  meantime,  it  became  more  and  more  evident  that  the 
peaceful  relations  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
would  soon  terminate  in  open  war.  Congress,  upon  its  assem 
bling,  authorized  the  President  to  call  on  the  governors  of  the 
States  for  detachments  of  militia,  to  an  amount  not  exceeding  one 
hundred  thousand,  and  to  accept  the  services  of  any  number  of 
volunteers,  not  exceeding  fifty  thousand.  As  it  was  probable  that 
the  frontiers,  bordering  on  the  British  Provinces,  would  be  the 
principal  theater  of  hostilities  on  land,  the  first  attention  of  the 
general  government  was  directed  to  their  defense.  Ohio  was 
called  upon  for  its  quota  of  men  for  the  service,  and  in  April, 
1812,  Governor  Meigs  issued  his  proclamation  in  answer  to  the 
call,  appealing  to  the  patriotism  of  her  citizens,  and  ordering  the 
troops  to  rendezvous  at  Dayton.  This  military  force  was  to  be 
raised,  as  well  to  act  against  the  British  in  Canada,  if  there 
should  be  war,  as  to  suppress  hostilities  from  the  Indians,  in  the 
Territory  of  Michigan. 

But  as  even  in  the  purest  atmosphere  there  always  will  be 
found  some  noxious  vapors,  so  among  the  people  of  America  there 
were  some,  at  this  great  epoch  of  our  country,  who  questioned  the 
propriety  or  necessity  of  thus  early  raising  an  armed  force.  They 
were  fain  to  believe  that  wrong  motives  were  ascribed  to  the 
Indians  ;  that  the  alledged  interference  of  secret  emissaries,  in  the 
pay  of  King  George,  was  a  bugbear,  and  a  war  between  the 
two  countries  a  chimera.  Not' so  thought  Mr.  Cass.  But  feeling 
keenly  the  insult  meditated  against  the  glorious  standard  of  his 
country,  and  ardently  attached  to  the  democratic  institutions  of  a 
republic,  and  having  no  sympathy  with  those  to  whom  a  war  with 
England  was  an  eye-sore,  he  was  not  to  be  deceived  by  their 
clamor,  or  diverted  from  his  duty  by  their  hypocritical  cry  against 
the  impiety  of  a  resort  to  arms.  He  believed  that  a  war  with 
England  was  both  just  and  necessary;  and  closing  his  law  office 
and  his  lucrative  business,  he  hastened  to  volunteer  his  services 
in  the  force  which  was  called  out.  The  appeal  of  the  government 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  35 

to  the  patriotism  of  Ohio,  was  successful.  Twelve  hundred  men 
were  enrolled  as  volunteers,  and,  divided  into  three  regiments, 
were  marched  to  Dayton,  where  Mr.  Cass,  with  the  united  voice 
of  his  comrades,  was  assigned  the  command  of  the  third  regiment, 
and  commissioned  as  colonel. 

Having  formed  his  command  in  a  hollow  square,  and  planted 
the  American  standard  in  the  center,  Colonel  Cass  opened  his 
military  career  with  the  following  energetic  words: 

"  Fellow-citizens  !  The  standard  of  your  country  is  displayed. 
You  have  rallied  around  it  to  defend  her  rights  and  to  avenge  her 
injuries.  May  it  wave  protection  to  our  friends  and  defiance  to 
our  enemies  !  And  should  we  ever  meet  them  in  the  hostile  field, 
I  doubt  not  but  that  the  eagle  of  America  will  be  found  more 
than  a  match  for  the  British  lion  !  " 

The  young  volunteers  received,  with  rapturous  enthusiasm,  tin's 
brief  but  thrilling  address  of  their  youthful  Colonel,  and  assured 
him  that  they  were  eager  to  meet,  under  his  command,  their  proud 
enemy.  The  other  two  regiments  were  commanded  by  Colonels 
Me  Arthur  and  Firidlay,  and  this  volunteer  force,  marching  to 
TJrbana,  was  there  joined  by  three  hundred  regulars,  under  the 
command  of  Colonel  Miller.  The  entire  force  was  under  the 
command  of  Brigadier  General  William  Hull,  a  captain  during 
the  Revolution,  and  then  governor  of  the  Michigan  Territory. 

The  plan  of  the  campaign,  as  formed  at  Washington,  had,  for  its 
ultimate  object,  the  conquest  of  the  Canadas.  The  intention  was 
to  invade,  simultaneously,  at  Detroit  and  Niagara  ;  and  the  armies 
from  these  places  were  to  be  joined,  on  their  way  to  Montreal,  by 
a  strong  force  to  be  collected  at  Plattsburgh,  and  thus  a  combined 
attack  to  be  made  upon  that  capital. 

In  the  fore  part  of  June,  the  military  forces  at  ITrbana  left  that 
place  for  the  theater  of  war.  Detroit  was  the  point  of  destination, 
and  the  distance  to  be  traveled  was  more  than  two  hundred  miles. 
Their  march,  the  greater  part  of  the  way,  lay  through  a  wilder 
ness,  and  much  of  it  without  a  road.  The  creeks  and  rivers  were 
not  bridged,  and  in  many  places,  in  fact,  most  of  the  way,  it  was 
necessary  to  level  the  forest  in  order  to  make  a  way  for  their  pro 
visions  and  munitions  of  war.  Swamps,  filled  with  miasma,  had 
to  be  waded,  and  the  command  frequently  halted  to  relieve  the  suf 
ferings  of  the  sick.  Block  houses  were  erected  at  intervals  along 
the  route,  for  the  use  and  convenience  of  the  armv.  and  the  better 


36  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

protection  of  the  country.  The  privates  suffered  much,  and  it 
became  the  imperative  duty  of  the  officers  of  the  volunteers  to 
give  good  examples  how  to  endure,  with  patience,  privation  and 
fatigue,  lest  the  men,  unaccustomed  to  such  hardships,  should  turn 
back  in  discouragement.  Colonel  Cass  showed  himself  equal  to 
the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  his  new  position,  and  enjoyed 
the  unreserved  confidence  of  his  men.  He  did  not  omit  to  enforce 
the  first  rudiments  of  a  military  education,  discipline  and  obedi 
ence.  And  whilst  actively  and  strictly  discharging  this  branch 
of  his  duties,  he  did  not  make  for  himself  an  austere  and  repulsive 
character,  but  mingled  freely  with  his  force,  as  a  companion  and 
friend,  and  thus  possessed  himself  of  all  their  wants,  feelings  and 
desires.  And  whilst  his  command  wrere  daily  becoming  more  and 
more  proficient  in  drill  and  movement,  they  at  the  same  time 
acquired  the  important  lesson,  that  this  knowledge,  in  the  hour 
of  battle,  would  enure  as  mu3h  to  their  own  personal  safety,  as 
the  good  of  their  country. 

After  traversing  a  region  unbroken  by  a  single  settlement,  the 
army  reached  the  rapids  of  the  Maumee,  on  the  thirtieth  day  of 
June.  The  sensations  of  Colonel  Cass,  on  reaching  this  point  in 
the  march  to  Detroit,  were  penned  by  himself,  tJiirty-one  years 
afterwards.  "  We  were  heartily  tired  of  the  inarch,  and  were 
longing  for  its  termination,  when  we  attained  the  brow  of  the  table 
land,  through  which  the  Maumee  has  made  a  passage  for  itself, 
and  a  fertile  region  for  those  who  have  the  good  fortune  to  occupy 
it.  Like  the  mariner,  we  felt  we  had  reached  a  port ;  like  the 
wanderer,  a  home.  I  have  since  visited  the  three  other  quarters 
of  the  globe,  and  passed  over  many  lands  and  seas,  but  my 
memory  still  clings  to  the  prospect  which  burst  upon  us  on  a  bright 
day  of  June,  from  the  valley  of  the  Maumee — to  the  river,  winding 
away  beyond  our  view,  to  the  rapids,  presenting  every  form  of  the 
most  picturesque  objects,  to  the  banks,  clothed  with  deep  verdure, 
and  to  the  rich  bottoms,  denuded  of  timber,  as  though  inviting 
the  labor  and  enterprise  of  the  settler." 

On  the  twenty-sixth,  four  days  previous,  General  Hull  had 
received,  by  express,  a  letter  from  Mr.  Eustis,  Secretary  of  War, 
written  on  the  morning  of  the  eighteenth,  the  day  on  which  war 
was  declared.  But  this  important  fact  was  not  announced  in  this 
letter,  but  it  contained  expressions  indicating  that  the  declaration 
would  soon  be  made.  Supposing  that  the  British  could  not  be  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  37 

possession  of  such  important  intelligence  earlier  than  himself, 
General  Hull,  for  the  purpose  of  disencumbering  his  army,  and 
facilitating  his  march,  chartered  a  sail  vessel  to  convey  to  Detroit 
his  sick,  his  hospital  stores,  and  a  considerable  part  of  his  baggage. 
This  vessel  sailed  on  the  first  day  of  July,  and  was  captured  by 
the  British  off  Maiden,  who  had  been  two  or  three  days  in  posses 
sion  of  the  information  that  war  was  declared.  With  General 
Hull's  private  baggage,  had  been  placed  on  board  the  vessel,  what 
he  should  have  better  guarded,  his  trunk  of  papers,  and  by  means 
of  which  the  enemy  became  possessed  of  his  confidential  corres 
pondence  with  the  government,  and  the  returns  of  his  officers, 
showing  the  number  and  condition  of  his  troops.  The  intelligence 
of  the  declaration  of  war  was  received  by  General  Hull  on  the 
second  day  of  July,  in  a  second  letter  from  Mr.  Eustis,  under  date 
of  June  eighteenth,  not  forwarded  by  express,  but  by  mail.  His 
first  despatch  directed  him  to  push  on  to  Detroit  with  all  possible 
expedition. 

There  was  an  Indian  village  at  Brownstown,  on  the  American 
side  of  the  Detroit  river,  and  as  war  was  actually  existing,,  it  was 
anticipated  that  the  army  wrould  be  attacked  and  annoyed  by  the 
Indians,  and  by  detachments  from  the  British  garrison  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  The  army,  however,  resumed  its  march, 
and  on  the  fifth  of  July  reached  Detroit,  without  molestation  from 
the  enemy. 

On  the  ninth  of  July,  General  Hull  received  a  letter  from  the 
Secretary  of  War,  saying  that,  "  should  the  force  under  your  com 
mand  be  equal  to  the  enterprise,  and  consistent  with  the  safety 
of  your  own  posts,  you  will  take  possession  of  Maiden,  and  extend 
your  conquests  as  circumstances  will  allow." 

Immediately  upon  the  receipt  of  this  despatch,  General  Hull 
called  a  council  of  war,  of  which  Colonel  Cass  was  a  member,  and 
the  great  question  to  be  solved  was,  the  propriety  of  invading  Can 
ada.  Colonel  Cass  was  in  favor  of  the  invasion,  and  urged  that 
the  army,  leaving  a  suitable  force  for  the  protection  of  the  post  of 
Detroit,  should  immediately  cross  over  the  river.  General  Hull 
hesitated,  contending  that  his  force  was  not  equal  to  the  reduction 
of  Maiden,  and  that  the  savages  were  under  the  influence  and 
command  of  the  enemy.  Colonel  Cass  replied  to  the  first  point, 
that  their  force  was  greater  in  number,  if  any  credence  was  to  be 
given  to  the  reports  constantly  reaching  the  post,  and  that  their 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

ardor  and  impetuosity  would  more  than  equal  the  discipline  of  the 
British.  As  to  the  savages,  he  doubted  whether  they  were  pre 
pared  to  act  on  the  offensive,  else  they  would  not  have  suffered 
the  American  troops  to  pass  quietly  up  the  river.  General  Hull 
could  interpose  no  rejoinder,  with  any  show  of  candor,  and  finally 
concluded  to  undertake  the  enterprise. 

The  embarkation  was  made  on  the  eleventh  of  July,  from  a 
point  a  little  above  Detroit,  and  the  advanced  force,  animated 
with  the  highest  hopes,  was  composed  of  Colonel  Cass  and  Lieu 
tenant  Colonel  Miller.  Colonel  Cass  occupied  the  bow  of  one  of 
the  boats,  and  was  the  first  man  who  landed  in  arms  upon  British 
soil,  after  the  declaration  of  war.  General  Hull  followed  on  the 
twelfth,  with  the  remainder  of  the  army  ;  and  on  landing  in  Can 
ada,  he  issued  an  energetic  proclamation,  written  by  Colonel  Cass, 
for  distribution  among  the  inhabitants,  which  was  much  applauded 
at  the  time  by  the  public  press  throughout  the  country.  What 
ever  may  have  been  entertained  of  the  inglorious  descent  from 
promise  to  fulfillment,  it  was  generally  regarded  as  a  high-spirited, 
manly,  and  patriotic  document.  It  promised  protection  to  all  who 
would  join  the  American  standard.  Many  of  the  inhabitants 
accepted  the  invitation,  and  others  remained  peacefully  disposed 
at  home  ;  and  the  Indians  were  awed  into  a  temporary  neutrality. 
The  army  took  post  at  what  is  now  called  Windsor.  Here,  entrench 
ments  were  thrown  up,  and  temporary  defensive  works  were  con 
structed,  and  the  army  remained  inactive,  awaiting  some  heavy 
artillery  from  Detroit.  Hours,  and  days  passed,  and  no  order  to 
march.  The  delay  in  receiving  the  desired  ordnance  was  unusual, 
and  strange  to  the  officers  and  men.  They  were  anxious  to  go 
forward  :  they  desired  to  attack  Maiden,  and  measure  swords  with 
the  enemy.  News  reached  camp  of  the  surrender  of  Macinac. 
This  intelligence,  instead  of  disheartening  the  troops,  increased 
their  ardor.  Colonel  Casa  had,  time  and  again,  urged  the  import 
ance  of  prompt  movements,  and  demonstrated  to  the  commanding 
general  the  feasibility  of  capturing  the  fortress  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river.  Having  visited  Maiden  with  a  flag  of  truce  before  the 
army  crossed  over  from  Detroit,  he  believed  it  indefensible.  But 
General  Hull  all  the  while  appeared  to  labor  under  the  delusion 
that  the  enemy  was  in  strong  force,  and  the  result  problematical. 
And,  in  addition,  the  idea  seemed  to  haunt  him,  that  the  woods 
were  alive  with  savages,  ready  to  give  the  war- whoop,  and  brandish 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  39 

the  knife  and  the  tomahawk,  as  soon  as  he  was  out  of  sight  of 
Detroit.  Small  detachments  occasionally  scoured  the  immediate 
country,  for  forage  and  provisions,  and  returning  to  camp,  uniformly 
reported  every  thing  quiet,  and  no  enemy  in  sight.  Colonel  St. 
George  commanded  at  Maiden,  with  a  moderate  force,  as  was 
supposed,  and  some  of  the  heavy  guns  had  finally  made  their 
appearance.  The  carriages  for  the  same  having  been  constructed, 
finally,  at  the  suggestion  of  Colonel  Cass,  General  Hull  ordered  him 
and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Miller,  with  a  detachment  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  to  move  towards  the  British  fort,  and  take  posses 
sion  of  a  bridge  over  the  river  Aux  Canards,  which  commanded 
the  approach  to  it.  This  was  a  wise  precautionary  measure,  so 
that  there  should  be  no  delay  in  the  movement  of  their  ordnance, 
after  the  main  army  was  once  in  motion. 

Accordingly,  on  the  seventeenth  of  July,  Colonel  Cass  led  a 
detachment  towards  the  enemy.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  day,  he 
reached  the  Canards,  and  by  ascending  the  river  some  distance 
above  the  bridge,  on  the  main  road,  the  stream  was  forded,  and 
the  British  party  surprised  and  routed,  and  fled  towards  Maiden. 
The  American  detachment  remained  in  possession  of  the  bridge, 
and  Colonel  Cass  immediately  transmitted  the  following  report  to 
his  commanding  officer.  It  is  illustrative  of  the  first  action,  and 
the  first  blood  shed,  in  the  late  war  with  England. 

"  SANDWICH,  Upper  Canada,  July  I7tli,  1812. 

SIR — In  conformity  with  your  instructions,  I  proceeded  with  a 
detachment  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  to  reconnoitre  the  ene 
my's  advanced  posts.  We  found  them  at  the  bridge  over  the  river 
Canards,  at  the  distance  of  four  miles  from  Maiden.  After  exam 
ining  their  position,  I  left  one  company  of  riflemen  to  conceal 
themselves  near  the  bridge,  arid  upon  our  appearance  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river,  to  commence  firing,  in  order  to  divert 
their  attention,  and  to  throw  them  into  confusion.  I  then  proceeded 
with  the  remainder  of  the  force,  five  miles,  to  a  ford  over  the 
Canards,  and  down  on  the  southern  bank  of  that  river.  About 
sunset  we  arrived  within  sight  of  the  enemy.  Being  entirely  desti 
tute  of  guides,  we  marched  too  near  the  bank  of  the  river,  and 
found  our  progress  checked  by  a  creek,  which  was  then  impass 
able.  We  were  compelled  to  march  up  a  mile,  in  order  to  effect 
a  passage  over  the  creek.  This  gave  the  enemy  time  to  make 


40  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

their  arrangements,  and  prepare  for  their  defense.  On  coining 
down  the  creek,  we  found  them  formed  ;  they  commenced  a  distant 
fire  of  musketry.  The  riflemen  of  the  detachment  were  formed 
upon  the  wings,  and  the  two  companies  of  artillery  in  the  center. 
The  men  moved  on  with  great  spirit  and  alacrity.  After  the  first 
charge,  the  British  retreated — we  continued  advancing.  Tliree 
times  they  formed,  and  as  often  retreated.  We  drove  them  about 
half  a  mile,  when  it  became  so  dark  that  we  were  obliged  to  relin 
quish  the  pursuit.  Two  privates  of  the  British  41st  regiment  were 
wounded,  and  taken  prisoners.  We  learn  from  deserters  that  nine 
or  ten  were  wounded,  and  some  killed.  We  could  gain  no  precise 
information  of  the  number  opposed  to  us.  It  consisted  of  a  consid 
erable  detachment  of  the  41st  regiment,  some  militia,  and  a  body 
of  Indians.  The  guard  at  the  bridge  consisted  of  fifty  men.  Our 
riflemen  stationed  on  this  side  of  the  Canards,  discovered  the  enemy 
reinforcing  them  during  the  whole  afternoon.  There  is  no  doubt 
but  their  number  considerably  exceeded  us.  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Miller  conducted  himself  in  the  most  spirited  and  able  manner. 
I  have  every  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the  whole 
detachment. 

Very  respectfully, 

Sir,  I  have  the  honor  to  be 

Your  obedient  servant, 

(Signed)  LEWIS  CASS, 

Colonel  3d  Regiment  Ohio  Volunteers. 
BKIGADIEK  GENERAL  HULL." 

By  dislodging  the  enemy  at  this  bridge,  and  retaining  posses 
sion  of  it,  an  important  advantage  was  gained,  and  an  easy  access 
secured  to  the  British  fortress.  Quite  unexpectedly  to  Colonel 
Cass,  General  Hull  did  not  appreciate  this  victory,  although  it 
created  consternation  at  Maiden,  and  ordered  the  detachment  to 
return  to  camp.  Colonel  Cass  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Miller  remon 
strated,  in  writing,  against  the  inevitable  injury  which  the  execu 
tion  of  this  order  would  inflict  upon  the  American  cause,  and 
earnestly  requested  leave  to  remain  in  their  position.  But  it  was 
of  no  avail.  The  General's  views  remained  unshaken,  and  the 
bridge  abandoned,  to  the  great  relief  arid  joy  of  Colonel  St.  George. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  41 


CHAPTER  III. 

Armistice  on  Niagara  Frontier — Hull  favors  the  re-crossing  of  Detroit  River — Colonel  Cass  Remonstrates 
— Battle  of  Brownstown — Evacuation  of  Canada — Engagement  in  the  Woods  of  Magiiaga — Colonel 
Cass  Volunteers  to  lead  a  Detachment  through  the  Wilderness  to  the  River  Raisin — General  Brock's 
Arrival  at  Sandwich — Summons  the  American  Fort  at  Detroit — Bombardment — Hull's  Surrender — 
Indignation  of  Colonel  Cass  and  the  Troops — His  Return  from  the  River  Raisin — Disposition  to 
Fight— Breaks  his  Sword. 

Intelligence  reached  Sandwich,  that  an  armistice  had  been 
agreed  upon,  at  Washington  or  elsewhere,  but  that  it  did  not 
include  the  armies  upon  this  portion  of  the  frontier ;  and  now, 
instead  of  the  promised  diversion  in  his  favor,  on  the  line  of  the 
Niagara,  General  Hull  suspected  that  the  entire  British  force 
would  be  concentrated  against  him.  He  at  once  abandoned  all 
efforts  for  penetrating  farther  into  the  enemy's  country,  and  enter 
tained  the  idea  of  retracing  his  steps,  and  removing  his  command 
to  Detroit.  Colonel  Cass  remonstrated  against  such  imbecile  and 
inglorious  conduct.  He  presented  to  the  view  of  his  General  the 
injury  it  would  inflict  upon  the  spirit  and  courage  of  the  volun 
teers,  now  panting  for  action  ;  he  adverted  to  the  evidences  which 
the  Canadians  daily  gave,  of  their  disposition  to  join  the  Ameri 
can  cause.;  and  in  warm,  but  modest  terms,  descanted  upon  the 
facility  with  which  he  might  capture  the  enemy,  take  possession 
of  Maiden,  and  thus  secure  the  key  which  controlled  all  that  fron 
tier.  The  officers  agreed  in  council,  with  Colonel  Cass,  and  they 
unitedly  urged  that  the  troops  be  led  to  action.  Bat  Lieuten 
ant  Hanks,  with  a  weak  garrison  at  Macinac,  had  surrendered  to 
a  party  of  one  thousand  British  and  Indians,  with  the  honors  of 
war,  and  General  Hull  was  more  and  more  fearful  that  hordes  of 
savages,  under  the  lead  of  the  active  and  wily  Tecumseh,  would 
come  down  upon  him  from  the  northern  forests,  and  with  resist 
less  and  demoniac  fury,  massacre  the  inhabitants,  lay  in  ashes  the 
village  of  Detroit,  and  drive  him  and  his  comrades  into  the  waters 
of  Lake  Erie.  Charity,  with  filmed  eyes,  perhaps,  would  say, 
"that  the  eyes  of  the  patriot  and  soldier  were  closed,  while  those 
of  the  father  and  the  paternal  governor  saw,  in  fancied  vision,  his 
beloved  daughter  and  grandchildren  already  bleeding,  the  victims 
of  savage  barbarity." 


42  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

An  express  came  in  from  the  vigilant  Governor  Meigs,  announc 
ing  that  Captain  Brush  had  gone  forward,  by  the  way  of  the  river 
Raisin,  with  an  ample  stock  of  provisions  for  his  brave  volunteers. 
Colonel  Cass  had  also  learned  that  a  party  of  the  enemy  had  left 
Maiden,  to  intercept  these  supplies,  and  that  the  escort  had  reached 
the  Raisin.  The  General  was  persuaded  to  detach  Major  Yan 
Horn,  with  two  hundred  men,  to  hold  this  party  in  check.  Te- 
cumseh,  at  the  head  of  his  Indians,  ambushed  his  path  at  Browns- 
town  creek,  and  fell  upon  the  Americans  with  such  ferocity  that 
eighteen  were  killed,  twelve  wounded,  about  seventy  missing,  and 
the  Major  retreated  in  the  direction  of  Detroit. 

The  news  of  this  disaster  settled  the  question  of  the  evacuation 
of  Canada.  The  General,  no  longer  doubting  that  the  savages 
were  upon  the  war-path  in  force,  and  well  stocked,  by  British 
agents,  with  ammunition,  and  that  his  worst  anticipations  would 
be  fully  realized,  if  he  remained  in  his  present  position  or  marched 
southerly,' resolved  to  re-cross  the  river  to  Detroit,  and  issued  his 
orders  accordingly.  And  on  the  eighth  of  August,  with  deep 
chagrin  and  some  mutinous  dissatisfaction,  his  brave  and  lion- 
hearted  officers  and  soldiers  received  the  peremptory  order  to 
embark,  and  sullenly  made  this  disgraceful  retreat. 

Colonel  Cass  again  brought  to  the  attention  of  his  General,  the 
absolute  necessity  of  communicating  with  Captain  Brush,  and  the 
propriety  of  detailing  a  guard  sufficiently  strong  to  ensure  the 
safe  conduct  of  the  supplies,  which  were  now  understood  to  con 
sist  principally  of  beef  cattle.  General  Hull  acceded  to  the  pro 
position,  and  on  the  same  day  of  the  re-crossing,  detached  Lieu 
tenant  Colonel  Miller,  with  six  hundred  men,  regulars  and  volun 
teers,  with  orders  to  meet  and  escort  Captain  Brush,  with  the 
supplies,  to  Detroit.  After  marching  some  twelve  miles,  along 
the  margin  of  the  Detroit  river,  Captain  Snelling,  in  command  of 
the  advance  guard,  encountered  a  large  body  of  Indians  and 
British,  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle,  in  thickets  of  underbrush,  in 
the  vicinity  of  Maguaga.  Tecumseh  was  again  in  command,  and 
a  severe  fight  ensued.  The  red  coats  fled — the  red  men  still  kept 
the  ground,  but  at  length  were  routed,  and  both  retreated  towards 
Brownstown,  and  succeeded  in  reaching  Maiden,  with  the  loss  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty-four  killed  and  wounded.  The  American 
loss  was  seventeen  men  killed  and  sixty-four  wounded.  While 
remaining  in  position  at  Maguaga,  awaiting  provisions,  the  men 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  43 

having  thrown  away  their  knapsacks  and  rations  upon  engaging 
the  enemy,  the  detachment  was  recalled  to  Detroit. 

The  battle  of  Maguaga  following  so  closely  upon  the  skirmish 
at  Brownstown  creek,  and  the  Indians  being  so  active  and  earnest 
in  both  instances,  created  additional  agitation  and  alarm  at  head 
quarters.  Rumor  also  stated  that  a  large  reinforcement  of  British 
troops  was  on  the  march  from  Niagara,  and  that  the  Six  Xations 
of  Indians  were  backward  in  espousing  the  American  cause. 
General  Hull  was  doubtful  whether  the  supplies  would  ever  reach 
his  present  head-quarters,  and,  gloomy  and  despondent,  he  called 
his  officers  around  him,  and  proposed  a  retreat  to  some  place  near 
the  rapids  of  the  Maumee.  But  to  this  suggestion,  Colonel  Cass 
and  all  his  brother  officers,  already  so  much  dissatisfied  with  his 
ill-timed  retreat  from  Canada  as  to  be  on  the  eve  of  mutiny,  utterly 
dissented,  and  proposed,  instead,  that  another  effort  should  be 
made,  regardless  of  personal  consequences,  to  open  a  communica 
tion  with  Captain  Brush.  The  General  once  more  yielded  to  the 
patriotic  counsel  of  his  officers,  and  sent  out  another  detachment 
of  three  hundred  and  fifty  men,  under  Colonels  Cass  and  McAr- 
thur,  for  this  purpose.  Colonel  McArthur,  being  senior  in  rank, 
was  in  command  of  the  expedition. 

This  detachment  left  head-quarters  towards  sunset  in  the  after 
noon  of  August  fourteenth.  It  was  an  expedition  full  of  antici 
pated  peril  and  labor,  for,  if  the  half  of  what  was  asserted  was 
true,  the  woods  were  alive  with  hostile  savages,  and,  as  their  orders 
were  to  march  by  an  unfrequented  and  circuitous  route,  by  the 
way  of  an  opening  in  the  forest,  where  has  growrn  up  the  thriving 
village  of  Ypsilanti,  with  an  Indian  trail  as  their  only  land  mark, 
leading,  at  intervals,  through  bogs  and  swamps  and  over  deep 
creeks,  it  was  evident  that  they  had  no  light  service  to  perform, 
and  that  their  path  was  full  of  danger.  But  there  was  no  fear ; 
and  so  readily  did  these  patriotic  men  answrer  the  call,  and  so 
quickly  were  they  on  the  march,  that  there  was  no  time  to  lay  in 
a  full  supply  of  rations.  They  took  such  as  happened  to  come  in 
their  way,  and  were  at  once  ready  for  duty.  They  met  with  no 
interruption  from  the  enemy. 

It  turned  out,  that,  on  the  day  before  this  detachment  left  De 
troit,  General  Isaac  Brock,  the  most  active  and  intrepid  comman 
der  in  all  tin  British  Provinces,  reached  Maiden,  from  Fort 
George,  at  tlie  mouth  of  the  Xia^ara  river,  and,  on  the  next  day, 


44  LIFE  AtfD  TIMES 

assumed  the  command  of  the  forces.  It  was  generally  supposed 
that  he  was  still  stationed  at  Fort  George,  and  if  a  more  accurate 
knowledge  of  his  whereabouts  was  possessed  by  any  person  in  the 
American  army  of  the  north-west,  it  was  kept  in  profound  secrecy. 
It  was  observable,  that  a  party  of  the  enemy,  under  Colonel  Proc 
tor,  who  had  succeeded  Colonel  St.  George,  had  taken  post  at 
Sandwich,  and  were  proceeding  to  fortify  the  bank  of  the  river. 
This  was  supposed  to  be  a  natural  consequence  of  the  evacuation, 
the  enemy  moving  up,  in  part,  to  extend  his  fortifications;  and 
strengthened  the  view  of  Colonel  Cass  and  his  brother  officers, 
that  the  American  policy  was  to  get  on  the  supplies,  call  for  more 
troops,  and  make  a  stand  at  Detroit.  Besides,  a  week  had  not 
elapsed  since  the  first  rumor  of  the  armistice  had  reached  the 
American  garrison ;  and  as  it  was  rumored  that  General  Brock 
was  one  of  the  high  contracting  parties  to  that  transaction,  the 
idea  was  not  dreamt  of,'  that  his  presence  was  so  early  expected 
on  that  frontier. 

However,  he  was  in  fact  in  command  on  the  fourteenth  of 
August,  and  being  a  man  of  uncommon  energy  and  decision,  he 
entered  forthwith  upon  active  duty,  and  concentrated  his  forces 
at  Sandwich.  Accustomed  to  duty,  and  an  accomplished  soldier, 
he  looked  upon  the  evacuation  as  conclusive  evidence  of  weak 
ness.  The  private  papers,  captured  the  month  previous,  gave  him 

full  information  of  the  number  and  character  of  the  force  against 

& 

which  he  had  to  contend.  The  un-officerlike  conduct  of  the 
American  commander,  since  his  arrival  at  Detroit,  he  attributed 
to  vacillation  and  infirmity  of  purpose;  and  fully  aware  that 
supplies  and  a  reinforcement  were  daily  expected  by  General 
Hull,  he  believed  it  to  be  his  policy  to  bring  on  an  immediate 
engagement.  Hence,  on  the  fifteenth  of  August,  he  sent  his  two 
aids,  Lieut.  Col.  McDonald  and  Major  Glegg,  to  demand  in  form 
a  surrender  of  Fort  Detroit,  intimating,  as  though  he  was  sensible 
of  the  prominent  fear  of  his  antagonist,  that  it  was  not  his  incli 
nation  to  join  in  a  war  of  extermination,  but  that  he  had  a  nu 
merous  body  of  Indians  attached  to  his  command,  which  would 
be  beyond  his  control  the  moment  the  contest  commenced.  The 
current  history  of  that  day  asserts  that  the  answer  to  this  very 
unexpected  and  provoking  summons,  was  tardily  given.  Perhaps 
the  delay  was  to  gain  time.  If  so,  the  motive  is  praiseworthy. 
Its  fur  in,  nevertheless,  is  open  to  criticism.  Hull  announced  that 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  45 

he  was  ready  to  meet  any  force  which  might  be  brought  against 
him,  and  abide  the  consequences.  If  he  had  stopped  here,  it 
would  have  been  commendable  ;  but,  as  if  the  British  commander 
was  in  position  merely  to  redress  some  supposed  grievance  to  his 
own  command,  happening  on  that  frontier.  General  Hull  proceeded 
to  beg  his  pardon  for  certain  acts  of  his  own  officers,  committed 
without  his  knowledge,  lie  appeared  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
the  extreme  measure  contemplated  by  the  British  General,  was 
for  the  purpose  of  advancing  the  cause  of  his  gracious  master  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and,  if  successful  in  his  efforts,  thus 
early  acquiring  an  important  advantage  in  the  conduct  of  the  war 
on  that  frontier.  The  answer,  undoubtedly,  strengthened  General 
Brock  in  the  belief  that  he  was  to  meet  a  weak-hearted  officer, 
and  that  his  true  course  was  to  attack  him  in  close  contest.  At 
any  rate,  he  did  not  delay  action,  but  opened  his  batteries  on  the 
same  day,  and  commenced  the  bombardment  of  the  town.  The 
fire  was  returned,  with  some  effect.  General  Hull  was  greatly 
alarmed,  and  sent  out  an  express  to  reach  the  detachment  under 
Colonels  McArthur  and  Cass,  commanding  them  to  return  as 
expeditiously  as  possible. 

On  the  morning  of  the  sixteenth  of  August,  at  an  early  hour, 
General  Brock  crossed  the  river,  and  effected  a  landing  of  his 
troops  at  a  place  called  Spring  Wells,  three  miles  below  the  town 
of  Detroit.  He  immediately  marched  towards  the  fort.  The  exact 
number  can  not  be  ascertained.  General  Brock  reports  his  force 
to  Sir  George  Provost,  to  have  been  thirteen  hundred — seven 
hundred  of  whom  were  Indians.  According  to  Captain  Snelling, 
who  attempted  a  count  as  they  entered  the  fort,  "there  were,  in 
advance,  the  troops  of  the  41st  regiment,  in  platoons  of  fourteen 
files,  as  well  as  the  York  militia  volunteers,  twenty-nine  platoons, 
two  deep,  in  red  coats  ;  that  the  militia  platoons  consisted  of  no 
more  than  seven  or  eight  files,  and  composed  one  third  of  the 
whole  force — probably  seven  hundred  and  fifty  whites,  of  which 
the  remaining  two  thirds  were  regulars  and  un-uniformed  militia." 

Cotemporary  accounts  represent  that  General  Hull  was  per 
plexed  what  to  do,  and  greatly  agitated.  Believing  that  resist 
ance  was  futile,  and  would  lead  to  the  barbarities  of  an  Indian 
massacre,  and  not  insensible  to  the  disgrace  of  surrendering  with 
out  an  effort  to  defend  the  fort,  he,  even  at  this  critical  moment, 
wavered  in  his  operations.  At  first,  his  troops  were  drawn  up  in 


46  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

order  of  battle  without  the  fort,  his  artillery  advantageously 
planted,  and  his  army,  full  of  the  confidence  of  victory,  awaiting 
the  approach  of  the  proud  enemy.  When  it  had  progressed  within 
five  hundred  yards  of  the  American  lines,  as  if  suddenly,  and.  in 
fact,  unexpectedly,  to  all,  General  Hull  gave  that  fatal  and  unac 
countable  order,  to  retire  within  the  ramparts  of  the  fortress.  To 
say  that  the  officers  and  men,  of  all  grades  and  conditions,  raised 
an  universal  cry  of  indignation,  but  feebly  expresses  their  outraged 
feelings.  They  felt  that  British  insolence  had  triumphed  over 
American  prowess  at  the  very  moment  when  all  were  ready  to 
pour  out  their  heart's  blood  upon  the  hallowed  altar  of  their  com 
mon  country,  in  the  defense  of  its  just  rights.  They  had  been 
sensible,  for  many  days,  that  their  commander  was  unfit  to  be  the 
leader  of  patriots,  and  lacked  the  most  essential  of  all  qualifica 
tions — true  moral  courage.  And  when  they  were  flattering  them 
selves  that  they  had  underrated  him,  their  high  hopes  were  dashed 
to  the  ground,  and  all  subordination  ceased.  They  crowded  in, 
and,  regardless  of  order  and  without  any  order  from  their  General, 
stacked  their  dishonored  arms,  many  dashing  them  with  violence 
upon  the  ground.  Some  of  those  stalwart  men  wept  like  children, 
while  the  spirit  of  the  women,  aroused  at  the  indignity,  was  heard, 

O  *J    j 

above  the  din,  declaring,  in  impotent  wrath,  that  the  fort  should 
not  be  surrendered.  The  student  of  history  fails  to  find  a  parallel 
in  all  the  records  of  the  past.  Hull,  perceiving  that  his  power 
had  gone  from  him,  and  that  he  no  longer  was  in  authority,  evinced 
hot  haste  to  put  the  place  under  the  protection  of  the  British. 
The  white  flag  was  run  up,  flapping  on  the  walls  of  the  dishonored 
fortress;  and,  without  consultation  with  his  officers  —  with  no 
stipulation  for  the  honors  of  war  for  an  insulted  army,  nor  any 
provision  for  the  safety  of  his  Canadian  allies — he  concluded  a 
capitulation  with  General  Brock  ;  giving  up  the  public  property, 
surrendering  the  regular  troops  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  permit 
ting  the  militia  to  return  to  their  homes,  on  their  parole,  not  to 
serve  again  during  the  war,  unless  exchanged. 

"While  this  scene  was  being  enacted,  Colonels  Cass  and  McAr- 
thur  arrived  with  their  troops,  eager  for  battle,  having  been  over 
taken,  late  the  previous  evening,  by  the  messenger  despatched  to 
recall  them.  They  and  their  men  had  promptly  obeyed  the  order, 
and  had  made  all  haste,  keeping  under  march  throughout  most 
of  the  night. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  47 

Along  their  precipitate  march,  they  occasionally  heard  firing, 
in  the  direction  of  Detroit.  This  only  served  to  hasten  their  steps, 
for  as  Hull  sent  word  by  the  messenger  that  General  Brock  was 
at  Sandwich,  and  had  demanded  a  surrender,  they  supposed  that 
probably  the  battle  had  commenced.  When  near  Detroit,  they 
learned,  from  some  of  the  citizens  fleeing  from  danger,  that  Hull 
had  surrendered.  They  could  not  credit  this  unwelcome  news. 
They  halted,  and  sent  forward  scouts,  who  soon  returned  with  the 
same  intelligence.  As  it  was  useless  to  advance,  and  determined 
not  to  submit  themselves,  unconditionally,  to  the  mercies  of  a 
haughty  foe,  they  fell  back,  and  halted,  for  refreshment,  at  the  river 
Rouge.  They  took  position  near  a  bridge,  which  afforded  some 
advantages  for  defense,  if  necessary.  Here  they  slaughtered  an 
ox,  roasted,  and  ate  it,  without  bread  or  salt,  this  being  their  first 
warm  meal  since  they  left  Detroit,  on  the  fourteenth,  except  some 
corn  and  pumpkins.  When  the  meal  was  deliberately  finished, 
Captain  Mansfield  was  sent  forward,  to  learn  from  the  British 
commander  upon  what  terms  they  were  surrendered,  and  to  give 
notice  that,  if  it  was  unconditional,  they  should  defend  themselves. 
Before  the  return  of  Captain  Mansfield,  a  British  officer,  Captain 
Elliott,  bearing  a  flag,  and  accompanied  by  some  Indians,  ap 
proached  the  detachment,  and  delivered  to  Colonel  McArthur  a 
note  from  General  Hull,  to  the  effect  that  the  detachment  was 
included  in  the  capitulation,  and  ordering  it  to  return  to  Detroit. 
The  detachment  was  compelled  to  comply  with  this  distasteful 
capitulation,  however  repugnant  to  their  views  and  inclinations  ; 
because,  in  this  case,  surrounded  by  a  savage  foe,  and  worn  down 
and  exhausted  by  fatigue,  it  was  alike  impossible  to  retreat  through 
the  woods  to  Ohio,  or  overpower  the  enemy,  without  provisions, 
and  a  scanty  supply  of  ammunition.  They  therefore  marched  to 
Detroit  and  surrendered  up  their  arms.  But  Colonel  Cass,  stung 
with  mortification,  when  ordered  to  deliver  up  his  sword,  indig 
nantly  declined  to  do  so,  and,  breaking  the  blade,  threw  it  away. 


48  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  IV. 

General  Brock's  surprise  at  his  Success — His  Report — Colonel  Cass  a  Prisoner  of  War — On  his  Parole — 
Interview  with  General  Brock  at  Maiden — General  Hull  ordered  to  Montreal — His  lleport — Effect 
of  the  News — The  Ohio  Volunteers  on  Parole — Reach  Cleveland — Colonel  McArthur,  Senior  Officer, 
orders  Colonel  Cass  to  Washington — Colonel  Cass  departs — 'Sickness  at  McConnelstown — The  War 
Department  Despatch  a  Messenger — Colonel  Cass  reaches  Washington — His  Official  Letter — His  re 
turn  to  Zanesville— His  Conduct— Opposition  to  his  Report— Mr.  Rush— Colonel  Cass'  Letter  to  the 
Editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer — Mr.  Eustis — His  Clerk — False  Impressions. 

The  fort  at  Detroit  had  surrendered,  and  the  flag  of  stars  and 
stripes  no  longer  floated  above  its  battlements.  The  British  had 
taken  possession  without  the  firing  of  a  gun,  or  losing  of  a  drop 
of  blood.  The  British  commander  had  performed  a  valuable  ser 
vice  for  his  government,  with  unexpected  ease  and  facility,  and 
without  cost  of  life  or  treasure.  With  the  possession  of  the  fort, 
passed  the  government  of  the  territory.  It  was  now  no  longer 
American,  but  British,  and  General  Brock  at  once  proclaimed  it, 
and  enjoined  obedience,  investing  Colonel  Proctor  with  the  reins 
of  authority. 

This  success  to  the  British  arms,  appears  to  have  been  unex 
pected  to  General  Brock,  for,  in  announcing  the  fall  of  Detroit, 
in  a  despatch  written  in  the  hour  of  triumph,  directed  to  Provost, 
he  says,  "  I  hasten  to  apprise  your  excellency  of  the  capture  of 
this  very  important  post.  Twenty-five  hundred  troops  have  this 
day  surrendered  prisoners  of  war,  and  about  twenty-five  pieces 
of  ordnance  have  been  taken,  without  the  sacrifice  of  a  drop  of 
British  blood.  I  had  not  more  than  six  hundred  troops,  including 
militia,  and  about  six  hundred  Indians,  to  accomplish  this  service. 
When  I  detail  my  good  fortunes  your  excellency  will  be  astonished." 

A  few  days  subsequent  to  the  surrender,  Colonel  Cass,  while 
returning  to  Ohio,  upon  parole,  was  detained  at  Maiden  by  a 
heavy  wrind,  which  prevented  vessels  from  going  out  of  the  Detroit 
river.  While  there,  he  met  General  Brock,  to  whom  General 
Hull  had  surrendered,  and  who  was  delayed  by  the  same  cause. 
General  Cass  had  much  conversation  with  him,  upon  the  events 
of  the  recent  campaign,  and  found  him  free  and  frank  in  his  com 
munications.  He  said  that  when  he  left  the  Niagara  frontier,  he 
had  not  the  remotest  expectation  of  capturing  Detroit.  He  hur 
ried  up  with  the  few  troops  he  could  withdraw  from  that  frontier, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  49 

because  he  had  ascertained  the  exposed  condition  of  the  western 
part  of  Upper  Canada,  which  had  been  invaded  by  the  Ameri 
cans.  It  had  been  reported  to  him,  that  unless  some  demonstra 
tion  was  made,  the  Indians,  upon  whose  co-operation  much  value 
was  placed,  would  abandon  the  British  standard,  and  return  to 
their  own  country.  That  they  were  already  discouraged  by  the 
progress  of  General  Hull's  army,  and  the  disaffection  was  fast 
spreading  among  them.  He  could  not  well  leave  the  scene  of  oper 
ations  below,  but  still  the  circumstances  seemed  imperative,  and 
he  therefore  hastened  to  the  west,  to  take  such  measures  as  might 
seem  necessary.  He  added,  that  on  his  arrival  he  found  the  Amer 
ican  troops  had  abandoned  Canada,  and  re-crossed  the  Detroit 
river.  In  this  state  of  things,  as  he  could  not  remain,  it  became 
necessary  that  he  should  strike  some  stroke  which  should  preserve 
the  confidence  of  the  Indians,  and  to  harrass  the  enemy,  and  with 
these  views,  he  passed  the  line,  intending  to  take  a  position  at  the 
Spring  Wells,  and  intercept  the  communication  of  General  Hull 
with  his  own  country.  One  of  our  mails  had  been  taken  at  Browns- 
town,  by  the  Indians,  and  its  contents  had  been  delivered  to  Gen 
eral  Brock.  He  found  there  the  correspondence  of  General  Hull 
with  the  governors  of  some  of  the  western  states,  and  also  with  the 
war  department.  In  it  he  expressed  himself  in  very  desponding 
terms,  as  to  his  position  and  prospects,  and  urged  the  necessity 
of  additional  reinforcements  of  men,  and  supplies  of  provisions. 
In  fact,  the  destruction  of  Chicago  seemed  to  destroy  any  little 
vigor  General  Hull  had  left,  and  from  that  time  his  imagination 
was  filled  with  hosts  of  Indian  warriors,  who  were  to  surround  his 
unlucky  command  in  numbers  like  the  locusts  of  Egypt.  General 
Brock  read  the  feelings  of  General  Hull  in  his  letters,  and  his 
measures  became  the  more  efficient  as  his  adversary  became  low 
ered  in  his  esteem.  He  supposed  that  both  ammunition  and  pro 
visions  were  much  more  reduced  there  than  they  were,  and  his 
intention  was  to  establish  himself  at  the  Spring  Wells,  and  thus 
reduce  us  to  want,  or  to  compel  us  to  meet  him  in  the  field.  When 
he  landed  at  the  Spring  Wells,  he  learned  that  there  was  a  large  de 
tachment  of  the  American  army  in  his  rear,  being  the  one  sent  under 
Colonel  McArthur  and  Colonel  Cass  to  the  river  Eaisin,  to  escort 
provisions  which  had  been  deposited  there,  and  containing  about 
three  hundred  and  fifty  men,  about  equal  to  one  half  of  General 

Brock's  force.     An  old  chief  came  to  him  immediately  after  he 
4 


50  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

landed,  and  told  him  that  there  were  American  troops  on  the  other 
side  of  him.  He  replied,  He  did  not  believe  a  word  he  said  ;  to 
which  the  chief  answered,  These  old  eyes  saw  the  glistening  of  their 
big  knives,  (bayonets,)  which  are  fastened  to  their  guns.  This 
information  was  soon  corroborated  by  the  statements  of  other  per 
sons,  and  General  Brock  became  satisfied  that  he  was  in  a  critical 
position,  for,  though  the  result  of  accident,  yet  the  detachment  could 
not  have  been  placed  in  a  better  place  to  annoy  the  British.  Noth 
ing  remained  for  General  Brock,  but  to  make  a  bold  stroke  upon  the 
fort,  or  to  re-cross  the  river.  The  latter  movement  would  have 
demoralized  his  force,  and  destroyed  all  confidence  in  his  opera 
tions,  and  the  Indians  would  have  left  him.  He  chose  the  bolder, 
but  the  wiser  course,  and  moved  up  the  river  to  the  attack,  still 
placing  his  main  hope  in  the  character  of  his  antagonist.  He  was 
anxious  to  finish  his  work  before  the  absent  detachment  should 
return.  The  reliance  he  placed  upon  the  character  of  General 
Hull,  proved  correct,  though  he  under-estimated  his  means  of 
resistance.  Unfortunately  for  the  credit  of  our  country,  resistance 
there  was  none.  An  army,  a  fort,  and  a  territory,  were  surren 
dered  without  firing  a  gun,  or  spilling  a  drop  of  blood.  It  is  the 
only  instance  of  such  an  unredeemed  disgrace  in  our  military 
annals.  There  is  little  danger  that  there  will  be  another. 

The  tidings  of  this  untoward  disaster  traveled  all  over  the  Un 
ion  with  great  celerity.  The  opponents  of  the  war  took  courage, 
and  were  lavish  with  their  censure,  while  its  advocates  and  sup 
porters  were  dumb  with  amazement.  The  facts  were  distorted, 
and  a  reliable  account  of  the  transaction  difficult  to  be  obtained. 
General  Hull  stood  high  in  the  confidence  of  his  government,  and 
was  reputed  to  be  a  man  of  valor  and  experience.  It  was  known 
that  the  army  entrusted  to  his  command  consisted  mostly  of  volun 
teers  from  Ohio,  and  to  this  circumstance,  more  than  any  other, 
did  the  public  mind,  in  the  first  utterance  of  its  uncontrollable 
indignation,  attribute  the  calamity.  The  brave  officers,  who  had 
left  their  homes  and  families  for  the  fatigues  and  privations  of  the 
soldier,  came  in  for  an  inordinate  share  of  derision,  and  upon 
their  heads  was  profusely  showered  the  wrath  and  scorn  of  all 
parties. 

But  in  due  time,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  truth  rose  above 
these  clouds  of  obloquy  and  censure,  and  wrung  from  the  most 
prejudiced  foe,  an  expression  of  his  conviction  that  it  was  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  51 

General,  and  not  his  subordinates,  who  had  cowered  in  disgrace 
before  the  growl  of  the  British  lion. 

General  Hull  was  ordered  to  Montreal,  and  it  was  a  long  time 
before  his  official  report  reached  the  Secretary  of  War.  But  it 
finally  reached  the  department,  bearing  unqualified  testimony  to 
the  gallant  spirit  which  pervaded  his  officers  and  men.  "  A  large 
portion  of  the  brave  and  gallant  officers  and  men  I  commanded," 
says  he,  "  would  cheerfully  have  contested  until  the  last  cartridge 
had  been  expended  and  their  bayonets  worn  to  the  sockets.  It  is 
a  duty  I  owe  my  associates  in  command,  Colonels  McArthur, 
Findlay,  Cass,  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Miller,  to  express  my  obli 
gations  to  them  for  the  prompt  and  judicious  manner  they  have 
performed  their  respective  duties.  If  aught  has  taken  place  during 
the  campaign  which  is  honorable  to  the  army,  these  officers  are 
entitled  to  a  large  share  of  it.  If  the  last  act  should  be  disap 
proved,  no  part  of  the  censure  belongs  to  them." 

The  Ohio  volunteers  repaired  to  their  homes,  on  their  parole 
not  to  serve  again  during  the  war,  unless  exchanged,  way-worn 
and  dejected.  To  a  man,  they  felt  that  the  result  of  the  unfortu 
nate  expedition,  under  Hull,  would  fill  a  sad  page  in  the  history 
of  their  country.  Conscious  of  having  performed  their  whole  duty 
with  a  hearty  will,  they  lingered  on  the  way,  almost  ashamed  to 
meet  the  faces  of  their  friends  and  fellow-citizens.  Censure,  un 
merited  though  it  was,  did  not  escape  their  ears.  Sensitive  of 
their  wounded  honor,  they  were  anxious  that  their  government 
and  the  whole  country  should  be  fully  apprised  of  the  facts  as 
they  had  occurred.  With  this  view,  and  in  compliance  with  their 
earnest  request,  as  soon  as  they  reached  Cleveland,  in  their  own 
State,  Colonel  McArthur,  their  senior  officer,  ordered  Colonel 
Cass  to  proceed  to  Washington,  to  render  an  account  of  the  catas 
trophe. 

Colonel  Cass,  with  sorrow,  exchanged  salutations  with  his  com 
panions  in  arms,  and  immediately  set  out  for  the  seat  of  govern 
ment.  He  traveled  on,  without  delay,  as  rapidly  as  his  convey 
ance  and  his  health  would  admit  of,  until  he  reached  McConnels- 
town,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  Here,  wTorn  down  by  anxiety, 
exposure,  and  fatigue,  and  his  system  filled  with  the  noxious 
iniasrna  of  swamps  and  marshes,  he  was  attacked  with  a  severe 
fever,  which  raged  at  its  hight  for  several  days.  In  the  mean 
time,  Colonel  McArthur  had  informed  the  War  Department,  by 


52  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

post,  that  Colonel  Cass  was  on  his  way,  and  would  make  a  full 
and  reliable  report,  as  soon  as  he  reached  the  capital.  As  no 
despatch  was  received  from  Hull,  and  none,  with  much  confidence, 
expected,  for  some  time  to  come  at  least,  the  government  awaited 
Colonel  Cass'  arrival  with  great  solicitude.  Learning  of  his  ill 
ness,  and  impatient  for  his  communication,  a  messenger,  with  a 
carriage,  was  sent  on  to  McConnelstown,  and  measures  taken  for 
his  safe  conveyance  to  Washington.  Upon  his  arrival  there,  he 
forthwith  submitted  the  following  report  to  the  government : 

WASHINGTON,  September  12th,  1812. 

SIE  : — Having  been  ordered  on  to  this  place  by  Colonel  Mc- 
Arthur,  for  the  purpose  of  communicating  to  the  government  such 
particulars  respecting  the  expedition  lately  commanded  by  Brig 
adier  General  Hull,  and  its  disastrous  result,  as  might  enable 
them  correctly  to  appreciate  the  conduct  of  the  officers  and  men, 
and  to  develope  the  causes  which  produced  so  foul  a  stain  upon 
the  national  character,  I  have  the  honor  to  submit,  for  your  con 
sideration,  the  following  statement: 

"When  the  forces  landed  in  Canada,  they  landed  with  an  ardent 
zeal,  and  stimulated  with  the  hope  of  conquest.  No  enemy  ap 
peared  in  view  of  us,  and  had  an  immediate  and  vigorous  attack 
been  made  upon  Maiden,  it  would  doubtless  have  fallen  an  easy 
victory.  I  know  General  Hull  afterwards  declared  he  regretted 
this  attack  had  not  been  made,  and  he  had  every  reason  to  believe 
success  would  have  crowned  his  efforts.  The  reason  given  for 
delaying  our  operation  was,  to  mount  our  heavy  cannon,  and  to 
afford  to  the  Canadian  militia  time  and  opportunity  to  quit  an 
obnoxious  service.  In  the  course  of  two  weeks,  the  number  of 
their  militia,  who  were  embodied,  had  decreased,  by  desertion, 
from  six  hundred  to  one  hundred  men ;  and,  in  the  course  of  three 
weeks,  the  cannon  were  mounted,  the  ammunition  fixed,  and  every 
preparation  made  for  an  immediate  investment  of  the  fort.  At  a 
council,  at  which  were  present  all  the  field  officers,  and  which  was 
held  before  our  preparations  were  completed,  it  was  unanimously 
agreed  to  make  an  immediate  attempt  to  accomplish  the  object 
of  the  expedition.  If,  by  waiting  two  days,  we  could  have  the 
service  of  our  heavy  artillery,  it  was  agreed  to  wait ;  if  not,  it 
was  determined  to  go  without  it,  and  attempt  the  place  by  storm. 
This  opinion  appeared  to  correspond  with  the  views  of  the  General, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  53 

and  the  day  was  appointed  for  commencing  our  march.  He  de 
clared  to  me  that  he  considered  himself  pledged  to  lead  the  army 
to  Maiden.  The  ammunition  was  placed  in  the  wagons ;  the 
cannons  were  embarked  on  board  the  floating  batteries,  and  every 
requisite  was  prepared.  The  spirit  and  zeal,  the  ardor  and  ani 
mation  displayed  by  the  officers  and  men,  on  learning  the  near 
accomplishment  of  their  wishes,  was  a  sure  and  sacred  pledge  that, 
in  the  hour  of  trial,  they  would  not  be  found  wanting  in  duty  to 
their  country  and  themselves.  But  a  change  of  measures,  in  op 
position  to  the  wishes  and  opinions  of  all  the  officers,  was  adopted 
by  the  General.  The  plan  of  attacking  Maiden  was  abandoned, 
and,  instead  of  acting  offensively,  we  broke  up  our  camp,  evac 
uated  Canada,  and  re-crossed  the  river  in  the  night,  without  even 
the  shadow  of  an  enemy  to  injure  us.  We  left,  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  enemy,  the  miserable  Canadians  who  had  joined 
us,  and  the  protection  we  afforded  them  was  but  a  passport  to 
vengeance.  This  fatal  and  unaccountable  step  dispirited  the  troops, 
and  destroyed  the  little  confidence  which  a  series  of  timid,  irreso 
lute,  and  indecisive  measures  had  left  in  the  commanding  officer. 

About  the  10th  of  August,  the  enemy  received  a  reinforcement 
of  four  hundred  men.  On  the  12th,  the  commanding  officers  of 
three  of  the  regiments,  (the  fourth  was  absent,)  were  informed, 
through  a  medium  which  admitted  of  no  doubt,  that  the  General 
had  stated  that  a  capitulation  would  be  necessary.  They,  on  the 
same  day,  addressed  to  Governor  Meigs,  of  Ohio,  a  letter,  of 
which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

i  Believe  all  the  bearer  will  tell  you.  Believe  it,  however 
it  may  astonish  you,  as  much  as  if  told  by  one  of  us.  Even  a 

c —  —  is  talked  of  by  the  .     The  bearer  will  fill  the 

vacancy.' 

The  doubtful  fate  of  this  letter,  rendered  it  necessary  to  use 
circumspection  in  its  details,  and  therefore  the  blanks  were  left. 
The  word  '  capitulation '  would  fill  the  first,  and  'commanding 
general'  the  other.  As  no  enemy  was  near  us,  and  as  the  supe 
riority  of  our  force  was  manifest,  we  could  see  no  necessity  for 
capitulating,  nor  any  propriety  in  alluding  to  it.  We  then  deter 
mined,  in  the  last  resort,  to  incur  the  responsibility  of  divesting 
the  General  of  his  command.  This  plan  was  eventually  prevented 
by  two  of  the  commanding  officers  of  regiments  being  ordered 
upon  detachments. 


54:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

On  the  13th,  the  British  took  a  position  opposite  Detroit,  and 
began  to  throw  up  works.  During  that  and  the  two  following 
days,  they  pursued  their  object  without  interruption,  and  estab 
lished  a  battery  for  two  eighteen  pounders  and  an  eight  inch  how 
itzer.  About  sunset  on  the  Mth,  a  detachment  of  three  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  from  the  regiments  commanded  by  Colonel  Me  Ar 
thur  and  myself,  was  ordered  to  march  to  the  river  Raisin,  to 
escort  the  provisions,  which  had  some  time  remained  there,  pro 
tected  by  a  party  under  the  command  of  Captain  Brush. 

On  Saturday,  the  15th,  about  one  o'clock,  a  flag  of  truce  arrived 
from  Sandwich,  bearing  a  summons,  from  General  Brock,  for  the 
surrender  of  the  town  and  fort  of  Detroit,  stating  he  could  no 
longer  restrain  the  fury  of  the  savages.  To  this,  an  immediate 
and  spirited  refusal  was  returned.  About  four  o'clock,  their  bat 
teries  began  to  play  upon  the  town.  The  fire  was  returned,  and 
continued,  without  interruption,  and  with  little  effect,  till  dark. 
Their  shells  were  thrown  till  eleven  o'clock. 

At  daylight,  the  firing  on  both  sides  re-commenced ;  at  the 
same  time,  the  enemy  began  to  land  troops  at  the  Spring  Wells, 
three  miles  below  Detroit,  protected  by  two  of  their  armed  vessels. 
Between  six  and  seven  o'clock,  they  had  effected  their  landing, 
and  immediately  took  up  their  line  of  march.  They  moved  in  a 
close  column  of  platoons,  twelve  in  front,  upon  the  bank  of  the 
river. 

The  fourth  regiment  was  stationed  in  the  fort ;  the  Ohio  volun 
teers  and  a  part  of  the  Michigan  militia,  behind  some  pickets,  in 
a  situation  in  which  the  whole  flank  of  the  enemy  would  have 
been  exposed.  The  residue  of  the  Michigan  militia  were  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  town,  to  resist  the  incursions  of  the  savages. 
Two  twenty-four  pounders,  loaded  with  grape  shot,  were  posted 
on  a  commanding  eminence,  ready  to  sweep  the  advancing  column. 
In  this  situation,  the  superiority  of  our  position  was  apparent,  and 
our  troops,  in  the  eager  expectation  of  victory,  awaited  the  ap 
proach  of  the  enemy.  Not  a  sigh  of  discontent  broke  upon  the 
ear;  not  a  look  of  cowardice  met  the  eye.  Every  man  expected 
a  proud  day  for  his  country,  and  each  was  anxious  that  his  indi 
vidual  exertion  should  contribute  to  the  general  result. 

When  the  head  of  their  column  arrived  within  about  five  hun 
dred  yards  of  the  head  of  our  line,  orders  were  received  from 
General  Hull  fur  the  whole  to  retreat  to  the  fort,  and  for  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  55 

twenty-four  pounders  not  to  open  upon  the  enemy.  One  univer 
sal  burst  of  indignation  was  apparent  upon  the  receipt  of  this 
order.  Those,  whose  conviction  was  the  deliberate  result  of  a 
dispassionate  examination  of  passing  events,  saw  the  folly  and 
impropriety  of  crowding  eleven  hundred  men  into  a  little  work 
which  three  hundred  men  could  fully  man,  and  into  which  the 
shots  and  shells  of  the  enemy  were  falling.  The  fort  was,  in  this 
manner,  filled  ;  the  men  were  directed  to  stack  their  arms,  and 
scarcely  was  an  opportunity  afforded  of  moving.  Shortly  after,  a 
white  flag  was  hung  out  upon  the  walls.  A  British  officer  rode  up 
to  inquire  the  cause.  A  communication  passed  between  the  com 
manding  generals,  which  ended  in  the  capitulation  submitted  to  you. 
In  entering  into  this  capitulation,  the  General  took  counsel  from  his 
own  feelings  only.  Not  an  officer  was  consulted.  Not  one  antici 
pated  a  surrender,  till  he  saw  this  white  flag  displayed.  Even  the 
women  were  indignant  at  so  shameful  a  degradation  of  the  Amer 
ican  character,  and  all  felt  but  he  who  held  in  his  hands  the  reins 
of  authority. 

Our  morning  report  had  that  morning  made  our  effective  force 
present,  fit  for  duty,  one  thousand  and  sixty,  without  including  the 
detachment  before  alluded  to,  and  without  including  three  hundred 
of  the  Michigan  militia  on  duty.  About  dark,  on  Saturday  evening, 
the  detachment  sent  to  escort  the  provisions  received  orders  from 
General  Hull  to  return  with  as  much  expedition  as  possible.  About 
ten  o'clock  the  next  day,  they  arrived  within  sight  of  Detroit.  Had 
a  firing  been  heard,  or  any  resistance  visible,  they  would  have 
immediately  advanced  and  attacked  the  rear  of  the  enemy.  The 
situation  in  which  this  detachment  was  placed,  although  the  result 
of  accident,  was  the  best  for  annoying  the  enemy  and  cutting  off 
his  retreat,  that  could  have  been  selected.  With  his  raw  troops, 
enclosed  between  two  fires,  and  no  hope  of  succor,  it  is  hazarding 
little  to  say,  that  very  few  would  have  escaped. 

I  have  been  informed  by  Colonel  Findlay,  who  saw  the  return 
of  the  quartermaster  general  the  day  after  the  surrender,  that  their 
whole  force,  of  every  description,  white,  red,  and  black,  was  one 
thousand  and  thirty.  They  had  seventy-nine  platoons,  twelve  in 
a  platoon,  of  men  dressed  in  uniform;  many  of  these  were  evidently 
Canadian  militia.  The  rest  of  their  militia  increased  their  whole 
force  to  about  seven  hundred  men.  The  number  of  Indians  could 
not  be  ascertained  with  any  degree  of  precision ;  not  many  were 


56  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

visible,  and  in  the  event  of  an  attack,  could  afford  no  material 
advantage  to  the  enemy. 

In  endeavoring  to  appreciate  the  motives,  and  to  investigate  the 
causes  which  led  to  an  event  so  unexpected  and  dishonorable,  it 
is  impossible  to  find  any  solution  in  the  relative  strength  of  the 
contending  parties,  or  in  the  measures  of  resistance  in  our  power. 
That  we  were  far  superior  to  the  enemy  ;  that  upon  any  ordinary 
principle  of  calculation,  we  would  have  defeated  them,  the  wounded 
and  indignant  feelings  of  every  man  there  will  testify. 

A  few  days  before  the  surrender,  I  was  informed  by  General 
Hull,  we  had  four  hundred  rounds  of  twenty-four  pound  shot  fixed, 
and  about  one  hundred  thousand  cartridges  made.  AVe  surren- 

o 

dered  with  the  fort,  forty  barrels  of  powder  and  twenty-five  hun 
dred  stand  of  arms. 

The  state  of  our  provisions  has  not  been  generally  understood. 
On  the  day  of  the  surrender,  we  had  fifteen  days'  provisions  of 
every  kind  on  hand — of  meat,  there  was  plenty  in  the  country, 
and  arrangements  had  been  made  for  purchasing  and  grinding 
the  flour.  It  was  calculated  we  could  readily  procure  three  months' 
provisions,  independent  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  barrels  of  flour 
and  thirteen  hundred  head  of  cattle,  which  had  been  forwarded 
from  the  State  of  Ohio,  which  remained  at  the  river  Raisin,  under 
Captain  Brush,  within  reach  of  the  army. 

But  had  we  been  totally  destitute  of  provisions,  our  duty  and 
our  interest  undoubtedly  was  to  fight.  The  enemy  invited  us  to 
meet  him  in  the  field. 

By  defeating  him,  the  whole  country  would  have  been  open  to 
us,  and  the  object  of  the  expedition  gloriously  and  successfully 
obtained.  If  we  had  been  defeated,  we  had  nothing  to  do  but  to 
retreat  to  the  fort,  and  make  the  best  defense  which  circumstances 
and  our  situation  rendered  practicable.  But  basely  to  surren 
der,  without  firing  a  gun — tamely  to  submit,  without  raising  a 
bayonet — disgracefully  to  pass  in  review  before  an  enemy,  as  infe 
rior  in  quality  as  in  the  number  of  his  forces,  were  circumstances 
which  excited  feelings  of  indignation,  more  easily  felt  than  des 
cribed.  To  see  the  whole  of  our  men  flushed  with  the  hope  of 
victory,  eagerly  awaiting  the  approaching  contest,  to  see  them 
afterwards  dispirited,  hopeless,  and  desponding,  at  least  five  hun 
dred  shedding  tears  because  they  were  not  allowed  to  meet  their 
country's  foes,  and  fight  their  country's  battles,  excited  sensations 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  57 

which  no  American  has  ever  before  had  cause  to  feel,  and  which, 
I  trust  in  God,  will  never  again  be  felt,  while  one  man  remains 
to  defend  the  standard  of  the  Union. 

I  am  expressly  authorized  to  state,  that  Colonel  McArthur  and 
Colonel  Findlay,  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Miller,  viewed  this  trans 
action  in  the  light  which  I  do.  They  know,  and  feel,  that  no  cir 
cumstances  in  our  situation,  none  in  that  of  the  enemy,  can  excuse  a 
capitulation  so  dishonorable  and  unjustifiable.  This,  too,  is  the 
universal  sentiment  among  the  troops  ;  and  I  shall  be  surprised  to 
learn  that  there  is  one  man  who  thinks  it  was  necessary  to  sheathe 
his  sword  or  lay  down  his  musket. 

I  was  informed  by  General  Hull,  the  morning  after  the  capitu 
lation,  that  the  British  forces  consisted  of  one  thousand  eight  hun 
dred  regulars,  and  that  he  surrendered  to  prevent  the  effusion  of 
human  blood.  That  he  magnified  their  regular  force  near  five 
fold,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Whether  the  philanthropic  reason 
assigned  by  him  is  a  justification  for  surrendering  a  fortified  town, 
an  army,  and  a  territory,  is  for  the  government  to  determine. 
Confident  I  am,  that  had  the  courage  and  conduct  of  the  General 
been  equal  to  the  spirit  and  zeal  of  the  troops,  the  event  would 
have  been  brilliant  and  successful,  as  it  now  is  disastrous  and 
dishonorable. 

Very  respectfully,  sir, 

I  have  the  honor  to  be 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

LEWIS  CASS, 

Colonel  3d  Regiment  'Ohio  Volunteers. 
The  Honorable  WILLIAM  EUSTIS, 

Secretary  of  War. 

The  appearance  of  this  report  created  a  profound  sensation  in 
the  public  mind,  and  was  published  and  commented  upon  in  all 
the  leading  newspapers  throughout  the  country.  The  political 
party  known  as  the  Federal  party,  was  violently  opposed  to  the 
war,  and  the  surrender  of  Detroit,  while  carrying  dismay  among 
the  friends  of  the  national  administration,  appeared  to  madden 
its  enemies  with  a  species  of  joy,  bordering  upon  ferocity.  The 
intervening  month  had  been  industriously  improved  by  the  Fede 
ralists,  to  prostrate  it  under  that  disaster.  The  good  name  of  Mr. 
Madison  did  not  shield  him  from  malevolence,  and  the  effort  now 


58  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

was,  to  shake  public  confidence  in  the  authenticity  of  Colonel 
Cass'  statements  ;  and  they  sought  to  demolish  him  and  his  report 
by  the  most  fiery  denunciations  and  incessant  vituperation.  They 
arraigned  him  before  the  bar  of  public  opinion,  relying  upon  tho 
apologetical  report  of  Hull  to  sustain  their  accusations.  The  doc 
uments  in  his  possession,  however,  triumphantly  sustained  the 
young  and  gallant  colonel,  and  when  driven  to  the  wall,  his  dis 
comfited  assailants  contented  themselves  with  criticising  his  lan 
guage  and  style,  and  finally  rested  upon  the  position  that,  after 
all,  he  was  not  the  author  of  the  report,  but  had  made  his  bow  to 
the  people  in  borrowed  plumage,  kindly  furnished  for  the  occasion 
by  Richard  Rush,  then  the  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury. 

No  person  can  fail  to  perceive  that  this  distinguished  report 
contains  a  clear  and  full  narrative  of  the  surrender.  It  was  well 
received  by  the  government,  and  by  a  large  majority  of  the  people. 
Although  "  a  fortified  post,  an  army,  and  a  territory"  had  been 
lost,  at  the  very  commencement  of  hostilities,  yet  it  was  apparent 
to  every  candid  mind,  that  the  disaster  was  attributable  to  the 
weakness  and  incompetency  of  the  commanding  general,  and  not 
to  the  want  of  bravery  or  discipline  on  the  part  of  his  officers  and 
men. 

Colonel  Cass,  soon  after  submitting  his  report  to  the  Secretary 
of  War — his  health  being  sufficiently  recruited  to  enable  him  to 
travel — left  the  capital,  and  journeyed  homeward,  and  joined  his 
family  near  Zanesville,  in  the  early  part  of  October.  Notwith 
standing  he  was  now  a  prisoner  of  war,  at  large  on  his  parole,  yet 
he  had  no  occasion  to  be  ashamed  of  his  military  career,  thus  far. 
Whenever  the  opportunity  was  offered  him,  he  had  conducted 
himself  with  honor  and  courage.  No  man  did  more  to  keep  up 
the  drooping  ardor  of  his  General.  Of  all  the  command,  he  was 
first  to  step  on  the  enemy's  soil — of  all  the  officers,  he  was  first  in 
battle.  The  first  victory,  and  the  first  laurel,  in  the  long  train  so 
gallantly  won  by  his  countrymen  on  land  and  sea,  was  Ms.  Nor 
did  he  avail  himself  of  the  present  occasion  to  drowse  in  domestic 
repose,  but,  with  his  voice  and  pen,  was  constantly  calling  upon 
his  fellow-citizens,  undismayed  by  the  misfortune  of  the  past,  to 
rally  around  the  patriot  Madison,  and  sustain  his  administration 
at  every  cost  and  hazard.  An  intense  hatred  of  monarchy,  and 
all  its  aristocratic  institutions,  was  a  part  of  his  very  nature,  and 
it  had  full  scope  in  the  contest  now  waged  with  England. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  59 

The  opponents  of  the  war  measures  omitted  no  occasion  to  cast 
odium  and  contempt  upon  Mr.  Madison  and  his  cabinet,  and  were 
unceasing  in  their  efforts  to  disparage  and  throw  discredit  upon  all, 
especially  upon  those  whose  testimony  might  serve  to  show  that 
the  administration  was  able  and  patriotic  ;  and  hence  the  rumors, 
forged  to  order,  of  the  incapacity  of  Colonel  Cass.  But  the  patri 
otism  and  talents  of  the  young  warrior  were  too  brilliant  to  be 
tarnished  by  such  means,  and  the  people  too  intelligent  not  to 
understand  that  these  rumors  were  the  offspring  of  an  envious  and 
hostile  faction. 

So  much  was  said  at  Washington  about  the  authorship  of  "  the 
report,"  and  had  been  reiterated  elsewhere,  that  Mr.  Rush,  of  his 
own  accord,  transmitted  to  Colonel  Cass,  at  his  residence  in  Ohio, 
a  letter  in  denial,  with  a  copy  of  the  Intelligencer  containing  the 
statement.  Although  Colonel  Cass,  of  course,  was  aware  that  the 
accusation  was  traveling  the  rounds  of  the  Federal  press,  yet  hith 
erto  he  had  not  deemed  it  of  sufficient  importance  to  merit  any 
notice.  But  as  it  was  now  announced,  in  unmeasured  terms,  in 
an  influential  paper  at  Washington,  at  the  door  of  the  War  De 
partment,  he  could  do  no  less  than  forward  to  the  editors  of  the 
National  Intelligencer,  for  publication,  the  following  note  : 

"  To  the  Editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer  : 

GENTLEMEN: — I  transmit  to  you,  for  publication,  the  enclosed 
letter,  politely,  and  without  solicitation,  addressed  to  me  by  Mr. 
Rush. 

So  far  as  respects  myself,  the  tale  it  refutes  merits  no  consider 
ation,  and  would  meet  no  attention.  Whether  I  am  competent  to 
the  task  of  relating  plain  facts,  many  of  which  I  saw,  and  on  all 
of  which  I  have  had  the  feelings  and  information  of  hundreds  to 
guide  me,  is  a  question  of  no  importance  to  the  public,  and  of  no 
interest  to  those  editors  who  have  asserted  or  insinuated  it.  But 
it  is  deeply  interesting  to  their  passions  and  pursuits,  that  every 
account  which  tends  to  exonerate  the  government  from  all  partici 
pation  in  the  event  of  an  expedition  feebly  conducted,  and  in  a 
capitulation  dishonorably  concluded,  should  be  assailed  openly 
and  covertly.  I  was  aware  that  every  man  who  should  attempt 
by  a  disclosure  of  the  truth,  to  give  correct  information,  must 
expect  to  have  his  motives  impugned  and  his  character  assailed, 
with  all  the  rancor  of  malignity  and  eagerness  of  party.  As  I  felt 


60  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

no  disposition  to  covet,  so  I  trust  there  was  no  necessity  for  avoid 
ing,  an  investigation  like  that.  I  had  witnessed  the  irritation  of 
feeling,  and  the  latitude  of  observation,  in  many  papers  of  the 
country. 

The  terms  '  conscripts,'  a  c  little  still-born  army,'  and  every 
injurious  and  opprobrious  epithet  which  party  zeal  could  lavish 
upon  western  patriotism  and  enterprise,  I  have  observed  with 
regret,  but  without  surprise.  But  I  had  to  learn  that  the  editor 
of  a  newspaper,  upon  his  own  responsibility,  would  propagate  a 
tale  so  false  arid  unqualified  as  that  in  the  United  States  Gazette, 

of October  last.  The  letter  transmitted  will  show  what  credit 

is  due  to  the  assertions  of  men  who  can  discover  little  to  condemn 
in  an  enemy's  government,  and  none  to  approve  in  their  own. 

I  can  not  resist  the  present  opportunity  of  placing  in  a  proper 
point  of  view,  a  transaction  misrepresented  with  all  the  virulence 
of  faction.  The  capitulation  for  the  surrender  of  Detroit,  contained 
no  stipulations  allowing  the  commanding  officer  to  forward  to  his 
government  an  account  of  the  causes  which  produced,  and  of  the 
circumstances  which  attended,  so  unexpected  an  event.  The 
commanding  officer  himself  became  an  unconditional  prisoner  of 
war.  His  liberation,  or  the  intelligence  he  might  communicate  to 
his  own  government,  depended  on  the  interest  or  caprice  of  the 
enemy.  In  this  situation,  on  the  arrival  of  Colonel  McArthur 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  he  became  the  senior 
officer  of  those  troops  which,  by  the  capitulation,  were  permitted 
to  return  home  ;  and  as  such,  it  became  a  matter  of  duty  to  report 
himself  to  the  government,  and  of  propriety,  to  communicate  to 
them  all  the  intelligence  in  his  power.  For  this  purpose,  the 
second  officer  in  command  present,  was  ordered  to  repair  to  the 
seat  of  government.  On  his  arrival,  he  found  the  rumor  of  the 
disaster  had  preceded  him,  and  that  information  was  anxiously 
and  impatiently  expected.  Public  report  had  informed  the  gov 
ernment  that  they  had  lost  a  fort,  an  army,  and  a  territory,  but 
of  the  remote  or  direct  causes  which  occasioned  it,  of  the  situation 
of  their  own  troops,  or  of  the  designs  of  the  enemy,  they  were 
profoundly  ignorant.  Were  they,  in  this  situation,  fastidiously  to 
reject  proffered  information,  and  continue  willfully  ignorant  of  a 
transaction  so  striking  in  its  features,  and  so  important  in  its  con 
sequences  to  the  peace  and  character  of  a  nation  ?  or  were  they 
not  compelled,  by  duty,  to  seek  every  means  of  information,  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  61 

order  with  promptitude  to  repair  the  evil,  and  with  vigilance  pre 
vent  the  repetition  of  a  similar  one  ?  Their  duty  surely  can  not  be 
mistaken  by  the  most  bigoted  zealot  of  party.  The  act,  then,  of 
communicating  intelligence,  and  of  receiving  it,  was  not  merely 
natural,  but  commendable.  It  was  a  duty  over  which  the  govern 
ment  had  no  control.  As  the  officer  gave  it,  they  must  receive 
it,  neither  accountable  for  the  manner  nor  the  accuracy  of  his 
relations. 

The  question  which  has  been  so  ably  discussed,  whether  this 
statement  is  official,  in  itself  a  very  clear  one,  will  become  impor 
tant  and  interesting  when  disputes  about  words  shall  again  agitate 
the  feelings  and  divide  the  opinions  of  the  world.  Until  then,  it 
is  cheerfully  relinquished  to  those  who  have  so  learnedly  investi 
gated  it. 

That  an  officer  in  his  report  must  confine  himself  to  those  facts 
which  passed  within  his  own  observation,  and  to  which  he  could 
testily  in  a  court  of  justice,  is  among  the  moral  and  extraordinary 
pretensions  to  wrhich  this  communication  has  given  birth.  Mea 
gre,  indeed,  would  be  every  similar  statement,  were  such  a  prin 
ciple  correct  in  theory,  or  supported  by  practice.  In  a  compli 
cated  transaction,  it  would  present  but  a  skeleton  of  a  report, 
omitting  many  interesting  details  essential  to  a  correct  view  of  the 
subject,  and  necessary  in  the  succession  of  facts  which  connect 
causes  with  their  consequences.  It  would  require  almost  as  many 
reports  as  there  were  actions,  and  instead  of  a  faithful  sketch  by  a 
single  hand,  a  motley  and  discordant  group  of  objects  would  meet 
the  eye,  exciting  little  interest,  and  conveying  little  information. 
But  independently  of  any  speculative  views  which  may  be  taken 
of  the  subject,  it  is  sufficient  to  refer  every  candid  and  dispassion 
ate  observer,  to  the  report  of  military  transactions  which  daily 
appear  in  our  and  in  other  countries.  The  futility  of  the  objection 
will  at  once  be  exposed,  for  it  will  be  found  that  a  report  is  sel 
dom,  if  ever,  made  without  violating  this  rule,  for  the  first  time 
applied  as  the  standard  to  the  statement  of  an  officer  of  the  most 
important  military  event  which  has  occurred  for  many  years  in 
the  history  of  his  country. 

The  propriety  of  publishing  such  a  report,  remains  duly  to  be 
investigated.  In  a  government,  formed  on  the  power  and  sup 
ported  by  the  confidence  of  the  people,  the  right  of  the  public  to 
receive  information  on  all  national  transactions,  is  too  clear  to 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

require  support  or  to  fear  denial.  Whether  a  battle  be  won  or 
lost — whether  the  event  be  brilliant  or  disastrous — the  duty  of 
communicating,  and  the  right  of  claiming  information,  is  the  same. 
For  weeks  after  the  surrender  of  an  important  post,  wrhile  the 
public  mind  is  agitated  and  public  expectation  is  alive,  the  govern 
ment  receives  from  an  officer,  despatched  by  a  senior  officer  within 
their  jurisdiction  and  subject  to  their  control,  a  statement  of  the 
circumstances  which  preceded  and  accompanied  the  transaction. 
Two  weeks  would  have  been  sufficient  for  the  commanding  officer 
to  have  forwarded  his  despatches,  had  the  capitulation  conferred 
on  him  the  right,  or  the  enemy  the  favor  of  doing  it  immediately 
subsequent  to  the  surrender.  The  government  had  a  right  to 
conclude  the  privilege  was  refused  him,  or  the  duty  omitted  by 
him.  That  portion  of  the  troops  which,  by  the  capitulation,  were 
to  be  conveyed  to  the  United  States,  afforded  a  secure  opportu 
nity  for  this  purpose.  This  having  failed,  it  became  uncertain  at 
wrhat  period  his  communication  would  be  received.  Was  the 
government  then  to  withhold  the  information  they  possessed  be 
cause  the  information  attributed  the  failing  of  the  expedition  to 
the  commanding  officer?  The  character  of  the  nation,  the  repu 
tation  of  the  government  and  of  every  individual  embarked  in  that 
expedition,  were  involved  in  its  issue.  Was  it  of  any  importance, 
by  a  correct  disclosure  of  facts,  to  redeem  the  public  character  and 
feelings  ?  Was  it  of  no  importance,  by  placing,  in  a  proper  point 
of  view,  the  features  of  the  transaction,  to  show  that  the  boasts  of 
the  enemy  were  as  vain  as  their  conquest  was  bloodless  ?  To 
prove  to  our  country  that  her  sons  might  yet  be  led  on  to  battle, 
and  perhaps  to  victory  ?  The  government,  too,  had  a  reputation 
to  lose.  That  reputation  was  eagerly  assailed.  The  failure  of 
the  expedition  was  attributed  to  the  want  of  preparation,  and  the 
measures  respecting  it  were  characterized  as  imbecile  and  igno 
rant.  The  forbearance  demanded  was  far  from  being  granted. 
So  far  as  respects  the  commanding  officer,  the  details  of  an  unfor 
tunate  expedition  must  be  shrouded  in  Delphic  obscurity,  and  the 
public  await,  in  dubious  suspense,  the  tedious  process  of  military 
investigation.  But  every  little  nameless  paper  is  at  liberty  to 
display  its  brilliant  wit  and  sarcastic  remarks  at  the  expense  of 
those  who  planned  and  ordered  the  expedition.  Their  reputation 
awaits  the  result  of  no  trial.  They  must  be  offered  up,  an  expia 
tory  sacrifice,  upon  the  altar  of  public  indignation.  The  contem- 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  63 

plated  investigation,  which  is  ultimately  to  determine  the  respect 
ive  measure  of  merit  and  of  blame,  here  becomes  unnecessary. 
Its  result  is  anticipated  with  that  confidence  which  ought  only  to 
be  inspired  by  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  attendant  circum 
stances.  To  require,  in  such  a  situation,  a  studious  concealment 
of  those  facts  which  would  enable  the  public  correctly  to  appre 
ciate  the  conduct  of  all,  is  to  require  a  species  of  forbearance  as 
little  suited  to  the  practice  as  the  duties  of  life.  I  am  aware  that 
nothing  which  can  be  said  upon  this  subject,  will,  with  many, 
carry  conviction  or  produce  acknowledgment.  The  most  obvious 
considerations  of  reason  and  of  justice  will  be  overlooked.  Such, 
in  the  conflicts  of  opinion  and  the  collision  of  party,  has  always 
been  the  case.  But  truth  will  ultimately  prevail,  and  the  public 
will  evidently  be  enabled  correctly  to  estimate  the  conduct  of  all 
who  have  had  any  agency  in  a  transaction  so  deeply  interesting 
to  their  character  and  feelings. 

November  20th,  1812. 

(Signed,)  LEWIS  CASS." 


The  enclosure  referred  to,  reads  as  follows  : 

"  WASHINGTON,  November  3d,  1812. 

DEAK  SIR: — It  was  not  until  after  I  had  had  the  pleasure  to 
see  you,  and  for  some  time  after  you  left  Washington,  that  the 
foolish  insinuation,  which  has  appeared  in  some  of  the  newspapers, 
of  my  having  been  concerned  in  writing  the  letter  you  addressed 
to  j;he  Secretary  of  War,  first  came  to  my  ears  ;  nor  have  I,  to 
this  day,  seen  the  insinuation  in  print. 

I  would  have  contradicted  it  at  once,  but  that  it  seemed  to  me 
quite  superfluous,  and  that  it  would  be  to  confer  a  notice  upon  it 
which  its  idle  character  did  not  deserve.  In  what  so  strange  an 
untruth  could  have  originated,  I  am  sure  I  know  not ;  neither 
can  I  divest  myself  of  embarrassment  in  thus  troubling  you  with 
a  line  about  it.  I  have  not  yet  heard  it  said  that  I  wrote  the 
address  you  delivered  to  the  volunteers  of  Ohio  in  the  spring, 
before  I  had  the  pleasure  to  see  or  to  know  you  ;  and  yet  it  is 
certain  that  I  wrote  as  much  of  that  as  I  did  of  your  letter  to  the 
Secretary  of  War. 

I  sincerely  hope  your  health  has  been  re-established  since  you 
left  Washington,  and  that,  to  other  causes  of  regret,  connected 


64:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

with  your  march  to  Detroit,  there  will  not  be  added  that  of  any 
permanent  injury  to  your  constitution. 

Believe  me,  dear  sir,  with  great  respect  and  esteem, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

(Signed,)  RICHARD  RUSH." 

This  unanswerable  rejoinder  of  Colonel  Cass,  silenced,  for  the 
time  being,  the  batteries  of  the  opposition,  and  many  of  the  con 
ductors  of  the  public  press  had  the  magnanimity  to  insert  it  in 
their  columns.  "  In  what  so  strange  an  untruth  could  have  origi 
nated,"  remained  a  profound  mystery  for  some  time.  But  it 
turned  out  to  be  the  fact,  that  one  of  the  clerks  in  the  bureau  of 
Mr.  Rush  happened  into  his  office  when  Colonel  Cass  was  read 
ing  the  report  to  him,  prior  to  its  presentation  to  Mr.  Eustis,  the 
Secretary  of  War,  and  this  clerk  took  it  for  granted,  but  untruly, 
that  Colonel  Cass  had  drawn  up  the  report  agreeably  to  some 
previous  understanding  with  Mr.  Rush,  and  was  then  submitting 
it  to  him  for  revision  and  correction.  Not  content  with  simply 
stating  what  he  saw  and  heard,  (and  which,  indeed,  would  have 
been  a  violation  of  the  confidential  relations  existing  between  the 
head  of  a  bureau  and  his  clerk,  especially  at  that  critical  juncture 
of  public  affairs,)  he  had  the  effrontery  to  intimate  to  the  enemies 
of  the  government,  that  Colonel  Cass  was  a  mere  puppet  in  the 
hands  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury.  The  circumstance, 
that  this  person  was  so  near  to  Mr.  Rush  in  the  public  employ 
ment,  gave  color  to  the  truth  of  his  intimation,  (which,  in  the 
end,  he  admitted  was  the  mere  coinage  of  his  own  brain,)  and 
wras  seized  upon  with  avidity  to  annoy  the  administration. 

The  report,  as  subsequent  proofs  attested,  told  the  truth  and  the 
whole  truth.  As  Mr.  Madison  was  a  member  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
cabinet  in  1806,  he  had  occasion  to  know  the  character  of  Colonel 
Cass,  and  unhesitatingly  placed  implicit  reliance  in  his  state 
ments,  as  coming  from  a  man  of  truth  and  of  steadfast  attach 
ment  to  the  measures  of  the  government. 

Mr.  Rush  stood  deservedly  high  in  the  confidence  of  the  Presi 
dent,  and  his  patriotism  was  unquestioned  by  both  friend  and  foe. 
He  and  Colonel  Cass  were  known  to  each  other,  by  reputation,  as 
leading  members  of  the  same  political  party,  in  their  respective 
States  ;  both  were  ardent  advocates  of  the  necessity  of  the  war, 
and  unwavering  supporters  of  all  the  measures  brought  forward 


OF  LEWIS  CASS. 


65 


to  carry  it  on  to  success ;  both  appreciated  each,  other's  feelings 
at  Hull's  disgraceful  surrender,  and  were  alike  sensitive  to  the 
inflammatory  appeals,  daily  made  by  the  friends  of  England,  to 
excite  the  prejudices  of  the  people  of  the  country.  It  was  but 
natural,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Rush  should  make  Colonel  Cass' 
acquaintance,  upon  his  reaching  the  seat  of  government,  and 
evince  an  intense  anxiety  to  be  made  acquainted  with  the  posture 
of  affairs  at  the  north-west ;  and  it  was  equally  natural  that  Col 
onel  Cass  should  be  perfectly  willing  to  gratify  his  friend,  occu 
pying  a  confidential  position  under  the  administration,  and,  as  the 
most  satisfactory  mode  of  doing  so,  should  read  to  him  his  report 
to  the  Department  of  War.  He  did  so,  and  Mr.  Rush,  unlike  his 
silly  clerk,  had  the  good  sense  not  to  precede  that  department  in 
its  promulgation  to  the  world. 
5 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  Y. 

Action  of  War  Department— Of  Congress— General  Assembly  of  Ohio— Confidence  in  Colonel  Cass— Col 
onel  in  U.  S.  Army— Raises  a  Regiment— Elected  Major  General  of  the  Militia— Appointed  Brigadier 
General  in  U.  S.  Army — Joins  the  Army  under  General  Harrison  at  Senecatown — Ardor  of  hia 
Command— General  Harrison's  Confidence  in  him— The  Enemy  at  Lower  Sandusky— Major  Crog-- 
haii — His  Gallant  Defense— Artifice  of  the  British  Officers— General  Harrison  marches  to  Sandusky 
— Perry's  Victory — Embarkation  on  Lake  Erie — Harrison  assigns  Command  of  Debarkation  to  Gen 
eral  Cass— Arrival  at  Maiden — Proctor's  Retreat— Council  of  War — Pursuit  of  Proctor — Battle  of  the 
Thames— Defeat  and  Flight  of  Proctor— Pursued  by  General  Cass — Harrison's  Testimony  to  Gene 
ral  Cass'  Personal  Exertions — His  Bravery. 

The  administration,  acting  upon  the  report  of  Colonel  Cass, 
verified  by  the  unanimous  approbation  of  all  his  fellow  soldiers, 
no  longer  doubted  that  the  disastrous  result  at  Detroit  was  attrib 
utable  to  the  incapacity  and  cowardice  of  Hull,  and  took  vigorous 
steps  to  retrieve  the  honor  of  the  American  arms.  Congress 
assembled  on  the  fourth  of  November,  after  an  unusually  short 
recess,  and  the  President  immediately  invited  its  attention  to  the 
state  of  affairs  at  the  north-west.  An  increase  of  the  army  was 
recommended. 

The  surrender  of  Detroit,  instead  of  repressing,  stimulated  the 
ardor  and  patriotism  of  the  hardy  settlers  of  the  western  country, 
and  Ohio  had  put  on  foot  by  the  time  Congress  assembled,  some 
three  thousand  additional  volunteers.  In  December,  Colonel  Cass 
was  appointed  a  Major- General  of  the  Ohio  militia,  but  being  yet 
on  his  parole,  unexchanged,  he  could  not  then  take  an  active  part  in 
the  war.  The  General  Assembly  of  Ohio  also,  in  the  same  month, 
adopted  resolutions  complimentary  to  their  volunteers,  and  tender 
ing  the  thanks  of  the  State  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  for  their 
patriotism,  bravery,  and  general  good  conduct  during  the  late 
campaign. 

On  the  fourteenth  day  of  January,  1813,  Congress  authorized 
the  military  force  to  be  increased  by  such  a  number  of  regiments 
of  infantry,  not  exceeding  twenty,  as  the  good  of  the  service 
might  require,  and  repealed,  at  a  subsequent  day  of  the  same  ses 
sion,  the  law  authorizing  the  further  acceptance  of  volunteers.  As 
the  patriotism  of  Ohio  was  unquestioned,  and  her  citizens  had 
manifested  a  readiness  on  so  many  trying  occasions  to  answer  the 
call  of  their  country,  the  President  resolved  to  raise  two  regiments 
of  regular  troops  in  that  State,  to  wit,  the  twenty-sixth  and  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  C7 

twenty-seventh.  The  raising  and  organization  of  the  last  was 
committed  to  Colonel  Cass.  He  was  exchanged  and  released 
from  his  parole  about  the  middle  of  January,  1813,  and  was,  there 
fore,  again  in  a  situation  to  report  for  duty.  He  accepted  the 
appointment  of  the  President,  and  was  commissioned  a  colonel  in 
the  regular  service.  And  so  great  was  the  confidence  of  the  gov 
ernment  in  his  ability  and  judgment,  that  he  was  clothed  with 
authority  to  select  his  own  officers  (except  the  field  officers,)  for 
the  regiment  to  be  placed  under  his  command. 

Colonel  Cass  received  his  new  commission  in  person  at  Wash 
ington,  and  soon  afterwards  repaired  to  Ohio,  to  fill  up  his  com 
mand.  Without  difficulty,  he  succeeded  beyond  his  most  sanguine 
anticipations.  It  was  stirring  times  there.  Mortified  beyond 
measure  of  expression  at  the  cheap  victory  of  the  British,  the  men 
of  Ohio  meant  it  should  be  a  barren  one.  And,  as  they  did  not 
now  permit  themselves  to  doubt  that  the  Indians,  controlled  by  the 
arts  and  eloquence  of  Tecumseh,  were  firmly  attached  to  the  cause 
of  Great  Britain,  they  came  forward  and  offered  their  services. 
The  ranks  of  the  twenty-seventh  regiment,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
twenty-sixth,  were  filled  up  by  the  ensuing  month  of  March,  and 
reported  ready  for  duty.  The  rank  of  Brigadier  General  in  the 
Army  of  the  United  States  was  now  conferred  upon  Colonel  Cass, 
as  a  reward  for  his  meritorious  services  and  unflinching  fidelity, 
and  because  the  government  desired  to  avail  itself  of  the  benefit 
of  his  invaluable  judgment  and  bravery  in  the  campaign  of  the 
ensuing  year.  The  United  States,  in  April,  was  divided  into  nine 
military  districts,  and  Brigadier  General  Cass  was  assigned  for 
duty  in  the  eighth,  under  the  command  of  Major  General  William 
II.  Harrison,  comprising  the  States  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  and 
the  Territories  of  Indiana  and  Michigan. 

In  conformity  to  his  orders,  General  Cass  left  the  seat  of  gov 
ernment  early  in  the  spring,  and  proceeded  to  the  west,  to  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  brigade.  He  joined  General  Harrison 
at  Senecatown  in  the  month  of  July,  with  an  effective  command  ; 
and  with  enthusiastic  ardor  he  looked  forward  to  the  hour  when, 
by  the  blessing  of  Providence,  he  should  have  the  unspeakable 
pleasure  of  again  beholding  the  glorious  stars  and  stripes  floating 
in  triumph  from  the  flag-staff  of  Fort  Detroit. 

The  object  of  the  present  expedition  was,  the  capture  of  the 
British  army,  and  re-possession  of  the  lost  Territory  of  Michigan. 


68  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

The  plan  of  the  campaign  was  to  invade  Canada  by  Maiden,  and 
having  reduced  that  stronghold  of  the  enemy,  to  march  upon 
Detroit.  Aside  from  the  unfeasiblcness  of  the  route  by  land,  at 
the  head  of  Lake  Erie,  Tecumseh's  trained  bands  roamed  in  too 
great  numbers  along  the  edges  of  the  swamps,  and  over  the  bound 
less  forests,  ready  to  harass  the  troops  on  the  march,  to  justify 
a  movement  in  that  direction.  The  enemy's  war  vessels,  ready 
for  a  hostile  engagement,  were  also  ready  to  intercept,  if  an  effort 
was  made  to  cross  by  water;  and  as  General  Harrison  was  directed 
to  act  in  conjunction  with  Commodore  Perry,  then  fitting  out  a 
fleet  at  Erie,  lower  down  the  lake,  it  was  determined  to  remain 
at  Senecatown  until  that  flotilla  arrived  to  transport  the  army 
to  Canada.  Here  the  army  remained,  employed  in  drilling  and 
other  necessary  duties,  until  the  junction  of  the  Kentucky  militia, 
under  Governor  Shelby,  and  the  victory  of  Perry,  upon  Lake 
Erie,  enabled  General  Harrison  to  commence  offensive  operations. 
Subsequent  events  proved  the  wisdom  of  this  determination.  It 
is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  likewise,  by  the  candid  inquirer  after 
truth,  that  the  forces,  prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  Kentucky  troops, 
were  comparatively  few,  and  had  been  hastily  collected :  that  the 
advices  to  head-quarters  were  to  the  effect  that  the  proper  author 
ities  were  making  arrangements  to  furnish  the  army  with  rein 
forcements  from  all  parts  of  the  west ;  that  magazines  were  form 
ing,  and  supplies  preparing  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  ukimate 
object  of  this  campaign,  as  soon  as  the  state  of  the  arrangements 
and  the  anticipated  command  of  the  lake,  should  enable  the  army 
to  move  forward  with  a  reasonable  prospect  of  success  ;  that  the 
strength  of  the  enemy,  in  regular  troops,  militia,  or  Indians,  was 
wholly  unknown  to  the  commanding  officer,  and  that  upon  that 
army  rested  the  last  hope  of  safety  for  the  frontier.  It  was  the 
point  of  concentration,  and  if  destroyed,  the  country  would  have 
been  laid  waste  far  into  the  interior,  and  the  prosecution  of  another 
offensive  campaign  during  that  year,  would  have  been  rendered 
impossible.  Such  interests  were  too  great  to  be  put  to  hazard  by 
a  false  movement,  and  General  Harrison,  aided  by  the  constant 
advice  and  presence  of  General  Cass,  with  whom  he  consulted 
more  than  any  other  officer,  resolved  to  await  the  result  at  Seneca- 
town  and  there  to  defend  himself,  if  attacked,  to  the  last  extremity. 
The  course  adopted  was  approved  by  all  the  superior  officers  who 
were  with  him. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  60 

On  the  first  of  August,  one  of  the  scouting  parties  sent  out  by 
General  Harrison,  returned  from  the  lake  shore  to  camp,  and 
reported  that  they  had  discovered,  the  day  before,  the  enemy  in 
force  near  the  mouth  of  the  Sanduskybay,  nine  miles  to  the  north 
ward.  In  the  course  of  the  next  day,  listening  with  anxiety  in  the 
environs  of  his  camp,  General  Harrison,  having  heard  the  report, 
of  cannon  in  the  direction  of  the  lake,  made  several  attempts  to 
ascertain  the  force  and  situation  of  the  enemy.  His  scouts  were 
unable  to  get  near  the  fort  at  Lower  Sandusky,  because  the  Indi 
ans  surrounded  it.  Finding,  however,  that  the  enemy  had  only 
light  artillery,  and  being  well  convinced  that  it  could  make  little 
impression  upon  the  works,  and  that  any  attempt  to  storm  would 
be  resisted  with  effect  by  Major  Croghan,  in  command  of  the  post 
with  one  hundred  and  sixty  men,  he  waited  for  the  arrival  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  mounted  volunteers,  who  had,  the  evening 
before,  left  Upper  Sandusky,  and  were  momentarily  expected.  A 
scout  soon  came  in,  and  gave  information  that  the  enemy  were 
retreating,  and  General  Harrison,  with  the  dragoons  that  had  now 
arrived,  forthwith  set  out  to  endeavor  to  overtake  them,  at  the 
same  time  ordering  Generals  Cass  and  Me  Arthur  to  follow  rapidly 
on  with  all  the  infantry,  (then  about  seven  hundred,)  that  could 
be  spared  from  the  protection  of  the  stores  and  sick.  He  found  it 
impossible  to  overhaul  the  enemy.  Upon  his  arrival  at  Sandus 
ky,  it  appeared  that  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  storm  the  fort  had 
been  made  by  the  enemy,  consistinp*  of  four  hundred  and  ninety 

i/  i/    /  CJ  t> 

regular  troops,  and  five  hundred  Indians,  commanded  by  General 
Proctor  in  person,  and  that  Tecumseh,  with  some  two  thousand 
warriors,  was  somewhere  in  the  swamps  between  Senecatown 
and  Fort  Meigs,  awaiting  his  advance,  or  a  convoy  of  provisions. 
"With  no  prospect  of  doing  anything  in  front,  and  apprehensive 
that  Tecumseh  might  destroy  the  stores  and  small  detachments  in 
his  rear,  he  sent  orders  to  General  Cass,  who  commanded  the 
infantry,  to  fall  back  to  Senecatown.  Scouting  parties  wrere  sent  out 
in  every  direction,  who  reported  that  not  an  enemy  was  to  be 
seen.  On  the  third  of  August,  General  Harrison  returned  to  his 
head-quarters,  and  on  the  fifth  received  from  Major  Croghan  his 
official  report,  from  which  it  appeared  that  on  Sunday  evening, 
the  first  of  August,  the  enemy  made  his  appearance,  and  as  soon 
as  General  Proctor  had  made  such  a  disposition  of  his  troops  as 
to  cut  off  retreat,  should  Major  Croghan  be  disposed  to  make  one, 


TO  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

lie  sent  two  of  his  officers  with,  a  flag,  to  demand  the  surrender  of 
the  fort.  Major  Croghan  returned  for  reply,  that  he  should  defend 
the  place  to  the  last  extremity,  and  that  no  force,  however  large, 
would  induce  him  to  capitulate. 

Major  Chambers,  one  of  the  officers  who  had  waited  on  the 
commandant  of  the  fort  with  the  summons  to  surrender,  resorted 
to  an  unworthy  artifice,  as  he  was  retiring.  Meeting  Ensign 
Shipp,  the  major  observed,  that  his  general  had  a  number  of  can 
non,  a  large  body  of  regular  troops,  and  so  many  Indians,  whom 
it  was  impossible  to  control,  that,  if  the  fort  was  taken,  as  it  must 
be,  the  whole  of  the  garrison  would  be  massacred.  Ensign  Shipp, 
nothing  daunted  by  the  impertinence,  promptly  remarked,  that  it 
was  the  united  resolve  of  Major  Croghan,  his  officers  and  men, 
to  defend  the  garrison  or  be  buried  in  it,  and  that  Major  Cham 
bers'  general,  and  all  his  force,  might  do  their  best.  Colonel  El 
liott,  the  other  British  officer,  then  observed  to  Ensign  Shipp,  that 
he  was  a  fine  young  man.  "I  pity,"  said  he,  "your  situation; 
for  God's  sake  surrender,  and  prevent  the  dreadful  slaughter  that 
must  follow  resistance."  Shipp  turned  from  him  with  indigna 
tion,  and  was  immediately  taken  hold  of  by  an  Indian,  who  at 
tempted  to  wrest  his  sword  from  him.  Elliott  pretended  to  exert 
himself  to  release  Shipp  from  the  Indian,  and  expressed  great 
anxiety  to  get  him  safe  into  the  fort. 

So  soon  as  the  flag  had  returned  to  the  enemy's  head-quarters, 
a  brisk  fire  was  opened  upon  the  fort  from  gun  boats  in  the  river, 
and  from  a  five  and  one  half  inch  howitzer  on  shore,  which  was 
kept  up,  with  little  intermission,  throughout  the  night.  At  an 
early  hour  the  next  morning,  three  six  pounders,  at  the  distance 
of  within  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  pickets,  whither  they 
had  been  placed  during  the  night,  began  to  play  upon  the  Amer 
icans,  but  with  little  effect.  About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
discovering  that  the  fire  from  all  the  enemy's  guns  was  concen 
trated  against  the  north-west  angle  of  the  fort,  Major  Croghan 
became  confident  that  the  object  was  to  make  a  breach,  and 
attempt  to  storm  the  works  at  that  point.  lie  therefore  ordered 
out  as  many  men  as  could  be  employed,  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  that  part,  and  it  was  so  effectively  secured,  by  means 
of  bags  of  flour,  sand,  etc.,  that  the  picketing  suffered  little  or  no 
injury.  But  the  enemy  having  formed  in  close  column,  advanced 
to  the  assault  at  the  expected  point,  at  the  same  time  making  two 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  71 

feints  in  another  direction.  The  column  which  advanced  against, 
the  north-west  angle,  consisted  of  about  three  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  and  was  so  enveloped  in  smoke  as  not  to  be  discovered  until 
it  had  approached  within  eighteen  or  twenty  paces  of  the  lines. 
Yet  the  Americans,  being  all  at  their  posts  and  ready  to  receive 
it,  commenced  so  heavy  and  galling  a  fire  as  to  throw  the  column 
a  little  into  confusion.  Being  quickly  rallied,  it  advanced  to  the 
outer  works,  and  began  to  leap  into  the  ditch.  Just  at  that  mo 
ment,  a  fire  of  grape  was  opened  from  a  six  pounder,  previously 
arranged  by  Major  Croghan  so  as  to  rake  in  that  direction,  which, 
together  writh  the  musketry,  threw  the  enemy  into  such  confusion 
that  they  were  compelled  to  retire  precipitately  to  the  woods. 
This  noble  six  pounder  did  the  work  effectually.  It  was  the  only 
piece  of  artillery  in  the  fort,  and  poured  destruction,  with  its  half 
load  of  powder  and  double  charge  of  leaden  slugs,  at  the  distance 
of  thirty  feet,  killing  or  wounding  nearly  every  man  who  had 
entered  the  ditch. 

During  the  assault,  which  lasted  about  half  an  hour,  an  inces 
sant  fire  was  kept  up  by  the  enemy's  artillery,  consisting  of  five 
six  pounders  and  a  howitzer,  but  without  effect.  The  entire  loss 
to  the  Americans  was  one  killed  and  seven  wounded  slightly, 
whilst  that  of  the  enemy,  in  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners,  reached 
one  hundred  and  fifty.  Seventy  stand  of  arms,  and  several  braces 
of  pistols,  belonging  to  the  British,  were  collected  near  the  works ; 
and  about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  enemy  sailed  down 
the  river,  leaving  behind  them,  in  their  haste,  a  boat  containing 
clothing  and  considerable  military  stores.  This  attack  and  the 
successful  defense,  gave  fresh  courage  to  the  troops,  and  inspirited 
the  \vhole  army  with  renewed  animation.  The  bold  and  energetic 
answer  to  the  summons  to  surrender,  together  with  the  decisive 
bravery  exhibited  by  the  Americans,  unquestionably  had  the 
effect  to  dispirit  General  Proctor  in  making  further  efforts  to 
penetrate  the  country,  and  he  retired  to  Arnherstburgh. 

During  the  investment  of  the  fort,  Major  Croghan  wrote  a 
letter,  directed  to  General  Harrison,  which,  after  he  was  called 
to  an  account  for  it  at  Senecatown,  he  most  satisfactorily  explained 
to  the  commanding  general,  by  the  circumstances  of  his  position, 
and  by  his  wish  to  deceive  the  enemy,  should  the  letter  fall  into 
their  hands.  It  was  a  letter,  not  designed  for  the  American,  but 
the  British  General.  The  propriety  of  Major  Croghan  remaining 


72  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

at  the  fort  was  questioned,  in  some  quarters,  at  the  time,  but 
General  Cass  always  thought,  and  so  did  General  Harrison,  that 
he  did  right  to  remain,  because  a  retreat,  under  the  circumstances, 
was  more  dangerous  than  a  defense.  In  speaking  of  this  matter, 
twenty-seven  years  afterwards,  General  Cass  remarks :  "  I  am  well 
aware,  too  well  aware,  that  Colonel  Croghan  has  not  always  felt 
satisfied  at  the  course  adopted  by  General  Harrison  towards  him 
self.  But  he  was  in  error.  I  was  the  common  friend  of  both,  and 
knew  their  sentiments  towards  each  other.  General  Harrison 
was  strongly  attached  to  Croghan,  and  was  proud  of  him,  looking 
upon  him  as  his  military  eleve.  And,  indeed,  he  was  a  noble 
young  man,  with  high  qualities,  and  well  he  proved  it  by  his 
repulse  of  the  enemy  from  his  post.  General  Harrison  was  inca 
pable  of  jealousy,  and  he  rejoiced,  '  with  exceeding  great  joy,'  (for 
I  saw  it,)  at  the  success  which  his  young  friend  had  obtained." 

The  attack  upon  Sandusky  had  a  good  effect  upon  the  Indians. 
Some  of  them  soon  began  to  show  symptoms  of  a  disposition  to 
side  with  the  Americans;  and,  before  the  month  of  August  had 
elapsed,  the  chiefs  Black  Hoof,  the  Crane,  and  the  Snake,  with 
two  hundred  and  fifty -nine  of  their  warriors,  joined  General  Har 
rison,  and  declared  that  they  intended  to  fight  in  defense  of  the 
United  States.  General  Harrison,  ably  seconded  by  General  Cass 
and  General  McArtlmr,  throughout  the  month  continued  the 

'  O 

most  effective  measures  to  fill  up  his  command  with  regular  troops, 
to  the  number  of  seven  thousand,  as  contemplated  by  the  War 
Department.  It  was  this  number  which  the  government  intended 
for  the  invasion  of  Canada.  It  was  much  easier  to  find  men  than 
equipments  and  supplies  ;  and  then  some  little  time  was  required 
to  accustom  them  to  discipline  and  put  them  in  condition  to  war 
rant  their  commander  to  lead  them  against  the  veteran  troops, 
supposed  to  be  under  Proctor. 

With  the  coming  in  of  the  month  of  September,  however,  Gen 
eral  Harrison  considered  himself  ready  to  act  on  the  offensive,  and 
it  would  be  invidious  not  to  add,  that  his  entire  command  was 
anxious  to  be  on  the  move,  and  to  see  the  enemy.  Commodore 
Perry  moved  from  Erie,  and  stood  towards  the  head  of  the  lake, 
with  a  well  manned  fleet.  He  found  the  British  fleet  under  Com 
modore  Barclay,  a  veteran  officer,  on  the  tenth  of  the  month,  and 
ere  the  sun,  on  that  ever  to  be  remembered  day,  went  down 
in  the  west,  he  despatched  to  General  Harrison  the  important 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  73 

intelligence,  immortalized  on  the  pages  of  American  history,  "  We 
have  met  the  enemy,  and  they  are  ours." 

This  anxiously  looked  for  success  opened  a  passage  to  the  Ter 
ritory,  which  had  been  so  basely  surrendered  by  Hull,  and  Gen 
eral  Harrison  lost  no  time  in  transferring  the  war  thither.  He 
had  already,  a  few  days  previous,  broke  up  his  camp  at  Seneca- 
town,  and  most  of  his  forces  had  reached  Sandusky.  On  the 
twentieth  of  September,  his  army,  consisting  of  two  thousand 
regulars  and  three  thousand  militia,  embarked  upon  Lake  Erie, 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Sandusky  river.  It  reached  the  Canada 
shore  on  the  twenty-seventh,  and  the  superintendence  of  the 
debarkation  was  committed  to  General  Cass.  lie  formed  the 
troops  into  lines,  and  arranged  their  march.  The  troops  were 
landed  near  Maiden.  No  enemy  was  in  sight,  and  as  they 
marched  towards  the  town,  instead  of  meeting  an  armed  force  to 
arrest  their  progress,  to  their  surprise  the  maids  and  matrons,  in 
their  best  attire,  had  come  forth  to  solicit  their  protection.  The 
general  order  to  the  soldiers  was,  u  Kentuckians,  remember  the 
river  Eaisin  !  but,  remember  it  only  when  the  victory  is  suspended. 
The  revenge  of  a  soldier  can  not  be  gratified  upon  a  fallen  enemy." 
The  American  force  took  possession  of  the  town  without  harm  to 
its  inhabitants. 

General  Proctor,  in  command  of  the  British  army,  despite  the 
spirited  remonstrance  of  Tecumseh,  an  abler  man  than  himself, 
and  a  general  in  the  British  army,  had  burned  the  fort,  barracks, 
and  public  store-houses,  evacuated  Maiden,  and  retreated  up  the 
Detroit  river.  The  Americans,  on  the  twenty-ninth,  went  in  pur 
suit,  and  moving  up  to  Sandwich,  General  Harrison  crossed  over 
the  river,  entered  Detroit,  and  took  possession  of  the  town  and 
territory.  "Warmly  welcomed  by  the  citizens,  he  issued  his  pro 
clamation  reinstating  the  civil  government  which  had  been  inter 
cepted  by  Hull's  surrender.  The  officers  who  had  been  supplanted 
by  the  capitulation,  now  resumed  their  functions  ;  the  citizens 
were  restored  to  their  former  rights  and  privileges,  and  the  laws 
at  that  time  were  again  put  in  force.  And  thus,  after  the  lapse 
of  little  more  than  a  year,  did  General  Cass  have  the  pleasure  of 
again  seeing  the  standard  of  his  country  waving  over  the  disgraced 
fortress. 

A  council  of  war  was  held  at  Sandwich.  Proctor  had  retreated 
by  the  way  of  Lake  St.  Clair,  and  his  pursuit  was  the  question 


-  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

brought  before  the  council.  The  American  army  now  had  posses 
sion  of  Detroit,  and  commanded  the  river.  No  member  of  the 
council  doubted  the  propriety  of  following,  and  endeavoring  to 
destroy  the  retreating  army.  But,  unfortunately,  they  could  not 
put  the  forces  promptly  in  movement,  and  it  was  reduced  to  a 
question  of  time.  The  means  of  transportation  were  so  limited 
that  their  supplies  were  on  the  lowest  scale,  and  they  found  them 
selves  in  an  exhausted  country,  incapable  of  administering  to  their 
wants.  They  had  landed  upon  the  Canadian  shore  without  a 
horse  or  a  tent,  and  with  a  very  slender  stock  of  provisions. 
What  was  more  embarrassing,  the  baggage  and  even  blankets  of 
the  brigade  commanded  by  General  Cass,  were  necessarily,  for 
want  of  transports,  left  on  a  little  island  in  Lake  Erie,  called  the 
Middle  Sister,  and  officers  and  men,  without  distinction,  found 
themselves  in  the  beginning  of  October,  at  the  commencement  of 
active  operations  in  Upper  Canada,  without  any  other  protection 
from  the  weather,  during  the  night  or  day,  than  the  clothes  upon 
their  backs.  Under  these  circumstances,  they  were  unwillingly 
compelled  to  await  the  arrival  of  supplies,  as  well  as  horses,  and 
the  mounted  regiment  commanded  by  Colonel  Johnson,  which 
had  necessarily  taken  the  route  by  land  around  the  head  of  Lake 
Erie. 

This  delay  gave  the  British  General  the  fairest  opportunity  to 
escape,  and  if  he  had  not  been  utterly  incompetent  to  his  task,  he 
would  have  placed  himself  beyond  the  reach  of  the  American 
army.  He  was  several  days  in  advance,  and  was  marching 
through  a  friendly  country.  But  instead  of  divesting  himself  of 
his  superfluous  baggage,  and  leaving  his  invalids  and  non-com 
batants  to  our  mercy,  and  thus  gaining,  by  a  rapid  march,  the 
head  of  Lake  Ontario,  where  he  would  have  been  in  safety,  he 
moved  slowly,  encumbered  with  an  immense  train  of  baggage, 
public  and  private,  and  with  a  large  number  of  women  and  chil 
dren.  While  awaiting  at  Sandwich  the  arrival  of  supplies,  the 
probability  of  overtaking  the  retiring  enemy  was  frequently  the 
subject  of  conversation  ;  and  General  Cass  never  heard  General 
Harrison  express  an  opinion  or  fear  that  Proctor  would  escape. 
But  if  he  did  so  to  others,  this  circumstance  would  explain  the 
otherwise  inexplicable  assertion,  since  often  repeated,  that  he  was 
opposed  to  the  movement  he  adopted.  General  Cass  never  hesi 
tated  respecting  the  immediate  pursuit,  but  was  not  at  all  sanguine 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  75 

as  to  its  result.  He  believed  the  British  General  was  sufficiently 
master  of  his  art  to  elude  an  attack,  and  that  with  five  days'  ad 
vance,  and  after  destroying  and  abandoning  the  only  two  fortified 
positions  he  held  in  the  country,  he  would  not  suffer  himself  to  be 
overtaken  within  seventy  miles  of  his  point  of  departure,  and  stake 
his  existence  upon  the  chance  of  a  battle.  This  was  the  appre 
hension  of  others. 

On  the  thirtieth  of  September,  Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson 
arrived  with  his  mounted  regiment  of  Kentuckians,  and  with  this 
reinforcement,  General  Harrison  commenced  the  pursuit  of  Proc 
tor,  leaving  a  portion  of  General  Cass'  brigade,  wrho  had  not  yet 
received  their  baggage  and  blankets,  at  Sandwich. 

General  Proctor  had  retreated  by  the  river  Thames,  which  falls 
into  Lake  St.  Clair  above  Detroit,  and  along  which  was  the  prin 
cipal  communication  with  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario,  which  the 
British  sought  to  gain.  The  Americans  followed  them,  pursuing 
the  usual  route  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  to  a  considerable 
distance  from  its  mouth,  when,  reaching  a  deep  ford,  the  horsemen 
crossed  upon  their  horses,  and  the  infantry  in  canoes,  and  contin 
ued  their  pursuit  on  the  opposite  bank.  The  cultivated  country 
here  ceased,  and  they  entered  a  beech  forest,  having  the  river 
upon  their  right,  and  a  swramp  upon  their  left,  and  in  the  inter 
mediate  distance  a  road,  such  as  is  found  in  new  settlements,  and 
which  was  little  more  than  a  path,  with  some  of  the  larger  trees 
cut  down.  In  a  short  time  they  found  themselves  in  the  presence 
of  the  British  army. 

When  the  advanced  party  which  preceded  the  main  army  fell 
back,  and  reported  that  they  had  seen  the  enemy  drawn  up  across 
the  line  of  march,  General  Harrison  pushed  forward  to  reconnoi- 
ter  their  position  and  the  nature  of  the  ground,  in  order  to  adapt 
his  dispositions  to  these  circumstances.  Lie  had  often  inculcated 
upon  his  officers  as  a  cardinal  principle  in  Indian  warfare,  that  the 
flanks  should  be  so  secured  as  to  prevent  their  being  turned  by 
an  enemy,  who  become  so  terrible,  especially  to  raw  troops,  when 
they  can  assail  their  rear.  With  this  caution  in  view,  the  proper 
arrangement  of  his  force  was  soon  indicated  to  the  commanding 
general  by  a  rapid  survey  of  the  ground. 

At  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  a  small  portion  only  of  Gene 
ral  Cass'  command  was  present,  and  this  was  stationed  at  the 
right  of  the  American  line,  with  orders  to  charge  and  capture  the 


76  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

British  artillery,  which  was  opposed  to  its  position.  The  colo 
nel  of  the  regiment,  Paul,  an  able  officer,  being  present,  General 
Cass  left  to  him  the  immediate  direction  of  this  detachment,  and, 
in  company  with  Commodore  Perry,  performed  the  functions  of 
aid-de-carnp,  assisting  in  the  arrangement  of  the  troops  and  the 
measures  preparatory  to  the  attack.  He  was  without  a  definite 
command,  and  ready  to  act  as  the  exigency  of  the  moment  might 
demand.  The  disposition,  adopted  by  General  Proctor,  was  as 
simple  as  it  could  have  been  in  the  earliest  ages  of  the  art  of  war. 
His  regular  troops  were  drawn  up  in  two  lines  in  open  order,  their 
left  resting  upon  the  river,  and  their  right  extending  towards  the 
swamp.  From  this  point,  the  Indians  were  in  position,  stretch 
ing  into  the  woods  in  their  irregular  manner,  ready  to  seize  any 
circumstances  which  might  occur,  favorable  to  their  mode  of  war 
fare.  Near  the  road,  the  left  of  the  line  was  strengthened  by 
three  pieces  of  artillery. 

The  disposition  adopted  by  General  Harrison  was  instantly 
determined  upon.  He  placed  his  right  upon  the  river,  and,  ex 
tending  his  line  to  the  swamp,  he  there  formed  it,  as  it  is  techni 
cally  called,  en  potence-y  that  is,  he  turned  it-  at  right  angles,  and 
thus  presented  two  fronts  to  the  enemy.  The  field  of  battle 
offered  no  peculiar  advantage  to  the  British,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
account  for  the  selection  of  that  particular  spot.  There  is  but 
little  change  in  the  character  of  the  country  for  some  miles,  and 
its  features  are  distinctly  marked.  It  is  possible,  that  this  is  the 
point  where  the  swamp  and  the  river  approach  each  other  the 
nearest,  leaving  the  narrowest  space  of  firm  ground  to  be  defended. 
But  why  the  British  General  stopped  at  all,  is  a  problem  still 
more  difficult  to  be  solved  ;  and  if  it  were  not,  as  report  said  at 
the  time,  that  he  was  compelled  to  take  this  step  by  the  menaces 
of  Tecumseh,  his  conduct  may  be  cited  as  an  example  of  military 
infatuation  rarely  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  war. 

With  reference  to  this  battle  and  the  scenes  through  which  he 
passed,  General  Cass  states:  "Our  troops  were  all  new,  sent 
from  their  homes  by  that  ardent  patriotism  which,  in  seasons  of 
trial,  makes  part  of  our  national  character,  and  much  time  was 
necessary  to  place  them  in  their  proper  positions.  While  this 
operation  was  in  progress,  Major  Wood,  an  officer  of  the  greatest 
merit  and  promise,  too  early  lost  to  his  country,  had  advanced 
near  the  enemy's  lines,  and  ascertained  their  exact  position.  He 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  77 

came  up  to  me  and  told  me  what  he  had  done,  and  invited  me  to 
accompany  him  in  another  reconnoissance.  I  immediately  dis 
mounted  from  my  horse  and  followed  him.  The  ground  was  cov 
ered  with  beech  woods,  and  every  western  man  knows  that  the 
under-brush  is  never  very  thick  where  this  timber  abounds.  While, 
therefore,  we  were  enabled,  in  some  measure,  to  secure  ourselves, 
by  going  from  tree  to  tree,  we  were  also  enabled  to  extend  our 
observations  to  a  considerable  distance.  In  this  manner,  we  passed 
along  the  front  of  the  British  line,  almost  from  its  extreme  left  to 
its  right — the  point  of  junction  with  the  Indians — and  ascertained 
its  position,  and  saw  that  it  was  unprotected  by  a  single  field- 
work,  not  even  a  tree  having  been  felled  to  impede  the  advance 
of  our  troops.  Major  Wood  proceeded  to  report  the  result  to 
General  Harrison,  while  I  returned  and  resumed  the  duty  I  was 
engaged  in,  of  aiding  in  the  formation  of  our  line  of  battle.  I  do 
not  recollect  that  I  ever  conversed  with  General  Harrison  upon 
this  branch  of  the  subject,  but  I  have  always  supposed  that  the 
precise  information,  communicated  to  him  by  Major  Wood,  in 
duced  the  change  which  he  made  in  the  attack.  Until  he  knew 
the  loose  order  of  the  British  formation,  and  the  strange  neglect 
of  their  General  to  make  use  of  the  efficient  means  within  his  reach 
of  impeding  our  approach,  and,  particularly,  the  advance  of  our 
mounted  force,  he  had  intended  to  attack  the  British  troops  by  his 
line  of  infantry,  and  to  throw  his  horsemen  further  into  the  woods, 
with  orders  to  turn  the  flank  of  the  Indians.  This,  however,  is 
but  my  impression.  What  I  know  I  will  briefly  state.  Shortly 
before  the  commencement  of  the  action,  General  Harrison  rode  up 
to  me  and  remarked  that  he  thought  of  changing  his  disposition 
for  the  attack,  and  of  ordering  the  mounted  regiment  of  Colonel 
Johnson  to  advance  upon  the  British  line,  and  to  endeavor  to  pass 
through  it.  I  observed  that  the  maneuver,  if  successful,  would 
be  decisive,  but  that  there  were  objections  to  it,  which  had,  no 
doubt,  occurred  to  him,  and  which  would  render  the  effort  a  haz 
ardous  one.  We  briefly  discussed  these,  and  he  terminated  by 
remarking  :  '  Colonel  Johnson  thinks  he  can  succeed,  and  I  believe 
he  will ;  I  shall  direct  him  to  make  the  attack.' 

''Having  communicated  his  final  orders,  General  Harrison 
placed  himself  in  front  of  the  line  of  infantry,  and  immediately 
in  the  rear  of  the  mounted  regiment.  It  was  his  proper  position, 
where  he  could  best  observe  and  direct  the  projected  operations. 


78  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson,  with  what  gallantry  it  needs  not 
that  I  should  say,  led  the  left  division  of  his  regiment,  which  was 
opposed  partly,  I  believe,  to  the  regular  troops  and  partly  to  the 
Indians,  and  which  was  out  of  the  sphere  of  my  personal  observa 
tion.  His  brother,  Colonel  James  Johnson,  led  the  right,  which 
was  destined  exclusively  to  attack  the  British  line,  and  all  his 
operations  passed  directly  before  and  around  me,  for  I  accompa 
nied,  as  a  spectator,  his  command  in  their  charge. 

"  Such  was  the  relative  position  of  the  hostile  forces  when  the 
signal  for  attack  was  given.  The  mounted  regiment,  placed  be 
tween  our  line  of  infantry  and  the  enemy,  put  itself  in  motion, 
breaking  into  columns  of  companies,  and  thus  advancing  upon  the 
British  regular  troops.  When  they  had  approached  sufficiently 
near,  they  received  a  fire,  which  occasioned  a  hesitation  and  some 
confusion  in  their  ranks,  but,  soon  recovering,  they  precipitated 
their  movements,  and,  encountering  a  second  and  a  third  dis 
charge  with  great  gallantry,  they  found  themselves  upon  the  enemy. 
But  then  the  contest  was  over.  We  passed  through  the  British 
line,  the  soldiers,  throwing  down  their  guns  and  separating  into 
small  groups,  thought  only  of  a  prompt  surrender.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  line  of  infantry  was  advancing,  but  it  had  little  more  to 
do  than  to  secure  the  prisoners,  except,  indeed,  towards  the  swamp, 
where  the  resistance  of  the  Indians  was  much  more  vigorous,  and 
where  the  contest  was  much  longer  maintained. 

"  During  the  rapidity  and  excitement  of  the  movement,  I  lost 
sight  of  the  commanding  general ;  but  he  passed  through  the 
British  line  and,  I  believe,  between  the  direction  which  I  took 
and  the  edge  of  the  swamp,  for  I  encountered  him  immediately 
after,  riding  over  the  field  and  giving  the  necessary  orders.  He 
directed  me  to  take  a  party  of  mounted  men  and  pursue  the  fugi 
tives,  and,  particularly,  to  endeavor  to  overtake  the  British  Gene 
ral,  who  was  said  to  have  commenced  his  flight  at  the  commence 
ment  of  the  action.  The  fact  is  scarcely  credible,  but  it  was  as 
serted  by  the  British  officers.  I  was  upon  the  point  of  obeying 
General  Harrison's  orders,  when  the  fire  augmented  upon  our  left, 
indicating  that  the  Indians  were  making  a  formidable  resistance. 
The  General  then  directed  me  to  wait  a  few  minutes  to  ascertain 
the  result  of  the  action,  and  immediately  rode  towards  the  point 
of  contest,  to  take  such  measures  as  might  be  necessary.  After  a 
short  time,  the  firing  diminished,  and  gradually  died  away,  till 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  YQ 

nothing  was  heard  but  chance  shots.  I  then  set  out  with  a  small 
detachment  in  pursuit  of  the  fugitives,  and  passed  through  the 
Moravian  towns,  continuing  my  route  till  dark,  when  we  were 
compelled  to  return,  not  having  succeeded  in  our  principal  object, 
and  having  picked  up  only  a  few  soldiers,  who  had  escaped  from 
the  field  of  battle." 

Such  was  the  battle  and  victory,  fought  and  obtained  on  the 
banks  of  the  Thames  river,  on  the  fifth  day  of  October,  1813.  It 
was  glorious  to  the  American  arms.  It  accomplished  the  great 
object  of  the  campaign.  It  dispersed  the  British  army.  It  drove 
the  flying  British  General  from  that  part  of  the  country,  and  with 
such  hot  haste,  that  he  left  his  baggage  and  private  papers  behind 
him,  exposing  the  plans  of  the  enemy.  Tecumseh — the  most 
subtle  and  active  of  all  the  northern  Indians  in  the  warfare — 
was  killed,  and  his  followers  were  dismayed  with  fear.  They 
were  ready  to  give  in  their  adhesion  to  the  cause  of  the  Ameri 
cans,  and  with  them  take  hold  of  the  tomahawk.  The  American 
loss  was  comparatively  trifling. 

It  inspired  the  awe-struck  inhabitants  of  the  north-west  with 
courage  and  hope.  It  removed  from  their  cabins  and  cottages, 
the  torch  and  scalping-knife  of  the  hostile  savages,  and  enabled 
them  to  lie  down  at  night  with  an  immeasurably  increased  sense 
of  security,  that  they  should  see  the  light  of  the  coming  day, 
unmolested  by  the  terrible  war-whoop.  In  fine,  the  people  flat 
tered  themselves  that  the  war  would  soon  be  brought  to  a  ter 
mination. 

Although  General  Cass  was  not  the  commanding  officer,  he 
rendered  valuable  aid  both  in  council  and  action.  He  was  as 
brave  a  man  as  ever  went  into  battle.  ~No  one,  who  served  with 
him,  could  mistake  this  point  in  his  character.  His  coolness  and 
self-possession  never  forsook  him  for  a  moment.  In  the  pursuit  of 
Proctor,  before  the  battle,  the  American  army  reached  one  of  the 
deep  tributary  streams  of  the  Thames,  and  found  that  the  bridge 
had  been  destroyed  by  the  enemy  to  impede  their  march,  and  a 
large  body  of  Indians  was  stationed  in  the  surrounding  woods  to 
prevent  the  army  from  repairing  it.  The  work  was  commenced 
and  finished  in  the  presence  of  General  Cass,  who  sat  calmly  upon 
his  horse,  overlooking  the  operations,  and  prominently  exposed  to 
the  bullets  of  the  Indians.  Appreciating  the  value  of  his  life,  one 
of  the  subordinate  staff  entreated  him  to  retire.  But  he  did  not 


80  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

listen  to  the  request.  The  army  was  new,  most  of  the  officers  and 
soldiers  had  been  suddenly  collected  from  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  he  considered  the  example  of  more  importance  than 
any  risk  he  may  have  felt  he  was  encountering. 

General  Harrison,  in  his  official  report  to  the  Secretary  of  "War, 
spoke  of  General  Cass  as  an  officer  of  the  highest  merit,  cheering 
and  animating  every  breast.  He  put  him  in  the  same  class  of 
merit  with  Perry ;  arid  none,  surely,  could  ever  be  higher.  And 
an  eye-witness,  writing  some  years  afterwards,  says,  "  I  well  recol 
lect  General  Cass,  of  the  north-western  army.  He  was  conspic 
uous  at  the  landing  of  the  troops  on  the  Canada  shore,  below 
Maiden,  on  the  27th  of  September,  and  conspicuous  at  the  battle 
of  the  Thames,  as  the  volunteer  aid  of  the  commanding  general. 
I  saw  him  in  the  midst  of  the  battle,  in  the  deep  woods,  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Thames,  during  the  roar  and  clangor  of  fire-arms  and 
savage  yells  of  the  enemy.  Then  I  was  a  green  youth  of  seven 
teen,  and  a  volunteer  from  Kentucky." 

General  Cass,  although  but  then  just  entering  upon  the  thirty- 
second  year  of  his  life,  and  bred  to  the  peaceful  profession  of  the 
law — having,  as  we  have  seen,  devoted  most  of  his  time  before 
the  war  to  books  and  the  cultivation  of  his  mind — evinced  all  the 
courage  and  steadiness  of  a  veteran.  His  sterling  patriotism, 
strong  intellect,  and  extended  popularity  as  a  civilian,  contributed 
to  give  him  prominence  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  and 
he  had  the  integrity  and  good  sense  not  to  abuse  the  confidence 
of  his  companions,  or  prove  recreant  in  his  duty  to  the  government. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  81 


CHAPTER  VI. 

General  Cass  in  Command  of  North-western  Frontier — Detroit  his  Head-quarters — Letter  from  Governor 
Meigs — Surprise  of  General  Ca,ss — Appointed  Governor  of  Territory  of  Michigan — Acceptance — Re 
signs  the  Office  of  Marshal— Summoned  to  Albany  as  a  Witness  on  Hull's  Trial — His  Journey — 
Cuts  open  the  Mail  Bags — Reports  the  Burning  of  Buffalo  from  Cold  Spring — Incident  at  the  Gene- 
see  River,  near  Rochester— Arrival  at  Albany — His  Testimony — The  Charges — Sentence  of  Court- 
martial— President's  Action  -An  Examination  of  the  Trial,  its  Proceedings,  and  Hull's  Defense — 
Ills  imbecility. 

The  signal  success  of  the  American  arras,  so  gloriously  achieved 
on  the  Thames,  restored  to  the  United  States  all  the  posts  which 
had  been  surrendered  by  General  Hull.  Six  hundred  British 
surrendered  as  prisoners  of  war.  The  slaughter  among  the  Indians 
was  great.  A  number  of  field-pieces,  and  several  thousand  stand  of 
small  arms  were  among  the  trophies,  and  all  the  standards  except 
one,  acquired  by  the  enemy  during  the  previous  campaign,  were 
recaptured. 

General  Harrison  having  now  accomplished  the  object  of  the 
expedition,  and  being  without  orders  from  the  War  Department 
for  his  subsequent  operations,  left  General  Cass,  with  a  part  of  his 
troops,  in  command  of  the  north-western  frontier,  including  the 
subjugated  western  district  of  Upper  Canada,  and  proceeded  down 
Lake  Erie,  to  operate  against  the  enemy  on  the  Niagara  frontier. 
General  Cass  fixed  his  head-quarters  at  Detroit.  Here  he  remained 
employed  in  the  arduous  and  responsible  duties  of  such  an  exten 
sive  command,  in  a  country  surrounded  by  Indians  and  desti 
tute  of  resources,  with  the  whole  hostile  population  of  that  portion 
of  the  British  province  to  hold  in  submission.  The  destitution  of 
the  country  was  such  that  pen  can  hardly  describe  it,  but  it  may, 
in  some  measure,  be  comprehended  by  the  fact  that  even  some 
of  the  troops  were  compelled,  at  one  time,  to  resort  to  the  precari 
ous  resource  of  fishing,  as  a  means  of  subsistence. 

While  thus  employed,  one  day  in  the  month  of  October,  1813. 
sitting  in  his  office  opening  and  reading  his  mail,  which  had  just 
arrived,  and  which  came  at  such  long  intervals  that  its  arrival  was 
regarded  as  an  important  event,  General  Cass  opened  a  letter 
from  Governor  Meigs,  then  in  Washington,  congratulating  him 


,82  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

upon  his  new  appointment,  without  mentioning  what  it  was.  He 
completed  the  reading  of  his  mail  without  being  further  enlight 
ened  upon  this  point.  Naturally  anxious  to  know  to  what  honor 
able  position  his  government  had  assigned  him,  he  awaited  further 
information  with  a  considerable  degree  of  solicitude.  But  the  post 
was  so  irregular  in  those  times,  that  some  two  long  weeks  elapsed 
before  its  next  arrival.  When  it  came,  as  it  finally  did,  however, 
it  contained  the  unsolicited  appointment  of  Governor  of  the  Terri 
tory  of  Michigan.  Gratified  witli  this  high  mark  of  confidence 
in  his  capacity  and  integrity,  and  especially  with  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  conferred  by  the  government,  General  Cass  accepted 
it.  But  he  did  so  with  much  reluctance.  He  had  settled,  as  he 
supposed,  permanently  in  Ohio,  a  rapidly  growing  state,  standing 
in  the  front  rank  of  his  profession,  at  variance  with  no  person  in 
private  intercourse,  and  his  family  contented  with  their  happy 
home.  He  had  left  it  to  give  his  country  the  benefit  of  his  services 
in  the  hour  of  need,  expecting  at  the  end  of  the  war  to  return  to 
the  pursuits  of  peace  in  the  valley  of  the  Muskingum.  Thu  idea 
that  he  should  be  killed,  at  no  time  occurred  to  his  mind,  and  as 
to  being  taken  and  held  as  a  prisoner  or  hostage,  that  thought  was 
wholly  inadmissible.  He  was  averse,  therefore,  to  remaining  at 
Detroit,  and  making  that  his  family  abode.  'Nor  did  he  decide 
to  do  so  for  some  time  afterwards.  His  soldierly  frankness,  his 
bravery  arid  promptitude  in  the  dark  hour  of  emergency,  and  his 
courtesy  and  pleasing  manners,  had  won  the  attachment  and 
respect  of  all  who  became  acquainted  with  him.  And  surrounded, 
as  the  people  of  the  Territory  were,  by  merciless  savages,  whose 
undeviating  friendship  could  not  be  relied  upon,  however  fair  the 
promise,  located  on  a  distant  frontier,  and  in  constant  fear  of  an 
attack  from  the  inhuman  marauders,  they  felt  that  General  Cass, 
of  all  others,  was  just  the  man  to  be  at  the  helm  of  state,  and 
direct  its  course.  Laying  aside  his  own  personal  predilections, 
and  over-ruling  the  wishes  of  his  family,  he  yielded  to  the  persua 
sions  of  his  friends  in  Michigan,  and  entered  upon  his  new  duties. 
The  civil  organization  of  the  Territory,  and  its  military  defense, 
devolved  upon  him. 

These  multiplied  duties  he  continued  to  exercise  until  ordered 
by  the  government,  in  December,  to  repair  to  Albany,  in  the  State 
of  New  York,  to  attend,  as  a  witness,  the  trial  of  General  Hull, 
before  a  court-martial. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  83 

In  the  meantime,  now  no  longer  intending  to  make  Ohio  his 
residence,  he  resigned  the  office  of  marshal  of  that  State,  which 
had  been  bestowed  on  him  in  1807,  by  President  Jefferson. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  days,  General  Cass,  in  company  with 
others  ordered  on  the  same  duty,  started  from  Detroit  to  proceed 
to  Albany.  The  journey  was  long  and  tedious,  and  performed  on 
horseback,  each  person  carrying  his  own  provisions,  until  they 
reached  Cleveland.  At  Brownstown,  they  met  the  post,  and 
General  Cass,  for  the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life,  cut  the  mail 
bags  and  examined  the  contents,  so  far  as  to  learn  whether  there 
were  any  despatches  for  himself.  The  road,  from  that  point  to  the 
river  Raisin,  a  mere  Indian  path,  was,  for  one  third  of  the  dis 
tance,  a  continuous  swamp.  Slightly  frozen,  horse  and  rider  would 
frequently  become  mired,  and  both  wet  and  chilled  with  the  water 
and  wintry  cold  of  that  northern  latitude.  On  the  third  day,  at 
evening,  they  were  so  fortunate  as  to  reach  Fort  Meigs,  and  the 
condition  of  the  country  through  which  they  were  traveling  was 
such  that,  on  proceeding  forward  from  thence,  they  would  only 
make  ten  or  a  dozen  miles  distance  between  sun  and  sun,  for  seve 
ral  days.  Sometimes,  at  night,  they  could  not  find  a  spot  of  dry 
ground  large  enough  to  accommodate  their  encampment.  Each 
would  be  compelled  to  seek  out  a  place  for  himself;  and  General 
Cass  having  become  pretty  well  accustomed  to  the  hap-hazard  life 
of  the  frontier,  and  its  exhaustless  expedients  to  hold  body  and 
soul  together,  under  such  circumstances,  would  spread  his  saddle 
blanket  at  the  root  of  some  tree,  where  the  prospect  was  the  most 
promising,  and  take  up  his  lodgings  for  the  night.  As  to  kind 
ling  a  fire,  that,  on  several  occasions,  was  impossible.  The  only 
comfortable  night's  rest  they  had  before  they  reached  Cleveland, 
was  under  the  roof  of  an  humble  log  dwelling,  at  San  dusky  Bay. 
At  Cleveland,  the  party  were  so  fortunate  as  to  procure  a  sleigh 
and  driver,  and  hastened  on  with  more  rapid  pace  and  accom 
modations  to  Erie,  far-famed  as  the  port  from  whence  Perry  em 
barked  his  gallant  fleet  to  meet  Barclay.  Proceeding  on  their 
journey  along  the  southern  coast  of  Lake  Erie,  they  arrived  in 
Buffalo,  and  found  it  in  ruins,  the  next  day  after  the  British  incen 
diaries  had  applied  the  torch  to  the  wooden  buildings  which  com 
posed  the  village.  Only  one  tenement  had  been  spared  by  the 
vindictive  and  relentless  foe.  General  Cass  and  his  party  halted 
at  Cold  Spring,  some  three  miles  easterly  from  the  conflagration, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  there  found  many  of  the  citizens  of  Buffalo,  with  their  fami 
lies,  suddenly  driven  from  their  homes  in  the  dead  of  winter,  and 
destitute,  in  many  instances,  of  provisions  and  ordinary  wearing 
apparel.  By  special  request,  he  cheerfully  communicated  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  the  condition  of  the  town  and  vicinity.  It  was 
a  scene  of  destruction  and  distress,  he  said,  such  as  he  never  before 
witnessed.  After  passing  a  day  amid  this  scene  of  distress  and 
desolation,  General  Cass  resumed  his  journey.  He  traveled  by 
the  way  of  Batavia  and  Canandaigua.  Years  afterwards,  he 
crossed  the  Genesee  river  at  llochester,  the  bridge  constructed 
over  this  stream  of  water  at  Carthage  having  fallen  a  few  days 
before.  What  was  more  remarkable  and  equally  fortunate  to  its 
builder,  was  that  he  warranted  the  bridge  to  stand  for  one  year, 
as  it  was  said,  and  that  year  had  expired  a  day  or  two  before  it 
fell.  Passing  on,  the  party  proceeded  over  Seneca  lake  and 
Onondaga  hill  to  Utica,  and  thence  to  Albany,  which  place  they 
reached  soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  court-martial.  Gen 
eral  Cass  was  examined  as  a  witness. 

The  court  convened  January  3d,  1814,  with  a  full  board,  and 
General  Dearborn  was  the  president.  ~No  objection  was  taken  to 
the  constitution  of  this  court,  by  the  accused.  All  were  officers  in 
the  regular  service,  attached  to  their  country,  and,  to  this  day,  no 
evidence  has  appeared,  neither  has  it  been  intimated  publicly,  in 
any  quarter,  that  any  of  them,  save  the  presiding  officer,  could 
have  had  any  motive  to  judge  General  Hull  harshly,  or  be  betrayed 
into  passion  from  their  relations  with  the  war.  It  has  been  al- 
ledged  that  some  of  them  were  violent  partizans  of  the  national 
administration,  and  that  this  constituted  their  only  qualification 
to  sit  as  members ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  has  been  admitted 
that  others  of  the  members,  particularly  General  Bloomfiekl,  of 
revolutionary  memory,  and  Colonel  Fenwick  and  Colonel  House, 
were  competent  members,  both  on  the  score  of  competency  and 
impartiality.  But,  whether  any  of  the  judges  entertained  politi 
cal  views  in  harmony  with  those  of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  and 
felt  it  to  be  the  duty  of  every  citizen  of  the  republic,  whether  in 
or  out  of  commission,  to  do  his  duty  and  whole  duty  to  the  coun 
try,  at  that  critical  period  of  its  existence,  it  does  not  appear  from 
the  public  records;  nor  has  it  been  intimated  publicly,  in  any 
quarter,  that  the  court  divided  on  any  subject  that  came  before  it. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  well  conceded  fact,  insomuch  that  it  is 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  85 

now  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  time,  that  a  cordial  unanimity  of 
sentiment  existed. 

The  session  of  the  court  was  protracted,  and  every  facility  af 
forded  to  the  accused  to  present  his  defense.  The  judge  advo 
cate,  Mr.  Van  Buren,  laying  aside  all  partizanship  or  prejudice, 
and  conducting  the  examination  of  the  witnesses  with  the  single 
purpose  of  eliciting  the  truth,  took  no  objections  that  had  the  most 
remote  appearance  of  captiousness,  but.  possessing  himself  of  his 
wonted  coolness  and  patience,  equally  with  the  court,  acceded  to 
all  the  reasonable  requests  of  the  accused. 

The  charges  were  three  in  number — treason,  cowardice,  and 
neglect  of  duty.  The  first,  a  crime  of  the  highest  moral  turpitude 
known  to  the  laws  of  man  ;  the  second,  the  basest;  and  the  third, 
deeply  involving  military  character,  but  the  degree  of  turpitude 
to  be  measured  accordingly,  as  it  may  have  emanated  either  from 
carelessness,  accident,  or  design. 

The  specifications,  under  the  charge  of  treason,  were : 

First. — Hiring  the  vessel  to  transport  his  sick  men  and  baggage 
from  the  Miami  to  Detroit. 

Second. — !N"ot  attacking  the  enemy's  fort  at  Maiden,  and  retreat 
ing  to  Detroit. 

Third. — Xot  strengthening  the  fort  of  Detroit,  and  surrendering. 

The  specifications,  under  the  charge  of  cowardice,  were  : 

First. — Not  attacking  Maiden,  and  retreating  to  Detroit. 

Second. — Appearances  of  alarm  during  the  cannonade. 

Third. — Appearances  of  alarm  on  the  day  of  the  surrender. 

Fourth. — Surrendering  Detroit. 

The  specifications,  under  the  charge  of  neglect  of  duty,  were 
much  the  same  as  the  others. 

The  court  acquitted  the  accused  of  the  high  crime  of  treason, 
because  it  was  perfectly  apparent,  undoubtedly,  to  the  court: 

First. — That  General  Hull  hired  the  vessel  to  transport  his  sick 
and  baggage  from  Miami  to  Detroit,  before  he  was  aware  that  war 
was  declared,  and  it  was  the  dictate  of  humanity  to  relieve  the 
inmates  of  his  hospital  from  the  fatigue  and  inclemency  of  a  far 
ther  march  through  the  bogs  and  swamps  of  a  trackless  wilderness. 

Second. — That,  by  not  attacking  the  fort  at  Maiden,  and  retreat 
ing  to  Detroit,  it  did  not  follow,  as  an  inevitable  sequence,  that 
the  accused  then  intended  to  betray  his  government  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy. 


86  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Third. — That  not  strengthening  the  fort  at  Detroit,  and  finally- 
surrendering,  did  not  appear,  from  the  testimony,  to  have  pro 
ceeded  from  any  previous  settled  design,  but  was  to  be  attributed 
to  other  causes. 

As  to  the  other  charges,  the  court,  upon  mature  deliberation, 
arrived  at  different  conclusions,  found  the  accused  guilty,  and 
sentenced  him  to  be  shot,  but,  by  reason  of  his  services  in  the  War 
of  the  Revolution,  and  his  advanced  age,  earnestly  recommended 
him  to  the  mercy  of  the  President. 

The  President,  entertaining  not  the  slightest  feeling  of  hostility 
or  unkindness  towards  General  Hull,  approved  of  the  finding  of 
the  court,  but,  remitting  the  execution  of  the  sentence,  dismissed 
him  from  the  service.  If  he  had  been  guilty  of  treason,  and  so 
declared  by  the  court,  his  revolutionary  services,  even,  could  not 
have  availed  to  shield  him  from  the  execution  of  the  sentence,  for 
Washington,  in  the  case  of  General  Arnold,  in  the  previous  war, 
overlooking  his  valuable  patriotic  services,  in  raising  armies  and 
leading  them  to  duty,  amid  the  roar  and  carnage  of  battle,  had 
established  a  far  different  precedent  for  his  successors  to  follow. 

The  testimony  before  the  court  forces  the  irresistible  conclusion 
upon  the  mind  of  the  reader,  that  its  finding  resulted  from  a  sense 
of  duty  to  their  country.  It  is  uncharitable  to  suppose  that  the 
members  were  mere  automatons,  set  up  in  Albany,  to  be  moved 
by  a  secret  cord  in  the  hands  of  some  master  spirit  at  Washington 
or  elsewhere.  The  current  history  of  that  day  precludes  the  sup 
position  that  the  administration  was  tottering  on  the  brink  of  dis 
grace  and  ruin,  and  destined  to  fall  into  the  bottomless,  abyss  unless 
it  was  so  fortunate  as  to  find  a  scapegoat  for  its  unpardonable 
iniquities.  The  disasters  of  1812  had  been  triumphantly  and  glo 
riously  repaired  by  the  victories,  brilliant  and  decisive,  of  1813. 
If  the  shoulders  of  the  administration  had  been  compelled  to 
sustain  alone  the  public  indignation  of  the  former,  without  sharing 
it  with  Congress,  and  staggered  beneath  the  crushing  weight,  most 
certainly,  before  this  court  convened,  the  clouds  had  cleared  away 
from  the  horizon,  and  the  plaudits  of  approbation  now  sounded  in 
spirit-stirring  peals  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and  were  echoed  back 
from  the  remotest  verge  of  civilization  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 
There  was  no  occasion,  therefore,  for  Mr.  Madison  to  feel  particu 
larly  uneasy,  or  to  consider  the  necessities  of  state  so  urgent  as  to 
require  the  sacrifice  of  any  officer,  either  civil  or  military,  on  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  87 

score  of  political  expediency,  or  for  the  gratification  of  animosity. 
General  Cass  was  one  of  the  witnesses,  as  has  already  been 
premised,  and  his  testimony,  in  conjunction  with  that  of  other 
witnesses,  was  important,  or  he  would  not  have  been  summoned, 
at  so  long  a  distance  from  Albany,  to  attend  the  sitting  of  the 
court.  To  the  judge  advocate  was  committed  his  examination, 
and  he  answered  all  the  interrogatories  propounded,  both  by  the 
government  and  the  accused.  No  exceptions  were  taken  at  the 
time  to  the  form  of  either  question  or  answer.  His  opinions,  on 
some  points,  were  also  asked  and  frankly  given ;  and  if  these 
opinions,  coining  from  so  distinguished  a  source,  (for  the  fame  of 
his  hiiili  position  in  the  western  country  had  preceded  him,)  had 
undue  or  controlling  influence,  it  is  difficult  to  perceive  why  he  is 
worthy  of  censure  for  that.  His  duty  was  to  tell  the  truth,  and 
this  duty  he  fearlessly  discharged.  The  report,  under  date  of 
September  10th,  1812,  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  which  he  had  the 
honor  to  make,  and  already  given  in  these  pages  at  length,  with 
the  reasons  why  it  was  made,  was  read  to  the  court.  This  was 
highly  proper,  because  it  wras  a  part  of  the  public  archives  of  the 
government,  and,  although  assailed  in  almost  every  conceivable 
form,  it  had  stood  the  test  of  the  most  malignant  and  uncalled  for 
scrutiny,  and  still  remained  in  the  public  estimation  as  the  faith 
ful  record  of  the  events  to  which  it  alluded.  That  part  of  it  which 
referred  to  the  quantity  of  provisions  on  hand  at  the  time  of  the 
surrender  of  the  fort  of  Detroit,  was  the  most  offensive  to  General 
Hull  and  the  enemies  of  the  war.  For,  if  it  wras  true,  or  had  any 
approach  to  the  truth,  it  seemed  to  be  a  self-evident  proposition, 
that  the  duty  of  the  accused  lay  only  in  one  direction,  and  that 
was  to  fight,  and  endeavor  to  hold  out  until  the  three  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  under  Colonels  Cass  and  McArthur,  were  heard 
from.  And,  in  this  connection,  it  may  be  asked  with  propriety, 
why  the  duty  of  the  commanding  officer  was  not  the  same,  even 
if  the  last  ration  had  been  issued,  when  the  enemy  opened  the 
bombardment,  on  the  evening  of  the  fifteenth  of  August  ?  Had 
famine  already  'commenced  in  the  garrison,  and  were  the  citizens 
of  Detroit  destitute  of  provisions  ?  Fool-hardy  would  be  the  per 
son  who  should  persist  in  giving  these  practical  questions  an  affir 
mative  answer.  It  has  never  been  pretended,  by  any  one  who 
then  resided  at  Detroit,  or  had  any  information  on  the  subject, 
but  that  there  were  provisions  enough  on  hand,  in  that  town,  to 


88  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

sustain  every  soul  in  it,  including  the  soldiers,  for  a  month,  at 
least.  And  the  amount  of  supplies  at  the  river  Raisin,  or  on  the 
way  thither  to  Detroit,  was  well  known  to  all.  But,  as  if  to  coin- 
promise  the  candor  of  General  Cass,  two  letters,  written  by  him 
on  the  subject  of  supplies,  are  canvassed  ;  one  to  Governor  Meigs, 
under  date  of  August  twelfth,  four  days  before  the  surrender,  in 
which  he  says :  "  The  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  War  to  you,  a 
copy  of  which  I  have  seen,  authorizes  you  to  preserve  and  keep 
open  the  communication  from  the  State  of  Ohio  to  Detroit.  It  is 
all  important  that  it  should  be  kept  open.  Our  very  existence 
depends  upon  it.  Our  supplies  must  come  from  our  State ;  this 
country  does  not  furnish  them.  In  this  existing  state,  nothing  but 
a  large  force,  of  two  thousand  men,  at  least,  will  effect  the  object;" 
and  another  letter  of  the  same  date,  to  his  brother-in-law,  Willis 
Silliman,  saying :  "  Our  situation  is  become  critical.  If  things 
get  worse,  you  will  have  a  letter  from  me,  giving  a  particular 
statement  of  this  business.  Bad  as  you  may  think  of  our  situa 
tion,  it  is  still  worse  than  you  believe.  I  can  not  descend  into 
particulars,  lest  this  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy." 

These  letters  were  brought  forward  to  raise  the  presumption 
that  General  Cass  was  uncandid  in  reporting  to  the  government, 
after  the  surrender,  that  there  were  fifteen  days'  provisions  on 
hand  at  the  time  of  the  surrender,  and  that  he  believed  Michigan, 

'  to  7 

in  case  of  an  extreme  emergency,  might  furnish  three  months' 
provisions.  And  for  whom,  or  by  whom,  does  the  reader  suppose 
General  Cass  intended  the  provisions  to  be  supplied  and  used  ? 
The  army  then  in  garrison  at  Detroit ;  and  not,  in  addition,  the 
voyageurs  from  the  north,  and  the  two  thousand  increased  force 
from  Ohio.  The  letters  were  written  under  the  eye  and  direction 
of  General  Hull.  He  wished  to  retreat  to  the  Miami.  His  three 
militia  Colonels,  Cass,  McArthur,  and  Findlay,  would  not  consent, 
and  determined  that  they  would  take  the  responsibility  of  depriv 
ing  him  of  his  command,  if  he  attempted  to  do  so,  regardless  of 
the  personal  consequences  to  themselves.  Lieutenant  Colonel  Mil 
ler  coincided.  General  Hull  reluctantly  and  despondingly  vielded 
to  their  views.  The  words  in  Cass'  letter  to  his  brother-in-law,  above 
italicized,  had  reference  to  the  imbecility  and  vacillation  of  his  com 
manding  officer,  and  were  so  guardedly  written,  and  for  the  same 
reason,  as  the  blank  letter  sent  about  the  same  time  to  Governor 
Meigs,  and  referred  to  in  his  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  89 

General  Hull  called  upon  the  Governors  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky 
for  reinforcements.  How  well  and  promptly  the  call  was  an 
swered,  appears  from  the  fact,  that  in  the  course  of  a  month,  Ken 
tucky  had  on  foot  seven  thousand  volunteers,  and  Ohio  nearlv 
half  that  number,  and  were  on  their  march  for  Detroit  when  the 
news  of  the  surrender  first  reached  them.  This  call  for  reinforce 
ment  was  made  with  the  advice  and  approbation  of  General  Cass, 
and  as  General  Hull  had  yielded  to  the  proposition  to  remain  at 
Detroit  until  the  reinforcements  arrived,  and  defend  himself  if 
attacked  by  the  enemy,  General  Cass  felt  a  still  greater  degree  of 
solicitude  that  supplies  for  this  augmented  force  should  be  abun 
dantly  furnished.  And  that  it  was  expected  that  Ohio  and  Ken 
tucky  should,  in  a  great  measure,  furnish  these  supplies,  was 
known  to  all.  His  report  and  testimony  had  reference  to  what 
supplies  were  actually  on  hand  at  the  time  of  the  surrender,  and 
how  long  the  garrison  was  provisioned,  especially  if  the  convov 
under  Captain  Brush  should  reach  its  destination  in  safety.  The 
question  was  not  where  these  provisions  originally  came  from,  or 
where  the  cattle  were  raised  and  the  flour  was  made. 

General  Cass  stated  in  his  examination  before  the  court,  that 
"  the  situation  of  the  army  in  respect  to  provisions,  was  a  subject 
of  frequent  conversation  between  General  Hull  and  the  officers— 
that  he  never  knew  or  understood  that  the  army  was  in  want,  or 
likely  to  want."  And  no  other  officer  has  stated  differently.  If 
the  subject  of  provisions  was  not  frequently  talked  about,  and  if 
the  army  was  in  want  or  likely  to  be,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
some  one  belonging  to  the  garrison  could  have  been  found  to  cor 
roborate  the  assertion.  The  officers  and  soldiers  on  duty  thought 

«/  <D 

more  of  meeting  the  enemy,  and  driving  him  from  the  country, 
than  they  did  of  hunger.  So  long  as  game  or  nuts  were  found  in 
the  woods — and  they  had  not  far  to  go  to  find  them — they  felt  no 
alarm  in  that  respect.  If  the  country  could  subsist  the  enemy, 
they  had  no  concern  but  what  it  would  also  subsist  them.  Besides, 
they  believed  if  they  could  once  get  a  fair  chance  at  the  British, 
they  would  not  remain  in  that  region  to  divide  these  supplies. 

General  Hull,  in  his  defense,  complained  of  the  dilatoriness  of 
General  Dearborn.  But  it  appeared  that  Dearborn  did  not  receive 
his  instructions  until  the  twenty -sixth  day  of  June,  at  Washington, 
and  that  his  first  business  was  to  make  the  necessary  arrange 
ments  for  the  defense  of  the  seaboard.  By  the  eighth  day  of 


90  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

August,  he  had  taken  effective  steps  towards  maintaining  an  army 
on  the  northern  frontier,  and  was  then  at  Greenbush,  opposite 
Albany.  He  received  from  Sir  George  Provost  a  letter,  enclosing, 
for  information,  the  tenor  of  the  despatches  by  him  received  from 
England,  referring  to  a  declaration  of  Ministers  in  Parliament, 
relative  to  a  proposed  repeal  of  "  the  orders  in  council,"  provided 
that  the  United  States  would  return  to  relations  of  amity,  and 
proposing  to  General  Dearborn  an  armistice,  as  a  preliminary  to 
negotiations  for  peace.  On  the  eighth  day  of  August,  he  signed 
the  armistice,  with  liberty  to  General  Hull  to  accede  to  it,  and 
immediately  apprised  General  Van  Kensselaer  at  Lewiston,  who 
received  it  on  the  seventeenth,  and  this  officer  communicated  the 
intelligence  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Myers,  at  Port  George,  and 
which  was  the  first  intimation  that  the  enemy  on  that  frontier  had 
of  it.  This  was  the  next  day  after  the  surrender  of  Detroit ;  so  that 
General  Brock,  on  the  sixteenth  of  August,  was  as  much  in  igno 
rance  of  this  important  event  as  General  Hull.  Indeed,  General 
Brock  has  stated  in  writing,  under  date  of  the  twenty-fifth  day  of 
August,  that  he  did  not  hear  that  a  cessation  of  hostilities  had 
been  agreed  upon,  until  his  return  from  Detroit  to  Port  Erie.  It 
is  quite  apparent  that  the  armistice  concluded  by  General  Dear 
born  with  Sir  George  Provost,  could  not  have  been  injurious  to 
General  Hull. 

As  to  the  absence  of  General  Dearborn  from  the  Niagara  fron 
tier,  it  would  seem  that  he  was  pushing  his  arrangements  as 
rapidly  as  the  means  at  command  would  admit  of,  and  enter 
tained  the  belief  that  General  Hull  was  fully  aware  it  was 
expected  by  the  War  Department,  that  he  would  act  offensively. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  not  easy  to  perceive  in  this  complaint, 
any  apology  for  the  surrender. 

In  recurring  to  the  testimony  introduced  before  the  court-mar 
tial,  some  of  the  witnesses  observed  that  General  Hull  appeared 
agitated  on  the  morning  of  the  sixteenth,  whilst  others  observed 
that  they  thought  he  appeared  cool  and  collected.  But  Eobert 
Wallace,  an  aid-de-camp  of  General  Hull,  in  a  letter  published  in 
the  Licking  Yalley  Register,  at  Covington,  Kentucky,  May  28th, 
1842,  says,  "  Until  the  morning  of  the  fatal  16th  of  August,  I  saw 
no  flinching  in  the  countenance  of  General  Hull.  I  had  been 
with  him  both  in  and  out  of  the  fort ;  his  only  apparent  concern 
was  to  save  our  ammunition,  for  our  long  twenty-four  pounders 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  91 

were  consuming  it  very  fast,  and  I  was  sent  repeatedly  to  the  bat 
teries  with  orders  to  fire  with  more  deliberation. 

"  About  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Captain  Hull  found  some 
straggling  soldiers  in  the  town.  lie  ordered  them  immediately 
to  their  post,  and  seeing  them  disposed  to  hesitate,  he  pursued 
them  on  horseback,  sword  in  hand,  to  their  regiment.  Their 
colonel  having  given  them  leave  of  absence,  was  exasperated, 
arid  made  his  way  to  the  General,  demanding  the  arrest  of  his 
son.  The  captain  soon  made  his  appearance,  and  challenged  the 
colonel  to  fight  him  on  the  spot.  This  circumstance  produced  the 
first  agitation  that  I  discovered  in  General  Hull,  lie  begged  me 
to  take  care  of  his  imprudent  son,  and  he  was  confined  to  a  room 
in  the  officers1  quarters. 

"  Soon  after,  a  more  serious  disaster  occurred,  which  increased 
the  General's  agitation.  A  number  of  ladies  and  children,  the 
families  of  officers  on  duty,  occupied  a  room  in  the  fort.  General 
Hull's  daughter  and  children  were  among  them.  A  ball  entered 
the  house,  killing  two  officers  who  had  gone  in  to  encourage  their 
families.  The  ladies  and  children,  many  of  them  senseless,  were 
hurried  across  the  parade  to  a  bomb-proof  vault,  which  had  been 
cleared  out  for  them.  The  General  saw  this  affair  at  a  distance, 
but  knew  not  whom  or  how  many  were  destroyed,  for  several  of 
the  ladies  were  bespattered  with  blood.  Other  incidents  followed. 
Several  men  were  cut  down  in  the  fort,  and  two  other  officers 
received  a  ball  through  the  gate.  At  this  time  the  general  was 
walking  back  and  forth  on  the  parade,  evidently  in  a  very  anxious 
state  of  mind.  Several  propositions  were  made  to  him,  all  of 
which,  I  believe,  he  rejected.  For  instance,  Brigade  Major  Jes- 
s up  proposed  to  cross  the  river,  and  spike  the  enemy's  guns.  I 
think  he  replied,  it  was  a  desperate  experiment,  and  that  as  the 
enemy  was  advancing,  he  could  not  spare  the  men  from  their 
posts.  Captain  Snelling  proposed  to  haul  down  one  of  our  heavy 
guns,  to  annoy  the  enemy,  then  three  miles  below  the  fort.  He 
replied  that  the  slender  bridge  below  the  town  would  not  support 
its  weight,  and  the  gun  would  surely  fall  into  their  hands,  and  be 
turned  against  us  ;  that  the  men  were  posted  to  the  best  advan 
tage,  and  he  did  not  wish,  to  move  them.  The  gun  alluded  to 
weighed,  with  its  carriage,  about  seven  thousand  pounds. 

'-General  Hull  was  then  at  least  sixty-five  years  of  age,  (fifty- 
nine?)  and  no  doubt  felt  incapable  of  the  bold  exertion  that  his 


02  LIFE  AXD  TIMES 

situation  required.  He  appeared  absorbed  in  anxious  thought, 
and  disposed  to  avoid  all  conversation.  My  duty  required  me  to 
remain  near  the  General,  but  seeing  that  he  appeared  to  have  no 
commands  for  me,  I  stepped  across  the  parade  to  assist  in  the 
amputation  of  an  officer's  limb.  Whilst  occupied  in  this  unpleas 
ant  task,  Captain  Burton,  of  the  4th  regiment,  passed  me  with  a 
table-cloth  suspended  to  a  pike.  I  inquired  what  that  was  for. 
He  hastily  replied,  c  It  is  the  General's  order,'  and  mounting  one 
of  the  bastions,  began  to  wave  it  in  the  air.  I  ran  immediately 
to  the  General,  and  inquired  the  meaning  of  the  white  flag.  'I 
ordered  it,  sir,'  was  the  reply,  and  facing  about,  he  continued  his 
walk.  The  firing  soon  ceased,  and  mounting  the  breast-work,  I 
saw  two  British  officers  with  an  American  officer,  all  on  horseback, 
approaching  the  gate.  Thinking  their  entrance  improper,  I 
informed  the  General,  and  he  directed  me  to  keep  them  out  of  the 
fort.  I  met  and  conducted  them  to  the  General's  marquee,  which 
was  still  in  the  open  camp.  General  Hull,  with  Colonel  Miller, 
of  the  U.  S.  Army,  and  Colonel  Brush,  of  the  Michigan  militia, 
made  their  appearance.  The  articles  of  stipulation  were  then 
drawn  up  and  signed  by  Miller  and  Brush  on  our  part,  and  by  the 
two  British  officers  on  theirs.  It  was  reported  to  General  Brock, 
who  shortly  entered  the  fort,  escorted  by  his  advanced  guard. 
Brock  was  shown  into  a  room  in  the  officers'  quarters,  where  Hull 
was  waiting,  and  after  settling  some  details,  the  capitulation  was 
ratified  by  their  signatures.  While  these  matters  were  progress 
ing,  Captain  Hull,  awaking  from  a  sound  sleep,  discovered  the 
British  grenadiers  in  the  fort.  Breaking  through  a  window,  he 
ran,  unarmed  and  without  a  hat,  to  the  commanding  officer,  and 
demanded  his  business  there  '  with  his  red-coat  rascals.'  The  offi 
cer  raised  his  sword  to  cut  him  down,  but  I  reached  them  in  time 
to  stay  the  blow,  by  informing  the  officer  that  the  gentleman  was 
partially  deranged.  He  instantly  dropped  his  arm,  and  thanked  me 
/or  the  timely  interference.  This  same  Captain  Hull  afterwards 
fought  a  duel  in  defense  of  his  father's  reputation,  and  was  at  last 
killed  at  the  head  of  his  company,  in  a  gallant  charge  at  the  bat 
tle  of  '  Lundy's  Lane.'  I  mention  these  particulars  in  connection 
with  a  remark  since  made  to  me  by  Commodore  Hull,  '  that  he 
knew  his  uncle  was  neither  traitor  nor  coward,  for  there  was  no 
such  blood  in  the  family.'  General  Hull,  discovering  that  the 
British  had  been  permitted  to  enter  the  fort  before  the  surrender 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  93 

was  completed,  remonstrated  with  General  Brock,  who  apologized 
for  the  indecorum,  and  ordered  his  troops  to  retire.  Our  troops 
were  then  marched  out,  in  gloomy  silence,  and  stacked  their  arms 
on  the  esplanade.  When  the  British  flag  was  raised,  the  Indians 
rushed  in  from  the  woods,  a  countless  number,  yelling,  firing, 
seizing  our  horses,  and  scampering  through  the  town  like  so 
many  fiends.  In  addition  to  Tecumseh's  band,  and  the  "Wyandots, 
they  had  gathered  in  from  all  the  regions  of  the  northern  lakes. 
The  British  regulars  and  Canadians  were  about  three  thousand 

O 

men  ;  but  the  number  of  Indians  could  not  have  been  known  by 
General  Brock  himself.  Our  effective  force  was  probably  fifteen 
hundred — about  four  hundred  regulars,  and  the  remainder  volun 
teers  and  drafted  militia.  Most  of  them  would  have  fought  with 
desperation,  for  there  was  no  possible  chance  of  escape. 

"We  had  every  reason  to  suppose  that,  the  detachment  under 
Cass  and  Me  Arthur  was  at  the  river  Raisin,  but  to  our  surprise 
and  mortification,  they  had  returned  of  their  own  accord,  having 
heard  the  cannonade  at  the  distance  of  forty  miles.  They  were 
close  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy  at  the  time  of  the  surrender,  but 
without  any  possible  means  of  communicating  their  position  to 
us.  This  detachment,  and  the  company  under  Captain  Brush, 
were  included  in  the  surrender,  for  their  preservation,  as  they 
might  have  been  surprised  and  cut  oft*  by  the  Indians,  of  which 
we  had  no  way  to  apprise  them.  As  it  happened,  two  or  three 
British  subjects,  who  had  gone  out  with  us,  unwilling  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  their  former  masters,  made  a  desperate  escape 
through  the  woods,  informed  Captain  Brush  of  our  disaster,  and 
his  party  made  a  rapid  retreat  to  the  settlements.  Cass  and  McAr- 
thur  were  soon  apprised  of  their  condition,  and  marched  to  De 
troit.  Our  meeting  with  them  was  truly  distressing.  Cheeks 
that  never  blanched  in  danger,  were  wet  with  tears  of  agony  and 
disappointment.  Yet  I  saw  no  ranting  or  raving,  such  as  I  have 
since  heard  described.  I  heard  but  one  officer  abuse  the  General 
indecorously,  and  he  had  been  extremely  quiet  and  useless  through 
out  the  campaign. 

"  A  circumstance  which  has  often  been  cited  as  a  proof  of  treach 
ery  on  the  part  of  General  Hull,  took  place  on  the  river  bank, 
just  before  the  surrender.  Lieutenant  Anderson,  of  the  IL  S.  Ar 
tillery,  had  drawn  his  guns  from  behind  our  lower  battery,  charged 
them  with  grape  shot,  and  pointed  them  down  the  road  on  which 


94:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  enemy  were  approaching.  When  the  first  platoon  of  their 
column  appeared,  his  men  were  eager  to  fire.  Anderson  forbid 
them,  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  to  touch  a  gun  without  his  orders, 
wishing  to  get  the  enemy  in  a  lair  raking  position  before  they 
should  discover  their  danger  ;  but  the  officer  at  the  head  of  the 
column  perceiving  the  snare,  gave  notice  to  General  Brock,  who 
immediately  changed  the  position  of  his  troops,  and  advanced 
under  cover  of  the  thick  orchards  which  stood  between  them  and 
the  fort.  Anderson  was  said  to  have  reserved  his  fire  by  the 
special  order  of  General  Hull,  which  I  know  to  be  false,  for  I  had 
just  delivered  a  different  order,  and  was  waiting  by  his  side  to  see 
the  effect  of  his  intended  explosion.  When  the  white  flag  was 
raised,  this  same  lieutenant  broke  his  sword  over  one  of  the  guns, 
and  burst  into  tears. 

"After  the  surrender,  General  Hull  retired  to  his  own  house, 
where  he  had  lived  while  Governor  of  Michigan.  It  was  occupied 
by  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Ilickman,  and  his  family.  One  of  General 
Brock's  aids  suggested  to  me  the  propriety  of  a  British  guard,  to 
protect  the  General's  house  from  the  Indians,  to  which  I  assented, 
without  consulting  General  Hull,  as  they  had  already  seized  our 
baggage  in  the  street.  This  British  guard  was  considered  another 
strong  ground  of  suspicion,  but  General  Hull  supposed  it  was  to 
prevent  his  escape. 

"  General  Brock  took  up  his  quarters  at  a  vacant  house  on  the 
main  street ;  Tecumseh  occupied  a  part  of  the  same  building,  to 
whom  I  had  the  honor  of  an  introduction.  He  was  a  tall,  straight, 
and  noble  looking  Indian,  dressed  in  a  suit  of  tanned  buckskin, 
with  a  morocco  sword-belt  round  his  waist.  On  being  announced 
to  him,  he  said  through  his  interpreter,  ;  Well,  you  are  a  prisoner, 
but  it  is  the  fortune  of  war,  and  you  are  in  very  good  hands.' 

"  General  Hull  was  a  man  of  tender  feelings  and  accomplished 
manners  ;  his  hair  was  white  with  age,  his  person  rather  corpu 
lent,  but  his  appearance  was  dignified  and  commanding. 

"  Hull  might  have  defended  the  fort  while  his  provisions  held  out, 
but  whether  the  inhabitants  of  Detroit  would  not  have  been  butch 
ered,  on  the  night  of  the  sixteenth,  is  a  question  I  can  not  answer. 
Perhaps  the  more  immediate  cause  of  the  surrender  was  the 
absence  of  Cass  and  McArthur.  He  had  the  utmost  confidence 
in  Colonel  McArthur  as  a  brave  executive  officer,  and  in  Colonel 
Cass  as  an  intelligent  and  able  adviser.  Had  they  been  present, 


OF  LEWIS  CA8S.  95 

with  their  men,  or  had  we  even  known  their  position,  there  would 
probably  have  been  no  surrender  at  that  time.'' 

]STow  that  all  excitement,  unfavorable  to  dispassionate  judgment, 
has  passed  away,  some  of  the  early  impressions,  which  attributed 
the  conduct  of  General  Hull  to  money,  the  price  of  treason,  have 
been  removed,  and  the  unfortunate  termination  of  his  campaign 
is,  by  general  consent,  attributed  to  cowardice  and  to  imbecility. 
He  was  utterly  unequal  to  his  command,  and  was  oppressed  by 
its  duties  and  responsibilities,  and,  at  the  last  moment,  was  the 
victim  of  personal  fear.  Feeble  efforts  have,  at  times,  been  made 
to  rescue  his  name  from  obloquy,  but  they  have  been  utter  fail 
ures.  A  military  court,  composed  of  officers  of  high  rank  and 
character,  after  an  impartial  and  laborious  investigation,  pro 
nounced  him  guilty  of  cowardice,  and  sentenced  him  to  be  shot. 
Mr.  Madison,  in  consideration  of  his  age  and  revolutionary  services, 
remitted  the  penalty  of  death,  but  struck  his  name  ignominiously 
from  the  roll  of  the  army,  which  he  had  dishonored. 

It  is  enough  to  know  that  he  surrendered  his  command  to  an 
attacking  force  of  about  one  third  his  own  strength.  An  Ameri 
can  needs  no  other  fact  to  guide  him  in  his  judgment  of  this  catas 
trophe.  General  Hull,  among  other  excuses,  alledges  the  want  of 
ammunition  and  provisions  as  motives  for  surrender.  Xot  that 
he  was  destitute;  that  he  did  not  alledge,  and  it  is  known  that  his 
supplies  of  both  were  adequate  to  his  circumstances,  but  that  he 
apprehended  these  essential  supplies  would  fail  before  the  final 
issue.  But  the  less  he  had  of  either,  the  stronger  was  the  reason 
why  his  course  should  have  been  prompt  and  energetic.  The 
worst  disaster  that  could  happen  to  him,  after  the  most  severe  loss, 
would  have  been  an  unconditional  surrender. 

General  Hull  was  instructed  by  the  War  Department  to  protect 
Detroit.  The  invasion  of  Canada  was  left  to  his  discretion.  In 
effect,  he  did  neither.  He  crossed  the  river  only  to  make  an  in 
glorious  retreat — disheartening  to  his  troops,  many  of  whom  were 
volunteers,  burning  with  patriotism.  When  followed  by  the  enemy 
and  summoned  to  surrender,  he  complied  with  the  request.  He 
held  out  just  long  enough  to  increase  the  pompous  vanity  of  the 
summoner,  and  provoke  the  resentment  of  his  command.  He 
commenced  the  retreat  from  the  bridge  of  the  Canards,  and  termi 
nated  it  on  the  esplanade  of  the  American  fortress.  Strange  infat 
uation  !  A  captain,  in  the  forlorn  hope  of  Wayne,  under  the  walls 


96  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  Stony  Point,  in  his  elevated  position  of  brigadier  general, 
capitulates,  without  the  crossing  of  a  single  bayonet,  or  the  firing 
of  a  single  shot !  But  yesterday,  as  it  were,  in  council  with  the 
government,  at  the  capital  of  his  country,  and  fully  aware  of  its 
plans  and  objects,  posts  away  to  his  army,  only  to  lead  it  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  !  Conduct  most  unaccountable !  Problem 
unsolvable  !  In  memory  of  other  prouder  days  and  gallant  deeds 
in  the  life  of  this  white-haired  veteran,  let  the  veil  of  oblivion,  in 
mercy,  be  drawn  over  his  campaign  of  1812,  and  ascribe  all  his 
errors,  for  the  sake  of  himself  and  country,  to  the  imbecility  of  age. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  97 


CHAPTEE  YIL 

General  Cass  returns  to  Detroit — Situation  of  the  Frontier — Resigns  the  Command  of  Brigadier  General 
— Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs — His  Policy — Appointed  Commissioner  to  treat  with  the  Indians 
— Holds  a  Treaty  at  Greenville — Surrounded  by  Five  Thousand  Indians — Th'eir  Threats — His  Intre 
pidity—The  Treaty — Sends  Reinforcements  to  General  Brown — The  Inroads  of  Hostile  Indians — 
He  Disperses  Them — His  Pet  Indians — Colonel  James— Correspondence— General  Cass'  Rejection 
of  British  Interference  in  the  Civil  Affairs  of  Michigan— Treaty  of  Peace— Removal  of  his  Family  to 
Detroit— British  Arrogance — Boarding  of  American  Vessels — General  Cass  Remonstrates— Its  Effect. 

Having  discharged  the  duty  which  called  him  to  Albany,  Gen 
eral  Cass  returned  to  Detroit.  There  were  too  many  duties  there 
to  perform  for  him  to  be  absent  from  his  post  any  longer  than 
absolute  necessity  required.  Although  the  British  garrisons  were 
then  broken  up,  and  Tecumseh  was  in  his  grave,  yet  the  reader 
must  not  imagine  that  "  order  reigned  in  Warsaw,"  or  that  the 
people  of  that  Territory  were  now  free  from  the  calamities  of  war. 
The  ill  temper,  and  hostile  propensities  of  the  Indians  to  plunder, 
rob,  and  murder,  were  yet  to  be  subdued.  The  upper  country 
was  not  free.  The  British  flag  waved  at  Mackinaw,  and  the  in 
termediate  country  was  filled  with  fur  traders,  who  believed  their 
interests  were  antagonistic  to  the  United  States.  American  citi 
zens,  who  had  fled  from  their  firesides  and  homes  during  the 
previous  eighteen  months,  were  now  returning  to  behold  the  devas 
tations  of  their  property,  without  business,  and  with  scanty  means 
of  support.  All  of  the  province  of  Canada  which  had  been  held 
in  submission  by  the  presence  of  the  British  soldiery,  was  now 
subject  to  the  order  of  the  Governor  of  Michigan,  and  to  him  was 
entrusted  the  enforcement  of  law  and  the  protection  of  their  rights 
in  common  with  citizens  on  the  west  side  of  the  river. 

General  Cass  fully  appreciated  the  responsibility  of  his  position, 
and,  with  the  wisdom  of  a  statesman,  set  himself  to  work.  How 
long  hostilities  would  continue,  or  how  they  would  end,  or  whether 
the  Canadas,  or  any  portion  thereof,  would  become  part  and  par 
cel  of  Michigan,  were  questions  not  easily  answered.  It  was 
sufficiently  obvious,  however,  to  his  active  and  cultivated  mind, 
that  the  end  of  the  war  would  find  the  Stars  and  Stripes  waving 
over  the  peninsula  of  Michigan,  at  least,  if  not  over  all  the  lands 


98  LIFE  AKD  TIMES 

west  to  the  Mississippi.  But  to  accomplish  this  it  was  necessary 
to  quell  public  fear  and  restore  public  confidence ;  to  induce  the 
citizens  to  feel  that  their  houses  were  safe  from  the  tomahawk  and 
knife  of  the  savage,  their  lives  free  of  jeopardy  from  the  assassin 
and  the  incendiary,  and  their  business  pursuits  protected  by  the 
sleepless  vigilance  of  the  law.  As  in  all  his  previous  undertak 
ings,  so  in  this,  he  calmly  surveyed  the  ground,  and  determined 
what  the  exigencies  of  the  times  required  him  to  do. 

Impressed  with  the  conviction  that  such  extensive  military  and 
civil  powers  should  not  be  vested  in  the  same  person,  General 
Cass  now  tendered  to  the  President  his  resignation  of  the  commis 
sion  of  brigadier  general  in  the  army.  This  was  accepted,  but 
the  acceptance  was  accompanied  with  the  express  requirement, 
by  the  President,  that  he  should  take  charge  of  the  defense  of  the 
Territory,  in  his  capacity  as  Governor. 

The  seat  of  the  war,  on  the  north-west  frontier,  was,  about  this 
period,  transferred  to  the  eastern  part  of  Upper  Canada,  and  the 
line  of  Niagara  river,  between  the  two  lakes,  Erie  and  Ontario, 
became  the  theater  of  operations.  General  Brown  took  the  com 
mand,  and  the  principal  portion  of  the  military  forces  at  or  near 
Detroit  were  ordered  to  march  thither.  Michigan  was  left  with 
only  one  company  of  regular  soldiers  for  her  defense,  consisting 
of  twenty-seven  men.  With  such  an  inadequate  force,  and  the 
local  militia,  General  Cass,  the  Governor,  was  left  to  defend  the 
Territory  against  the  hostile  Indians,  who  were  constantly  hovering 
around  Detroit. 

While  Detroit  was  in  this  defenseless  condition,  a  war  party  of 
Indians  issued  from  the  forest  which  skirted  the  town,  and  marked 
their  irruption  by  one  of  those  deeds  of  blood  which  have  made 
the  history  of  that  frontier  a  record  of  trials  and  sufferings  with 
out  a  parallel  in  the  progress  of  society.  As  the  strength  of  the 
war  party  was  unknown,  it  is  difficult  to  find  words  to  describe 
the  alarm  which  prevailed  among  the  inhabitants.  But  General 
Cass  was  not  to  be  dismayed  by  Indian  whoops  or  the  discharge 
of  Indian  rifles.  His  ears  were  familiar  to  such  sounds.  Although 
destitute  of  disciplined  troops,  enough  of  the  inhabitants  responded 
to  his  call,  and,  supplying  the  place  of  numbers  and  experience 
with  their  energy,  he  drove  the  foe  from  the  settlement  to  his 
native  haunts  in  the  forest,  after  a  short  but  sharp  conflict.  Ho 
well  recollects  the  terror  inspired  by  his  return,  as  the  scalp  hallo 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  99 

was  raised  by  some  of  his  friendly  Indian  hunters  to  indicate  the 
success  of  the  party,  and  broke  the  silence  of  the  twilight  with 
that  terrific  sound,  which,  once  heard,  is  never  forgotten,  and 
which  tells  the  tale  of  blood  before  the  bleeding  trophies  and  the 
victors  present  themselves.  Whether  this  signal  was  from  friend 
or  foe,  the  helpless  women  and  children,  whose  husbands  and 
fathers  had  gone  out  to  defend  them,  had  no  means  of  knowing; 
and  many  of  them,  in  the  terrible  uncertainty,  took  to  their  canoes 
and  fled  for  safety  to  the  Canadian  shore.  Happily,  the  return 
of  their  friends  removed  all  apprehension,  and  secured  their  safety. 
Such  incidents  are  characteristic  of  frontier  life,  and  when  they 
shall  have  been  hallowed  by  time  and  traditional  associations, 
they  will  constitute  the  romance  of  Indian  history. 

As  Governor  of  the  Territory,  General  Cass  was,  ex-officio,  Su 
perintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  and  it  became  his  prerogative  and 
duty  to  advise  with  the  government  on  this  subject.  He  early 
had  an  impression  that  it  was  the  policy  of  the  government,  as  a 
means  of  pacification,  to  purchase  the  possessory  rights  of  the  In 
dians  in  those  extensive  tracts  of  land  over  which  they  were  con 
tinually  roaming  ;  to  limit  their  hunting  grounds  to  a  narrower 
compass ;  to  teach  them  agriculture  and  mechanics,  and  give 
them  school-houses  and  churches.  This,  to  his  mind,  appeared  to 
be  the  only  feasible  mode  of  acquiring  their  friendship,  and,  by 
circumscribing  their  field  of  operations,  controlling  their  warlike 
movements,  and  putting  an  end  to  their  manifold  and  constant 
depredations.  At  the  same  time,  emigration  and  settlement,  by 
the  whites,  would  be  encouraged  back  from  the  frontier  posts,  and 
communities  of  settlements  planted  that  would  ultimately  ripen 
into  states.  The  French  and  the  English  had  hitherto  pursued  a 
different  policy.  All  that  they  sought  to  obtain  was  a  sufficient 
foothold  for  the  mere  purpose  of  temporary  traffic,  relying  upon 
whiskey  and  tawdry  presents  for  the  preservation  of  amity  ;  and 
if  the  voyageurs  and  traders  extended  the  time  of  their  residence, 
it  was  because  thrift  and  a  supply  of  the  necessaries  of  life  fol 
lowed  their  otherwise  aimless  occupation.  The  great  pecuniary 
advantages  flowing  from  this  traffic  was  enjoyed  by  the  individ 
uals  or  companies,  as  the  case  might  be,  in  whose  employment 
these  agents  were,  at  their  homes  in  other  lands.  This,  to  the 
far-seeing  mind  of  General  Cass,  was  not  the  policy  for  the  United 
States  to  adopt.  He  would  have  his  government  treat  with  these 


100  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

men  of  the  forest  as  mere  occupants,  and  not  owners,  and  that,  in 
its  intercourse  with  them,  an  effort  should  be  made,  at  the  outset, 
to  impress  them  with  the  idea,  that  the  President  was  their  Great 
Father,  having  a  watchful  care  over  their  interests,  and,  if  possi 
ble,  estrange  them  from  British  gold  and  whiskey. 

These  enlightened  and  humane  views  received  the  warm  appro 
bation  of  President  Madison.  Efforts  had  been  made,  for  some 
time,  to  bring  about  an  amicable  arrangement  with  the  various 
tribes  of  Indians  on  the  Miami  and  Wabash  ;  and  such  progress 
had  been  made,  by  agents  appointed  for  that  purpose,  that,  in 
July,  the  War  Department  associated  General  Cass  with  General 
Harrison,  and  clothed  them  with  power  to  treat,  at  Greenville, 
Ohio,  with  the  Indians  who  had  taken  part  against  the  United 
States  during  the  war. 

General  Cass  joined  General  Harrison  at  Greenville,  about  the 
twentieth  of  July,  1814.  Here,  to  their  perfect  amazement,  they 
found  some  five  thousand  Indians  in  council.  They  had  not  ex 
pected  to  find  one  quarter  of  that  number.  Immediately  entering 
upon  the  business  they  came  there  to  transact,  the  commissioners 
freely  and  boldly  made  known  their  views  to  this  large  and  impos 
ing  council.  For  the  first  time,  as  it  appeared,  did  they  hear  the 
important  announcement,  that  the  United  States  claimed  to  own 
all  the  lands,  and  that  a  peaceful  occupancy  by  them  of  a  portion, 
was  all  that  the  commissioners  were  empowered,  by  their  Great 
Father  towards  the  rising  sun,  to  treat  for.  This  open  and  sweep 
ing  declaration  produced  great  commotion  in  the  council.  The 
tomahawk  was  freely  brandished,  and  the  glistening  knives  drawn 
from  their  belts  and  held  up  for  terror.  The  commissioners  re 
mained  unterrified,  and  repeated  the  declaration  more  emphatic 
ally  than  before  ;  and  they  were  further  told  by  the  authority  of 
the  government,  "  we  have  always  desired  you  to  sit  still,  but  you 
would  not ;  to  remain  quiet,  but  you  will  go  to  war  ;  and  now,  if 
you  do  n't  join  us,  it  is  evident  that  you  will  pass  over  to  our  ene 
mies.  Here  is  our  tomahawk,  we  invite  you  to  take  hold  of  it 
with  us ;"  and  ere  long,  the  commissioners  found  themselves,  with 
their  few  attendants,  in  the  midst  of  this  numerous  band  of  sava 
ges  who  were  wild  with  rage,  and  whirling,  and  twisting,  and 
yelling  like  so  many  demons  in  their  war  dance.  Some  of  their 
chiefs  and  warriors  were,  nevertheless,  for  peace,  and  so  declared. 
They  held  a  council  among  themselves,  danced  a  great  war  dance, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  101 

and  each  chief,  after  recapitulating  his  acts  of  bravery,  advanced 
to  the  commissioners,  and  taking  hold  of  the  tomahawk,  flourished 
it,  and  said  he  would  consider  it  his  own.  The  tumult  finally 
subsided,  and  in  a  day  or  two  such  progress  was  made  in  the  ne 
gotiations,  that  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  July,  a  treaty  of  pa 
cification  was  formed  and  signed,  restoring  comparative  tranquil 
lity  to  the  frontiers,  and  a  large  body  of  Indians  accompanied 
General  Cass  to  Detroit,  as  auxiliaries.  The  tribes  represented 
at  Greenville,  were  the  "Wyandots,  Delawares,  Shawnees,  Senecas 
and  Miarnis,  and  this  was  the  first  council  called,  in  the  north 
west,  to  explain  their  condition,  and  invite  them  to  join  us. 

As  has  been  already  stated,  the  government,  during  the  spring 
and  summer,  were  solicitous  to  strengthen  General  Brown  on  the 
^Niagara ;  and  General  Brown  wrote  to  General  Cass  and  desired 
him  to  dispatch  all  the  troops  he  could  spare ;  and  so  anxious  was 
General  Cass  to  promote  the  object  in  view,  that  he  ordered  his 
whole  force  down  the  lake,  reserving,  in  fact,  but  thirty  men  to 
hold  possession  of  the  fort  at  Maiden.  u  It  is  known,"  says  a 
writer  on  this  subject,  "  that  General  Brown,  who  was  as  just  to 
others  as  he  was  brave  and  able,  never  forgot  this  proof  of  zeal,  but 
mentioned  it  as  a  rare  instance  of  devotion  to  the  public  good,  by 
which  local  interest  was  risked  for  general  interest,"  and  he  often 
afterwards  made  his  acknowledgments  to  General  Cass.  But 

CD 

during  this  very  defenseless  state,  the  Indians  who  yet  remained 
hostile,  became  bolder.  Their  war  parties  traversed  the  country, 
and  caused  much  alarm.  General  Cass  found  his  duties  and  respon 
sibility  as  governor,  constantly  increasing.  lie  called  the  whole 
adult  male  population  to  arms,  and  many  skirmishes  occurred  be 
tween  the  hostile  Indians  and  the  scouting  parties.  The  governor 
sometimes  himself  headed  these  expeditions,  and  the  nature  of  the 
service,  as  well  as  its  personal  hazard,  maybe  judged  by  the  fact, 
that  on  one  occasion  the  servant  of  the  governor,  who  rode  imme 
diately  behind  him,  was  attacked  by  a  powerful  savage,  whom  he 
killed  in  a  personal  rencounter.  The  inhabitants  would  sometimes 
assemble  en  masse,  and  led  by  the  governor,  armed  with  such  wea 
pons  as  they  might  happen  to  have,  attempt  to  overhaul  their 
tormentors,  who  endeavored  to  avoid  a  combat.  Finally,  on  one 
occasion — their  outrages  became  so  frequent  and  daring— a  party 
was  formed,  with  the  governor  at  the  head,  with  a  fixed  determi 
nation  of  driving  away  or  capturing  them,  without  reference  to 


102  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

time  or  peril.  The  party  marched  to  the  Indian  camp,  but  found 
it  deserted.  After  searching  the  forest,  they  discovered  the  Indi 
ans  retreating.  The  governor  and  his  party  being  on  horses,  were 
impeded  in  their  pursuit  by  the  trees.  The  Indians  were  chased 
from  place  to  place,  until  finally  they  retreated  to  Saginaw. 

The  Indians  who  accompanied  General  Cass  as  auxiliaries  from 
Greenville,  became  strongly  attached  to  him,  and  soon  acquired 
the  sobriquet  of  "  pet  Indians."  The  detachment  behaved  with 
fidelity  and  bravery,  and  rendered  good  service,  both  on  our  side 
of  the  river  and  in  Canada,  where  they  were  sent.  The  exposed 
state  of  this  frontier,  in  consequence  of  the  want  of  force,  and  the 
vicinity  of  the  hostile  Indians,  can  hardly  be  appreciated.  In  Oc 
tober,  1814,  a  party  of  them  left  Detroit  for  the  purpose  of  making 
excursions  on  the  river  Thames.  After  remaining  in  that  vicinity 
several  days,  they  collected  and  took  prisoners  forty-five  of  the 
British  militia,  among  whom  was  a  colonel.  Having  kept  them 
a  short  time,  the  Indians,  to  show  their  humanity,  permitted  their 
prisoners  to  return  to  their  homes  on  their  parole  of  honor  not  to 
appear  in  arms  against  the  United  States  or  their  allies,  until 
legally  exchanged,  at  the  same  time  taking  good  care  to  detain  the 
colonel  as  a  hostage  for  the  faithful  performance  of  the  contract 
on  the  part  of  the  enemy.  On  the  fourth  of  this  same  month,  one 
of  the  Kickapoo  Indians  was  shot  near  Cross  Island,  by  an  Amer 
ican  soldier,  while  in  the  act  of  presenting  his  gun  at  one  of  the 
American  party. 

Colonel  James,  commander  of  a  small  British  post  now  estab 
lished  at  Sandwich,  notified  Governor  Cass  that  a  murder  had 
been  committed  by  some  American  soldiers,  on  a  poor  and  unof 
fending  Indian,  and  stating  that  it  was  needless  for  him  to  point 
out  the  line  of  conduct  necessary  on  this  occasion,  or  direct  atten 
tion  to  the  custom  of  savages,  when  one  of  their  number  had  been 
murdered.  Governor  Cass,  in  reply,  said  that  he  would  cause 
an  inquiry  to  be  made  into  the  circumstances  of  the  murder,  and 
the  perpetrators,  if  detected,  would  suffer  the  punishment  which 
the  laws  of  all  civilized  nations  provide  for  such  an  offense,  and 
added  that  it  was  unnecessary  to  allude  to  the  Indian  custom  of 
retaliating  upon  innocent  individuals  ;  that  the  laws  of  this  coun 
try  operate  impartially  upon  all  offenders,  and  he  was  confident 
that  no  dread  of  the  consequences  would  ever  induce  the  courts 
of  justice  to  punish  the  innocent  or  screen  the  guilty. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  103 

Governor  Cass  having  thoroughly  examined  into  all  the  facts 
bearing  upon  the  transaction,  subsequently  wrote  to  the  British 
officer,  that  the  Indian  alluded  to  was  killed  while  in  the  attempt 
to  shoot  an  American  soldier  ;  that  the  act  was  committed  within 
the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  and  a  British  offi 
cer  had,  consequently,  no  right  to  require,  nor  ought  an  Amer 
ican  officer  to  give,  any  explanation  on  the  subject ;  that  this 
country  did  not  acknowledge  in  principle,  nor  would  it  ever  admit 
in  practice,  the  right  of  any  foreign  authorities  to  interfere,  in  any 
arrangement  or  discussion  between  us  and  the  Indians  living 
within  our  territory  ;  that  if  an  Indian  is  injured  in  his  person  or 
property  within  the  territory,  our  laws  amply  provided  for  the 
punishment  of  the  offender,  and  the  redress  of  the  party  injured. 

The  British  authorities  of  the  western  district  of  Upper  Canada, 
chagrined  at  the  manly  firmness  and  decision  of  Governor  Cass, 
forthwith  issued  a  proclamation  offering  a  reward  of  five  hundred 
dollars  for  the  apprehension  of  the  murderer. 

As  soon  as  this  fact  became  known  to  Governor  Cass,  he  issued 
a  counter  proclamation,  requiring  all  persons,  citizens  of  the  Ter 
ritory  of  Michigan  or  residing  therein,  to  repel  by  force  all  attempts 
which  might  be  made  to  apprehend  any  persons  within  the  limits 
of  the  Territory,  or  wraters  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States,  by  virtue  of  the  proclamation  of  the  British  authorities,  or 
of  any  process  which  might  issue  from  any  authority  other  than 
that  of  the  United  States  or  Michigan. 

The  American  soldier  who  shot  the  Indian  was  not  apprehended. 
The  principle  put  forth  by  the  British  authorities,  of  taking  cog 
nizance  of  offenses  committed  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  was  too  palpably  absurd  to  admit  of  question.  It  was 
a  direct  attack  at  our  national  sovereignty.  The  interference  of 
his  majesty's  officers  in  behalf  of  his  old  allies,  in  a  matter  which 
did  not  concern  them,  was  designed  for  effect  on  the  minds  of  the 
savages,  and  to  impress  them  with  exalted  ideas  of  the  continued 
friendship  and  power  of  the  British  government ;  to  make  that 
government  appear  as  the  voluntary  avenger  of  their  wrongs, 
whether  real  or  fancied.  Governor  Cass  was  at  home  on  the 
question,  and  possessed  the  courage  and  ability  to  meet  the  appli 
cation  with  proper  dignity  and  spirit.  lie  would  suffer  no  inter 
ference  of  a  foreign  power  with  questions  arising  within  the 
American  jurisdiction,  and  he  would  permit  no  American  citizen 


104  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

to  be  transported  to  his  majesty's  dominions  to  be  tried  for  alledged 
crimes  committed  within  the  American  territory  under  his  guar 
dianship. 

In  July  of  this  year  an  attempt  was  made  to  recover  Mackinaw, 
and  a  force  was  detailed,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Croghan, 
for  this  purpose,  with  the  co-operation  of  a  part  of  the  American 
fleet  on  Lake  Erie.  The  works  of  the  British,  with  the  aid  of  the 
savages  in  that  vicinity,  were  too  strong,  and  the  attempt  was 
unsuccessful ;  but  the  establishments  at  St.  Joseph's  and  at  Sault 
Ste.  Marie  were  destroyed. 

In  the  winter  of  1815,  the  treaty  of  peace  was  ratified  by  the 
President  and  Senate,  providing  that  all  the  places  which  had 
been  taken  by  the  English  or  Americans  during  the  war,  should 
be  restored ;  and,  on  the  first  day  of  July,  Maiden  was  surren 
dered  to  the  British. 

In  June,  1815,  General  Cass  removed  to  the  Territory,  with  his 
family,  and  established  himself  in  Detroit,  which  has  been  his 
residence  ever  since,  except  when  absent  in  the  service  of  the 
United  States.  At  that  time,  the  population  of  the  Territory  was 
probably  five  or  six  thousand,  spread  over  an  immense  extent,  and 
in  a  state  of  great  destitution,  owing  to  the  terrible  calamities 
which  had  marked  the  progress  of  the  war  upon  this  whole  fron 
tier.  The  social  and  political  state  of  the  country  had  to  be  built 
up.  There  was  not  a  road,  a  real  road,  in  the  Territory,  nor  a 
bridge,  nor  a  church,  nor  a  school-house,  nor  a  court-house,  nor  a 
jail.  Not  a  foot  of  land  had  ever  been  sold  by  the  United  States, 
for,  of  course,  there  was  no  encouragement  for  emigrants.  The 
jurisprudence  had  to  be  constructed,  and,  in  fact,  almost  every 
thing  to  be  made  anew. 

But  British  arrogance  did  not  stop  with  the  war.  Forgetting, 
apparently,  that  upon  the  inland  seas  of  the  western  country 
there  were  no  belligerents  and  no  neutrals,  and  therefore  no  rights 
for  the  one  party  to  exercise,  nor  wrongs  for  the  other  to  suffer,  in 
consequence  of  those  relations,  parties  of  men  from  the  schooner 
Tecumseh,  an  armed  vessel  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  in  June, 
ISlf),  boarded  the  brigs  Union  and  Hunter,  and  the  schooners 
Champion  and  General  Wayne,  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the  crew 
and  lading.  This  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  individuals,  as 
well  as  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  nation,  was  brought  to  the 
attention  of  Governor  Cass,  who  immediately  addressed  a  decided 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  105 

note,  under  date  of  the  sixth  of  that  month,  to  the  commanding 
officer  of  the  Tecumseh,  saying: 

"  It  has  been  officially  represented  to  me  that,  in  several  instan 
ces,  within  a  few  days,  vessels,  "bound  from  ports  of  the  United 
States,  upon  Lake  Erie,  to  this  place,  have  been  boarded  by  parties 
of  men  from  an  armed  vessel  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  lying  oft* 
Amherstburgh. 

"  These  parties  have  entered  the  vessels  while  passing  through 
the  usual  channel  of  communication  between  lakes  Erie  and  Huron ; 
in  one  instance,  with  the  avowed  object  of  taking  therefrom  two 
men,  under  the  pretense  of  their  being  British  deserters,  and,  in  all 
instances,  with  objects,  so  far  as  they  could  be  ascertained  from 
the  questions  and  conduct  of  the  boarding  officer,  which  furnish 
no  justification  for  a  British  officer  in  forcibly  entering  a  vessel  of 
the  United  States. 

"  The  manner  in  which  this  service  has  been  performed,  has 
had  no  tendency  to  diminish  the  effect  which  the  character  of 
such  transactions  is  calculated  to  produce.  The  conduct  of  the 
boarding  officer  has  been  arrogant  and  imperious. 

"In  an  aggression  like  this,  the  government  of  the  United 
States  can  alone  determine  what  course  the  honor  and  interest  of 
the  nation  requires  should  be  taken.  But,  until  their  decision 
shall  be  made  known  upon  the  subject,  it  becomes  my  duty  to 
remonstrate  against  a  practice  for  which  the  laws  of  nations  afford 
no  pretense ;  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  relations  existing 
between  our  respective  governments  ;  and  the  continuance  of 
which  must  be  attended  with  serious  and  important  consequences." 

This  note  to  the  British  commander  had  the  desired  effect,  and 
no  further  complaints  were  made  to  the  governor  of  any  interrup 
tion  to  American  commerce  or  American  vessels,  while  peacefully 
pursuing  their  legitimate  business  in  those  waters.  It  was  satis 
factory  to  the  British  officials  that  if  vessels,  bearing  the  flag  of  the 
United  States,  should  be  stopped  and  forcibly  entered,  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  taking  from  them  persons  on  board,  and  within 
sight  of  the  spot  consecrated  by  the  victory  of  Perry,  the  whole 
nation  would  fly  to  arms,  and  that,  notwithstanding  the  right  of 
visitation  and  search  was  not  mentioned  or  qualified  by  the  treaty 
of  Ghent,  the  United  States  would  not,  in  any  event,  secede  from 
their  high  and  impregnable  position  upon  this  subject. 


106  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  YIIL 

The  North-west  Territory— Civil  Government  of  Michigan— Land  Titles— Condition  of  Michigan  at 
Close  of  the  War — Currency — Extent  of  the  Territory — General  Cass  feels  the  Responsibility  of  his 
Position — Imputed  Frauds  on  the  Indians — How  he  Performed  his  Duties — Appointed  to  Treat  with 
Ohio  Tribes  of  Indians — Treaty  of  Fort  Meigs — Aversion  of  the  Chiefs  to  Remove — Wisdom  of  Com 
missioners — Large  Cession — Military  Road — The  Detroit  Gazette — The  People  Against  a  Change  of 
Government — Public  Surveys — Emigration  into  the  Territory — The  Six  Nations — General  Cass' 
Yiews  of  the  Duties  of  an  Indian  Commissioner — Negotiates  a  Treaty  at  St.  Mary's — Council  at 
Saginaw — His  Popularity  with  the  Indians — Election  of  Delegate  to  Congress — Its  Benefits. 

The  Territory  of  Michigan,  from  1796,  when  possession  was 
obtained  from  the  British  government,  up  to  1805,  was  a  part  of 
the  organization  known  as  "  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
north-west  of  the  Ohio  river,"  and  was  subject  to  the  provisions 
of  the  ordinance  of  1787.  It  occupied  the  first  grade  of  territorial 
government,  as  prescribed  by  that  ordinance — a  governor,  three 
judges,  and  secretary,  constituting  the  civil  power.  To  the 
governor  and  judges,  or  a  majority,  was  confided  the  trust  of 
selecting  and  adopting  such  laws  of  the  original  thirteen  States, 
civil  and  criminal,  as  they  might  deem  necessary  and  proper,  and 
suitable  for  the  district.  Congress  alone  had  the  power  to  revise. 
In  1798,  the  North- western  Territory  entered  upon  the  second 
grade  of  territorial  government.  This  grade  added  a  legislature 
to  the  civil  authority,  and,  to  entitle  a  district  to  representation  in 
this  body,  it  was  provided  that  the  district  must  have  a  population 
of  five  thousand  free  male  inhabitants  of  full  age,  and  for  every 
five  hundred  of  such  inhabitants,  one  representative  was  allowed. 
The  general  assembly,  in  that  year,  convened  at  Chillicothe,  and 
Michigan  appeared  by  one  representative.  In  1805,  Indiana  was 
organized  as  a  separate  government,  and  Illinois  and  Michigan 
comprised  the  residue  of  the  North-west  Territory.  In  July  of 
this  year,  Michigan  was  organized  as  a  separate  territorial  govern 
ment,  by  General  Hull,  who  was  appointed  governor.  At  this 
period,  the  quantity  of  land  within  the  Territory,  at  the  disposal 
of  the  government,  was  small,  and,  for  the  most  part,  embraced 
east  of  a  line  running  north  from  the  river  Raisin  to  Lake  St. 
Clair,  at  a  remove  of  six  miles  from  the  Detroit  river  and  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS. 


107 


shore  of  Lake  Erie.  Upon  examination,  it  was  evident  that  the 
claimants  held  their  lands  by  a  precarious  tenure  ;  in  many 
instances,  deriving  title  from  subordinate  French  and  English 
officers.  The  settlers,  fortunately  for  themselves,  however,  had 
made  more  or  less  improvements,  and  these  were  subsequently 
confirmed  by  legal  grant  from  the  United  States,  under  the  advice 
of  the  territorial  government. 

The  only  further  cession  of  title  to  the  lands,  prior  to  the  acces 
sion  of  General  Cass  to  the  governorship,  was  obtained  from  the 
Indians,  under  a  treaty  held  by  General  Hull,  at  Brownstown,  in 
1807.  The  southern  boundary  of  this  cession  was  the  Maumee 
bay  and  river,  and  embracing  all  the  lands  lying  east  of  a  line 
running  north,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Au  Glaire,  a  tributary  of 
the  Miami,  until  it  should  intersect  the  parallel  of  the  outlet  of 
Lake  Huron;  thence  extending,  in  a  north-easterly  direction,  to 
White  Kock,  on  Lake  Huron,  this  northerly  line  being  afterwards 
adopted  as  the  principal  meridian  line  for  the  public  surveys  of 
the  Territory. 

Tims  stood  the  Territory  at  the  close  of  the  war,  commenced 
with  Great  Britain  in  June,  1812,  and  concluded  in  the  winter  of 
1815.  During  this  war,  Michigan  had  suffered  greatly.  Scarcely 
a  family,  when  it  resumed  its  domestic  establishment,  found  more 
than  the  remnants  of  former  wealth  and  comforts.  Entire  families 
had  been  broken  up  and  dispersed  by  this  furious  god ;  parents 
had  been  torn  from  children,  and  children  from  each  other  ;  some 
had  expired  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  others  had  been  slain  with 
ruthless  barbarity  by  the  Indians.  Laws  were  powerless,  and 
morals  had  suffered  in  the  general  wreck.  Agriculture  and  com 
merce  had  languished.  Provisions,  and  all  the  necessaries  of  life, 
were  scarce,  and  high  prices  ruled  in  all  transactions.  Money,  it 
was  difficult  to  get ;  and  the  bank  paper  of  Ohio  constituted  the 
general  currency  among  the  people.  This,  in  £J"ew  York  city, 
was  twenty  and  twenty-five  per  cent,  below  par,  and  precluded 
commercial  transactions,  except  at  a  ruinous  figure  to  the  specu 
lator  and  merchant. 

In  such  a  gloomy  and  unpromising  condition  did  General  Cass 
find  Michigan,  when  he  assumed  the  reins  of  its  government.  He 
saw,  at  a  glance,  that  a  civil  government  was  to  be  established, 
and  laws  devised,  enacted,  and  to  be  carried  into  effect,  ere  he 
could  flatter  himself  that  he  possessed  more  than  a  mere  selvedge 


108  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  government.  Constituting  a  part  of  the  legislative  power,  it 
rendered  it  a  delicate  task  to  aid  in  the  enactment  of  laws  which 
were  to  be  enforced  by  the  same  will.  How  well  he  performed, 
with  decision  and  enlightened  discrimination,  these  herculean 
labors,  the  condition  of  Michigan,  when  he  laid  down  the  scepter, 
abundantly  demonstrates. 

The  war  had  ruptured  or  weakened  every  tie  which  had  pre 
viously  connected  the  Indian  tribes  with  the  United  States.  The 
general  direction  of  our  intercourse  with  the  Indians  was  one  of 
the  most  important  duties  then  devolving  upon  the  Governor  of 
Michigan.  lie  was,  by  law,  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs 
within  the  Territory;  and,  in  addition,  he  had,  by  the  direction 
of  the  government,  the  same  authority  over  all  the  Indian 'tribes 
east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the  Ohio,  an  extensive  region, 
and  inhabited  by  many  bands  of  fierce  and  warlike  Indians.  This 
large  and  dangerous  population  was  exposed  to  hostile  impulses, 
as  well  by  their  contact  with  our  frontier  settlers  as  by  the  excited 
feelings  which  had  been  called  into  action  by  the  events  of  the 
war;  and  to  prevent  collisions,  and  to  protect  and  preserve  the 
Indians  in  their  relations  of  peace,  required  great  firmness  and 
judgment.  General  Cass  was  called,  by  these  duties  of  inter 
course,  repeatedly  to  visit  the  Indians  through  this  vast  country, 
and  as  far  north  and  west  as  the  heads  of  the  Mississippi.  Councils 
were,  from  time  to  time,  held  with  the  various  tribes,  treaties  to 
be  formed,  annuities  to  be  paid,  and  dangers  and  difficulties  to 
be  averted.  In  repairing  to  the  council  fires  of  the  respective 
tribes,  (for  each  has  its  owTn,  where  business  is  done,)  the  mode 
of  traveling  was  on  horseback  or  in  birch  canoes,  —  in  the  former 
mode,  where  the  Indians  were  in  the  interior,  removed  from 
navigable  water-courses;  and  in  the  latter,  where  they  could  be 
reached  by  water  conveyances.  By  land,  the  journey  was  slow 
and  laborious.  A  day's  travel  did  not  average  over  thirty  miles; 
and  at  night,  the  horses  were  turned  out  to  pick  such  herbage  as 
they  could  find,  being  first  spanceled,  that  is,  having  their  two 
fore  legs  tied  together  by  a  band,  to  prevent  escape,  and  the 
party  lay  down,  with  a  blanket  around  them  and  their  heads 
upon  their  saddles  for  pillows.  The  precarious  supplies  furnished 
by  hunting,  together  with  such  provisions  as  could  be  packed, 
were  their  resources  for  food.  Ko  roads,  no  bridges,  no  houses, — 
this  state  of  things  portrays  the  obstacles  to  be  encountered. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  109 

In  canoes,  there  was  much  more  comfort.  An  Indian  canoe, 
made  of  birch  bark  fastened  to  thin  cedar  ribs,  is  a  very  fragile 
boat;  but  it  rides  the  waves  well  and  safely,  and  is  easily  pro 
pelled.  When  the  traveling  party  approached  a  rapid,  the  canoe 
and  its  contents  were  taken  from  the  water,  and  carried  across 
the  portage  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  crew,  and  replaced  in  the 
water  above  the  obstruction,  and  then  the  voyage  was  renewed. 
In  a  country  intersected  by  water  courses,  this  is  a  very  inde 
pendent  mode  of  traveling  for  the  Indians.  General  Cass  once 
met  a  squaw,  who  had  all  her  worldly  possessions,  everything 
necessary  for  her  existence,  upon  her  back.  Her  load  consisted 
of  a  little  birch  canoe,  her  kettle,  her  mat  house,  her  blanket,  and 
one  or  two  other  articles ;  and  she  seemed  to  travel  along  in  good 
spirits,  across  the  portage,  self-possessed  and  self-defended.  The 
Indians  and  the  Canadian  voyageurs  —  the  latter  a  peculiar  class 
which  has  nearly  disappeared,  strong,  muscular  and  indefati 
gable — -managed  these  slender  machines  with  great  skill  and 
judgment,  laboring  with  much  exertion,  and  resting  every 
pipe,  at  once  the  measure  of  distance  and  the  great  solace  of 
labor.  Many  thousands  of  miles  has  General  Cass  traveled  in 
these  little  barks,  attended  by  the  Indians,  who  presented  an 
animated  scene  upon  the  waves,  in  their  light  cockle  shells, 
always  in  good  spirits,  and  making  the  shores  re-echo  to  their 
songs. 

General  Cass  found  the  number  of  Indians  within  his  juris 
diction,  wrhen  he  assumed  the  Superintendency  of  Indian  Affairs, 
to  be  all  of  forty  thousand,  and  that  they  could  furnish,  on  most 
occasions,  at  least  nine  thousand  warriors.  They  claimed  to 
be  the  rightful  owrners  of  eleven  millions  of  acres  of  land  in 
Michigan  alone,  and,  tracing  their  title  to  the  Great  Spirit  in 
the  clouds  above  and  around  them,  they  were  disposed  to  adhere 
to  it  with  the  most  superstitious  bigotry.  He  fully  appreciated 
the  magnitude  of  this  additional  responsibility ;  he  was  also  fully 
aware  of  the  multiplicity  of  personal  interests,  with  which  he 
must  necessarily  come  in  contact  in  the  discharge  of  his  official 
functions  in  this  quarter;  but,  despite  this,  he  determined  to 
discharge  his  duty  to  his  country,  and  to  all  interested,  with 
efficiency  and  undeviating  fidelity.  These  duties  commenced, 
too,  at  a  time  when,  to  the  natural  difficulties  of  their  perform 
ance,  was  added  imminent  personal  danger  to  the  officer.  Many 


110  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

were  the  stories  in  circulation,  impugning  the  motives  of  nego 
tiators  of  treaties  with  the  Indians,  and  great  were  the  pecuniary 
advantages  said  to  have  been  derived  by  them.  But  General 
Cass.  inheriting,  in  a  large  degree,  the  integrity  of  his  ancestors, 
—  as  solid  as  the  granite  hills  among  which  he  was  cradled, — 
resolved  to  show  to  the  world,  that  honesty  could  exist  in  the' 
care  and  control  of  the  fierce  sons  of  the  forest.  With  such 
views,  he  commenced  his  work;  and  with  abiding  assiduity  did 
this  pioneer  commissioner  do  the  bidding  of  his  government,  in 
winter  or  summer,  day  or  night,  —  traveling  through  the  wilder 
ness  on  foot  or  horseback,  and  traversing  its  lakes  and  rivers  in 
the  birchen  canoe.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  did  he 
disburse,  transported  at  his  own  risk  and  under  his  own  ever 
watchful  eye;  and  not  unfrequently  procuring  the  means,  on 
his  private  credit,  of  fulfilling  treaty  stipulations,  when  the 
government  delayed  to  provide  them. 

In  the  month  of  April,  181T,  General  Cass  was  selected  by  the 
President  to  ascertain,  by  a  personal  interview  with  the  chiefs 
and  head  men  of  the  several  tribes  claiming  lands  within  the 
limits  of  Ohio,  whether  it  was  then  practicable  to  extinguish 
their  title.  Discretionary  powers  were  conferred  upon  him:  — 
if  he  should  find  it  impolitic  or  impracticable  to  obtain  all  the 
country  claimed,  he  was  directed  to  learn  whether  there  would 
be  any  reasonable  prospect  of  obtaining  the  relinquishment  of  a 
portion.  He  immediately  proceeded  to  Lower  Sandusky,  and 
was  satisfied  that  the  Indians  might  be  induced  to  consent  to 
cede  their  rights  to  a  part,  if  not  all,  of  the  desired  land.  So 
he  reported  to  the  War  Department;  and  the  following  May 
he  was  commissioned,  in  conjunction  with  General  McArthur, 
to  enter  upon  negotiations  at  his  earliest  convenience.  The 
Commissioners  received  no  definite  instructions  in  reference  to 
the  provisions  of  the  treaty  which  they  might  make,  excepting 
that  they  should  keep  in  view  the  policy  of  the  government,  to 
effect,  ultimately,  the  peaceable  removal  of  the  Indians  to  the 
country  west  of  the  Mississippi  river. 

The  Commissioners  accepted  the  power  conferred;  and  the 
sachems,  chiefs,  and  warriors  of  the  Wyandot,  Seneca,  Delaware, 
Shawnee,  Pottawatomie,  Ottawa  and  Chippewa  tribes  assembled 
to  meet  them  at  Fort  Meigs,  in  Ohio,  upon  the  Maumee,  where  is 
now  the  town  of  that  name,  in  the  month  of  September  following. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  Ill 

Much  talk  was  had;  and  General  Cass  soon  discovered,  in  the 
progress  of  the  negotiation,  that  he  was  dealing  with  minds, 
some  of  whom  would  compare  favorably,  in  point  of  reason  and 
comprehension,  with  the  most  enlightened  in  civilized  life.  The 
Indians,  in  view  of  the  new  home  suggested  to  their  consideration 
beyond  the  far-off  Mississippi,  were  in  a  feverish  state  of  excite 
ment.  They  did  not  contemplate  it  with  any  degree  of  pleasure. 

During  the  war  of  1812,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  north 
western  Indians  were  in  the  British  interests,  and  they  became 
highly  excited  against  the  American  government  and  people. 
This  state  of  feeling  occasionally  broke  out  into  acts  of  treachery 
and  violence,  and  it  was-  fostered  and  encouraged  by  the  British 
Indian  agent  upon  the  frontier,  who  desired  to  preserve  an  influ 
ence  to  be  exerted  as  subsequent  circumstances  might  require. 
At  this  council  this  feeling  strongly  displayed  itself,  and  in  open 
council  there  was  a  demonstration  which  threatened  serious  conse 
quences,  but  which  was  averted  by  the  firm  and  prompt  interfer 
ence  of  the  commissioners,  who  immediately  left  their  seats  and 
placed  themselves  in  the  midst  of  the  Indians,  overawing  them  by 
their  personal  conduct.  In  those  days  the  Indians  were  numer 
ous,  and  many  of  them  disaffected,  and  every  treaty  was  attended 
by  thousands  eager  to  take  part  in  the  proceedings,  and  to  secure 
for  themselves  the  largest  portion  of  its  favors,  and  thus  individual 
cupidity  operated  in  aid  of  the  other  causes  of  excitement. 

To  surmount  these  obstacles,  it  was  necessary  for  the  commis 
sioners  to  put  in  requisition  all  their  sagacity,  tact  and  experience, 
and  be  patient  under  every  difficulty.  They  were  fully  sensible 
of  the  incalculable  importance  of  the  desired  acquisition,  and 
General  Cass  was  equally  aware  that  if  the  negotiation  terminated 
successfully,  it  would  serve  as  a  precedent,  and  be  the  entering 
wedge  towards  the  final  accomplishment  of  the  policy  which  he 
had  already  shadowed  forth  to  his  government,  of  circumscribing 
the  boundaries  of  savage  life.  Finally,  owing  to  the  great  good 
sense  and  wisdom  of  the  commissioners — for  they  had  no  presents 
to  buy  their  good  will,  and  the  use  of  whiskey  was  interdicted  at 
the  commencement  of  the  council — a  treaty  was  concluded  and 
signed  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  the  month,  by  which  those  tribes 
represented  at  the  council,  ceded  to  the  United  States  nearly  all 
the  land  to  which  they  laid  claim  within  the  limits  of  Ohio,  a  part 
in  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  a  portion  in  the  Territory  of  Michigan. 


112  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

This  treaty  was  at  once  transmitted  to  Washington,  and  General 
Cass,  well  satisfied  with  the  result  of  his  mission,  returned  to 
Detroit. 

This  was  the  most  valuable  treaty  which  the  United  States  had, 
up  to  that  time,  made  with  the  Indians.  It  attached  the  isolated 
population  of  Michigan  to  the  five  hundred  thousand  inhabitants 
of  Ohio ;  it  made  the  territorial  government,  in  a  fuller  sense,  an 
integral  part  of  the  American  Union,  and  removed  forever  all 
apprehensions  of  an  inimical  confederacy  among  the  Indian  tribes 
bordering  on  the  large  lakes  of  this  frontier,  and  their  many  trib 
utary  streams.  The  Indian  title  to  four  millions  of  acres  of  land, 
as  fertile,  well  watered  and  beautiful  as  the  sun  ever  shone  upon, 
was  extinguished,  and  the  policy  of  removal  at  last  fairly  adopted. 
The  President  and  the  Secretary  of  War  fully  appreciated  the 
importance  of  the  acquisition.  In  acknowledging  the  receipt  of, 
the  treaty,  the  Secretary  (Mr.  Calhoun,)  did  the  commissioners 
the  honor  to  say,  "  The  extent  of  the  cession  far  exceeds  my  most 
sanguine  expectations,  and  there  can  be  no  real  or  well  founded 
objections  to  the  amount  of  compensation  given  for  it,  except 
that  it  is  not  an  adequate  one.  This  treaty  may  be  considered,  in 
its  fiscal,  political  and  moral  eifects,  as  the  most  important  of  any 
that  we  have  hitherto  made  with  the  Indians." 

General  Cass  followed  up  this  cession — now  that  the  Indian 
settlements  and  lands  could  not  be  interposed  as  a  barrier  to  the 
undertaking — by  urging  upon  the  attention  of  the  government 
the  necessity,  both  politically  and  pecuniarily,  for  the  immediate 
construction  of  a  military  road  from  Sandusky  to  Detroit.  Its 
advantages  to  the  government  were  so  clearly  pointed  out,  and 
the  argument  so  convincing,  that  its  necessity  could  not  be  over 
looked,  if  there  had  been  a  disposition  to  do  so.  But  so  thor 
oughly  convinced  were  the  national  authorities  of  its  propriety 
and  importance,  that  they  cheerfully  acceded  to  the  application, 
and  commenced  constructing  the  road  over  the  route  indicated  by 
General  Cass,  taking  in  its  course  the  Black  Swamp,  hitherto  an 
impassable  morass  for  teams  and  wagons. 

In  the  summer  of  1817,  General  Cass  feeling  the  necessity  of  a 
newspaper  at  the  capital  of  the  Territory,  suggested  the  propriety 
of  establishing  one  to  Messrs.  Sheldon  &  Reed,  and  those  young 
and  enterprising  men,  believing  that  there  was  spirit  enough 
among  the  people  to  justify  the  undertaking,  perfected  their 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  113 

arrangements  and  issued  it  under  the  name  of  "  The  Detroit  Ga- 

O 

zette."  This  was  the  first  newspaper  press  established  in  Michi 
gan,  and  continued  for  many  years  in  the  hands  of  the  original 
proprietors. 

Continuing  to  enact  and  enforce  such  laws  as  he  considered  for 

o 

the  good  of  the  inhabitants,  endeavoring  to  ascertain  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  the  allegation  which  was  frequently  made,  that  the  lands 
of  the  Territory  were  for  the  most  part  worthless  and  swampy,  and 
by  actual  surveys  satisfied  that  there  was  a  wrong  impression  on 
this  subject,  and  finding  that  prosperity  began  to  abound,  and 
population  to  increase  by  emigration  and  settlement,  General 
Cass  called  for  the  views  of  the  inhabitants  in  March,  1818,  upon 
the  question  of  changing  the  civil  authority  by  entering  upon  the 
second  grade  of  territorial  government.  A  vote  was  taken,  and  a 
majority  were  against  it.  They  were  content  with  the  government 
as  it  was — a  most  flattering  compliment  to  the  competency  and 
faithfulness  of  their  Governor — and  the  wheels  of  the  government 
moved  on  as  usual.  But  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  emigra 
tion  and  settlement,  Governor  Cass,  in  April  following,  upon  the 
petition  of  many  citizens,  circulated  and  signed  at  his  suggestion, 
recommended  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  the  lands  in 
the  district  of  Detroit  be  at  once  surveyed  and  brought  into  mar 
ket.  The  department  acted  upon  this  recommendation  promptly, 
and  sales  were  made  in  September  and  October  following.  This 
movement  gave  a  new  impetus  to  agriculture,  and  added  to  the 
permanent  prosperity  of  the  country. 

In  August,  1818,  the   attention  of  General   Cass  was    again 

o  J  o 

called,  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  the  Secretary  of  War,  to  Indian  affairs, 
and  particularly  to  the  policy  of  their  effecting  the  removal  of  the 
Six  Nations  of  Indians  of  the  State  of  New  York,  west  of  the 
Mississippi.  He  was  instructed  to  ascertain  whether  the  Indians 
residing  on  Fox  river,  or  any  of  the  tribes  residing  north  of  Indi 
ana  and  Illinois,  would  admit  the  Six  Nations  among  them.  This 
measure  of  the  government,  then  in  its  infancy,  from  its  peculiar 
nature,  required  the  most  delicate  and  politic  management.  The 
Indians  who  were  represented  at  Fort  Meigs  the  year  before,  were 
reluctant  to  leave  their  lands,  and  the  Six  Nations  not  only 
expressed  their  unqualified  disapprobation  of  the  proposition,  but 
an  absolute  determination  to  resist.  To  urge  it  upon  them  at  this 
time  would  have  been  prejudicial  to  its  final  success,  and  defeated 


114  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

a  most  necessary  step  towards  securing  the  safety  and  peace  of 
the  early  settlers  upon  the  lands  recently  acquired.  General 
Cass,  although  favorable,  of  course,  to  the  project  of  removing 
the  Six  Nations,  was  opposed  to  its  forcible  adoption  then,  and 
recommended  that  the  time  be  postponed.  In  order  to  retain 
their  confidence  and  friendship,  he  was  in  favor  of  acting  upon 
principles  of  strict  right  and  justice,  and  pursuing  a  fair  and 
friendly  negotiation.  In  all  his  transactions  with  the  Indians,  he 
carefully  kept  in  view  the  honor  of  his  country,  and  the  condition 
of  the  unfortunate  parties  with  whom  he  negotiated. 

In  his  report  of  the  treaty  with  the  Chippewas,  dated  Sep 
tember  30th,  1818,  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  he  remarks:  "The 
negotiator  of  an  Indian  treaty  is  not  sent  upon  such  negotiation 
to  ascertain  the  lowest  possible  sum  for  which  the  miserable 
remnant  of  those  who  once  occupied  our  country  are  willing  to 
treat,  and  to  seize  with  avidity  the  occasion  to  purchase.  Certain 
I  am,  that  both  you  and  the  President  would  censure  me,  and 
justly  too,  were  I  governed,  in  any  intercourse  with  the  Indians, 
by  such  principles.  The  great  moral  debt  which  we  owe  them, 
can  only  be  discharged  by  patient  forbearance,  and  a  rigid  adher 
ence  to  that  system  of  improvement  wThich  we  have  adopted,  and 
the  effects  of  which  are  already  felt  in  this  quarter.  Although  I 
am  thoroughly  persuaded  that  it  would  be  better  for  us,  and  for 
these  Indians,  that  they  should  emigrate  to  the  country  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  or,  at  any  rate,  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  yet  it  was 
impossible  to  give  effect  to  that  part  of  the  instructions  which 
relates  to  this  subject,  without  hazarding  the  success  of  the 
negotiation.  An  indisposition  to  abandon  the  country  so  long 
occupied  by  their  tribes,  an  hereditary  enmity  to  many  of  the 
Western  Indians,  and  a  suspicion  of  our  motives,  are  the  promi 
nent  causes  which,  for  the  present,  defeat  this  plan.  When  they 
are  surrounded  by  our  settlements,  and  brought  in  contact  with 
our  people,  they  will  be  more  disposed  to  emigrate." 

Continuing  to  carry  out  the  instructions  of  the  War  Depart 
ment,  General  Cass,  during  the  following  month  of  October,  suc 
cessfully  negotiated,  at  St.  Mary's,  treaties  to  carry  into  effect, 
with  certain  modifications,  the  treaty  of  Fort  Meigs,  and  for  the 
acquisition  of  further  cessions  of  lands  in  the  State  of  Indiana. 
He  made  treaties  with  the  Delawares,  Pottawatomies,  and  Miamis, 
— three  in  all. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  115 

In  the  following  year,  he  solicited  permission  to  negotiate  for 
a  cession  of  the  Indian  title  to  lands  in  the  northern  part  of 
Michigan.  Clad  with  his  usual  ample  discretionary  powers  from 
the  government,  he  met  the  Chippewas  in  council,  at  Saginaw ;  and 
on  the  twenty-fourth  of  September  concluded  a  treaty,  by  which 
large  relinquishments  to  lands  in  Michigan  were  obtained,  cover 
ing  and  embracing  about  six  millions  of  acres.  After  the  treaty 
was  concluded,  and  he  had  left  Saginaw  for  Detroit,  the  Indians 
deputed  "Washmenondeguet,  their  chief  and  orator,  to  overtake 
him,  and  express  to  him  their  entire  satisfaction  with  the  arrange 
ment  and  their  thankfulness  for  his  kindness.  His  intercourse 
with  these  people  was  always  of  a  character  to  command  respect, 
and  ensure  confidence  and  friendship. 

Nor  was  this  friendship  ephemeral.  Several  years  afterwards,  — 
when  many  and  many  a  sun  had  risen  and  set,  —  the  Chippewas, 
the  Ottawas,  the  Pottawatomies,  of  Michigan,  were  again  repre 
sented  in  council  at  the  city  of  Detroit.  It  was  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  July,  1855.  Mr.  George  W.  Manypenny,  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  was  present.  Upwards  of  one 
hundred  chiefs  were  in  attendance.  They  had  considered  the 
points  relative  to  the  treaty  of  1836,  under  which  large  amounts 
of  money  were  claimed  as  due  to  their  tribes  from  the  general 
government.  As  a  body,  they  were  grave,  sensible,  and  well 
behaved,  and  exhibiting  a  promptness,  intelligence,  and  advance- 
in  civilization,  unexpected  to  every  observer.  They  had  entered 
upon  the  consideration  of  the  permanent  location  of  their  reserva 
tions  within  the  State,  when  General  Cass,  entirely  unexpected  to 
them,  entered  the  council  hall.  At  sight  of  him,  the  chiefs 
forgot  their  business  and  all  the  solemnities  of  the  occasion,  in 
their  joy  at  beholding  their  old  and  distinguished  friend,  and 
thronged  around  him,  grasping  his  hands,  and  testifying  their 
grateful  remembrance  of  their  former  intercourse  with  him. 
After  this  spontaneous  gush  of  enthusiastic  regard  had  partially 
subsided,  General  Cass  was  formally  addressed  by  the  chiefs, 
and  made  a  reply  to  them,  replete  with  wise  advice. 

During  the  year  1810,  the  privilege  of  electing  a  delegate  to 
Congress  was  granted  to  the  people  of  Michigan,  and  further 
Bales  of  public  lands  were  ordered  and  made.  These  events 
were  great  advances  in  the  hopes  and  prosperity  of  Michigan. 
By  the  first,  a  new  channel  of  communication  was  opened, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

through  which  her  Chief  Magistrate  could  convey  to  Congress 
and  the  national  government,  her  wants  and  situation ;  and,  by 
the  latter,  settlements  would  be  made  further  into  the  interior  of 
the  peninsula,  and  land,  now  studded,  at  long  intervals,  on  the 
banks  of  her  lakes  and  rivers,  by  the  Frenchman's  hut,  or  the 
solitary  post  of  the  fur-trader,  would  soon  become  the  sites  of 
towns  and  villages,  teeming  with  business  and  civilization.  ~No 
one  exerted  himself  with  more  zeal  to  effect  these  improvements 
in  her  condition  than  the  Governor,  convinced  as  he  was  that  the 
introduction  of  the  elective  franchise  among  the  people  would 
elevate  their  political  character;  and  that,  by  the  sale  of  the 
public  lands,  the  population  and  prosperity  of  the  country  would 
be  more  rapidly  advanced.  These  sales,  as  yet,  were  confined  to 
the  district  of  Detroit ;  but  by  the  extinguishment  of  the  Indian 
titles,  new  surveys  were  ordered  to  be  made,  and  those  vast  tracts 
of  land,  which  hitherto  had  been  mere  ranges  for  the  wild  beasts 
and  savages,  wrere  soon  to  resound  with  the  echo  of  the  woodman's 
ax,  and  the  log  houses  of  the  hardy  pioneers  would  stud  the 
wilderness. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  117 


CHAPTER  IX. 

General  Cass'  Indian  Superintendency  extended — His  Views  of  Governmental  Policy — lie  recommends 
Peaceful  Expeditions  into  the  Superior  Country — His  Letter  to  the  Seci'etary  of  War— The  Secre 
tary's  Reply— Expedition — Plaster  of  Paris  discovered — His  Letter  upon  the  Subject — Ordered 
to  procure  Cessions  of  Land  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie. — Departure  of  the  Expedition — Arrival  at  the 
Sault — Indian  Council — General  Cass'  Fearlessness — His  Success— Journey  to  the  Sources  of  the 
Mississippi — Return — Report  to  the  Department. 

By  additional  orders  from  the  government,  the  superintend- 
ency  of  General  Cass  over  the  Indians  gradually  extended.  As 
the  country  over  which  they  spread  could  not  be  used  for  the 
purposes  of  civilization  until  savage  occupancy  was  terminated, 
it  had  been,  and  continued  to  be,  his  first  duty  to  cultivate  amity, 
and,  by  treaty,  extinguish  their  rights.  He  had  now  negotiated 
for  the  Peninsula  of  Michigan,  Northern  Ohio,  and  Indiana.  The 
Fox  and  Sac  Indians  annually  made  their  appearance,  to  receive 
thousands  of  dollars  of  presents  from  the  British  agent  at  Maiden. 
It  was  no  unfrequent  occurrence  for  them,  as  they  passed  along, 
to  commit  depredations  upon  the  property  of  the  whites ;  and  by 
this  constant  tribute,  a  feeling  of  attachment  was  growing  up  and 
strengthening  towards  the  British  government.  It  required  but 
little  sagacity  to  foresee  the  injurious  effect  of  this  to  the  United 
States,  if  allowed  to  continue,  even  in  time  of  peace;  and,  in 
the  event  of  war,  apprehensions  of  still  worse  consequences  were 
entertained  by  those  conversant  with  Indian  character.  General 
Cass  witnessed  and  dreaded  the  influence  which  this  practice, 
now  in  full  operation  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  produced  upon 
their  minds.  He  was  too  often  in  contact  with  them,  not  to 
fully  appreciate  it.  He,  on  several  occasions,  had  endeavored 
to  dissuade  them  from  repeating  these  annual  visits,  but  to  no 
purpose.  To  him  it  was  evident  that  there  was  but  one  course 
for  the  government  to  pursue,  and  that  was  to  go  into  their 
country,  and  employ  the  same  line  of  policy  with  them  as  had 
already  been  successfully  adopted  with  their  red  brethren  this 
side  of  the  Lakes.  Besides,  the  function  and  characteristics  of 
their  country,  were  in  fact  but  little  known,  beyond  the  general 


118  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

observations  of  indifferent  explorers  and  casual  travelers.  Im 
pressed  with  the  profound  importance  of  these  views,  he  took 
the  liberty,  in  the  fall  of  1819,  of  presenting  them,  in  form  and 
at  length,  to  the  War  Department,  in  the  following  communica 
tion,  dated  Detroit,  November  ISth,  and  addressed  to  John  C. 
Calhoun,  Secretary  of  War : 

"  Sin :  —  The  country  upon  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Superior, 
and  upon  the  water  communication  between  that  lake  and  the 
Mississippi,  has  been  but  little  explored,  and  its  natural  features 
are  imperfectly  known.  We  have  no  correct  topographical  deline 
ation  of  it,  and  the  little  information  we  possess  relating  to  it,  has 
been  derived  from  the  reports  of  the  Indian  traders. 

"It  has  occurred  to  me,  that  a  tour  through  that  country, 
with  a  view  to  examine  the  productions  of  its  animal,  vegetable 
and  mineral  kingdoms,  to  explore  Its  facilities  for  water  com 
munication,  to  delineate  its  natural  objects,  and  to  ascertain  its 
present  and  future  probable  value,  would  not  be  uninteresting 
in  itself,  nor  useless  to  the  government.  Such  an  expedition 
would  not  be  wholly  unimportant  in  the  public  opinion,  and 
would  well  accord  with  that  zeal  for  inquiries  of  this  nature 
which  has  recently  so  marked  the  administration  of  the  War 
Department. 

"But,  however  interesting  such  a  tour  might  be  in  itself,  or 
however  important  in  its  result,  either  in  a  political  or  geo 
graphical  point  of  view,  I  should  not  have  ventured  to  suggest 
the  subject,  nor  to  solicit  your  permission  to  carry  it  into  effect, 
were  it  not,  in  other  respects,  intimately  connected  with  the 
discharge  of  my  official  duties. 

"Mr.  Woodbridge,  the  delegate  from  this  Territory,  at  my 
request,  takes  charge  of  this  letter;  and  he  is  so  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  subject,  and  every  way  so  competent  to 
enter  into  any  explanations  you  may  require,  that  I  shall  not  be 
compelled  to  go  as  much  into  detail  as,  under  other  circumstances, 
might  be  necessary. 

"  The  route  which  I  propose  to  take,  is  from  here  to  Michili- 
mackinac,  and  from  thence,  by  the  Straits  of  St.  Mary's,  to  the 
river  which  contains  the  body  of  copper  ore,  (specimens  of  which 
have  been  transmitted  to  the  government,)  and  to  the  extremity 
of  Lake  Superior. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  119 

"  From  that  point,  up  the  river  which  forms  the  water  commu- 
lication  between  that  lake  and  the  Mississippi,  to  the  latter  river, 
ind,  by  way  of  Prairie  du  Chien  and  Green  Bay,  to  Lake 
Michigan. 

"  The  political  objects,  which  require  attention  upon  this  route, 
are: 

"  1.  A  personal  examination  of  the  different  Indian  tribes  who 
occupy  the  country  ;  of  their  moral  and  social  condition  ;  of  their 
feelings  towards  the  United  States  ;  of  their  numerical  strength  ; 
and  of  the  various  objects  connected  with  them,  of  which  human 
ity  and  sound  policy  require  that  the  government  should  possess 
an  intimate  knowledge.  We  are  very  little  acquainted  with  these 
Indians,  and  I  indulge  the  expectation  that  such  a  visit  would  be 
productive  of  beneficial  effects. 

"  The  extract  from  the  letter  of  Colonel  Leavenworth,  herewith 
enclosed,  and  the  speech  of  the  Winnebago  Indians,  transmitted 
to  the  War  Department  by  Mr.  Graham,  from  Rock  Island.  Feb 
ruary  24th,  1819,  will  show  how  much  we  have  yet  to  learn 
respecting  these  tribes,  which  are  comparatively  near  to  us. 

"  2.  Another  important  object  is,  to  procure  the  extinction  of 
Indian  titles  to  the  land  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Straits  of  St.  Mary's, 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Green  Bay,  and  upon  the  communication 
between  the  two  latter  places. 

"I  will  not  trouble  you  with  any  observations  respecting  the 
necessity  of  procuring  these  cessions.  They  are  the  prominent 
points  of  the  country — the  avenues  of  communication  by  which 
alone  it  can  be  approached. 

"Two  of  them,  Prairie  du  Chien  and  Green  Bay,  are  occupied 
by  a  considerable  population,  and  the  Straits  of  St.  Mary's  by  a 
few  families.  The  undefined  nature  of  their  rights  and  duties, 
and  the  uncertain  tenure  by  which  they  hold  their  lands,  render- 
it  important  that  some  step  should  be  taken  by  the  government 
to  relieve  them.  I  think,  too,  that  a  cession  of  territory,  with  a 
view  to  immediate  sale  and  settlement,  would  be  highly  important 
in  the  event  of  any  difficulties  with  the  Indians. 

"  My  experience  at  Indian  treaties  convinces  me  that  reasonable 
cessions,  upon  proper  terms,  may,  at  any  time,  be  procured.  At 
the  treaty  recently  concluded  at  Saginaw,  the  Indians  were  willing 
to  cede  the  country  in  the  vicinity  of  Michilimackinac,  but  I  did 
not  feel  authorized  to  treat  with  them  for  it. 


120  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"Upon  this  subject,  I  transmit  extracts  from  the  letters  of  Mr. 
Boyd  and  Colonel  Bowyer,  by  which  it  will  be  seen  that  these 
gentlemen  anticipate  no  difficulty  in  procuring  these  cessions. 

"3.  Another  important  object  is,  the  examination  of  the  body 
of  copper  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Superior.  As  early  as  the  year 
1800,  Mr.  Tracy,  then  a  senator  from  Connecticut,  was  dispatched 
to  make  a  similar  examination.  lie,  however,  proceeded  no  further 
than  Michilimackinac.  Since  then,  several  attempts  have  been 
made,  which  have  proved  abortive.  The  specimens  of  virgin  copper 
which  have  been  sent  to  the  seat  of  government,  have  been  procured 
by  the  Indians,  or  by  the  half-breeds,  from  a  large  mass,  represented 
to  weigh  many  tons,  which  has  fallen  from  the  brow  of  a  hill. 

"  I  anticipate  no  difficulty  in  reaching  the  spot,  and  it  may  be 
highly  important  to  the  government  to  divide  this  mass,  and  to 
transport  it  to  the  seaboard  for  naval  purposes. 

"It  is  also  important  to  examine  the  neighboring  country, 
which  is  said  to  be  rich  in  its  mineral  productions. 

"  I  should  propose  that  the  land  in  the  vicinity  of  this  river  be 
purchased  of  the  Indians.  It  could  doubtless  be  done  upon  reason 
able  terms,  and  the  United  States  could  then  cause  a  complete 
examination  of  it  to  be  made.  Such  a  cession  is  not  unimportant, 
in  another  point  of  view.  Some  persons  have  already  begun  to 
indulge  in  speculations  upon  this  subject.  The  place  is  remote, 
and  the  means  of  communication  with  it  are  few.  By  timely  pres 
ents  to  the  Indians,  illegal  possessions  might  be  gained,  and  much 
injury  might  be  done,  much  time  elapse,  and  much  difficulty  be 
experienced,  before  such  trespassers  could  be  removed. 

u  4.  To  ascertain  the  views  of  the  Indians,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Chicago,  respecting  the  removal  of  the  Six  Nations  to  that  district 
of  country :  an  extract  from  the  letter  of  Mr.  Kenzie,  sub-agent  at 
Chicago,  upon  this  subject,  will  show  the  situation  in  which  this 
business  stands. 

"  5.  To  explain  to  the  Indians  the  views  of  the  government 
respecting  their  intercourse  with  the  British  authorities  at  Maiden, 
and  distinctly  to  announce  to  them  that  their  visits  must  be 
discontinued. 

u  It  is  probable  that  the  annunciation  of  the  new  system,  which 
you  have  directed  to  be  pursued  upon  this  subject,  and  the  expla 
nations  connected  with  it,  can  be  made  with  more  effect  by  me 
than  by  ordinary  messengers. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  121 

"  6.  To  ascertain  the  state  of  the  British  fur  trade  within  that 
part  of  our  jurisdiction.  Our  information  upon  this  subject  is  very 
limited,  while  its  importance  requires  that  it  should  be  fully 
known. 

"  In  addition  to  these  objects,  I  think  it  very  important  to  carry 
the  flag  of  the  United  States  into  those  remote  regions  where  it 
has  never  been  borne  by  any  person  in  a  public  station. 

"The  means  by  which  I  propose  to  accomplish  this  tour,  are 
simple  and  economical.  All  that  will  be  required  is  an  ordinary 
birch  canoe,  and  permission  to  employ  a  competent  number  of 
Canadian  boatmen.  The  whole  expense  will  be  confined  within 
narrow  limits,  and  no  appropriation  will  be  necessary  to  defray  it. 
I  only  request  permission  to  assign  to  this  object  a  small  part  of 
the  sum  apportioned  for  Indian  expenditures  at  this  place,  say 
from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

"  If,  however,  the  government  should  think  that  a  small  display 
of  force  might  be  proper,  an  additional  canoe,  to  be  manned  with 
active  soldiers,  and  commanded  by  an  intelligent  officer,  would 
not  increase  the  expense,  and  would  give  greater  effect  to  any 
representations  which  might  be  made  to  the  Indians. 

44  An  intelligent  officer  of  engineers,  to  make  a  correct  chart, 
for  the  information  of  the  government,  would  add  to  the  value  of 
the  expedition. 

"  I  am  not  competent  to  speculate  upon  the  natural  history  of 
the  country  through  which  we  may  pass.  Should  this  object  be 
deemed  important,  I  request  that  some  person  acquainted  with 
zoology,  botany,  and  mineralogy,  may  be  sent  to  join  us. 

"  It  is  almost  useless  to  add  that  I  do  not  expect  any  compen 
sation  for  my  own  services,  except  the  ordinary  allowance  for 
negotiating  Indian  treaties,  should  you  think  proper  to  direct  any 
to  be  held,  and  entrust  the  charge  of  them  to  me. 

'  S 

"  I  request  that  you  will  communicate  to  me,  as  early  as  con 
venient,  your  determination  upon  this  subject,  as  it  will  be  neces 
sary  to  prepare  a  canoe  during  the  winter,  to  be  ready  to  enter 
upon  the  tour  as  soon  as  the  navigation  of  the  lakes  is  open,  should 
you  think  proper  to  approve  the  plan. 

"  Very  respectfully,  &c., 

"  LEWIS  CASS." 

The  department  gave   this  communication   the  consideration 


122  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

which  the  source  from  whence  it  emanated  entitled  it  to  receive. 
As  previously,  so  now,  the  views  of  General  Cass  had  weight 
with  the  government,  and  in  January  following,  he  received  the 
following  reply: 

"DEPAHTMEXT  OF  WAR,  January  14th,  1820. 

"Sis: — I  have  received  your  letters  of  the  18th  and  21st  No 
vember  last.  The  exploring  tour  you  propose,  has  the  sanction 
of  the  government,  provided  the  expenditure  can  be  made  out  of 
the  sum  allotted  your  superintendency  for  Indian  affairs,  adding 
thereto  one  thousand  dollars  for  that  special  purpose. 

"  The  objects  of  this  expedition  are  comprised  under  the  five 
heads  stated  in  your  letter  of  the  18th  of  November,  and  which 
you  will  consider,  with  the  exception  of  that  part  which  rebates  to 
holding  Indian  treaties,  upon  which  you  will  be  fully  instructed 
hereafter,  as  forming  part  of  the  instructions  which  may  be  given 
you  by  this  department. 

"  Should  your  reconnoissance  extend  to  the  western  extremity 
of  Lake  Superior,  you  will  ascertain  the  practicability  of  a  com 
munication  between  the  Bad,  or  Burntwood  river,  which  empties 
into  the  lake,  and  the  Copper,  or  St.  Croix,  which  empties  into 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  facility  they  present  for  a  communication 
with  our  posts  on  the  St.  Peter's. 

"  The  Montreal  river  will  also  claim  your  attention,  with  a 
view  of  establishing,  through  it,  a  communication  between 
Green  Bay  and  the  west  end  of  Lake  Superior. 

"To  aid  you  in  the  accomplishment  of  these  important  objects, 
some  officers  of  topographical  engineers  will  be  ordered  to  join 
you.  Perhaps  Major  Long,  now  here,  will  be  directed  to  take 
that  route  to  join  the  expedition  which  he  commands  up  the  Mis 
souri.  In  that  event,  a  person  acquainted  with  zoology  and 
botany  will  be  selected  to  accompany  him.  Feeling,  as  I  do, 
great  interest  in  obtaining  a  correct  topographical,  geographical 
and  military  survey  of  our  country,  every  encouragement,  consis 
tent  with  the  means  in  my  power,  will  be  given  by  the  Depart 
ment.  To  this  end  General  Macomb  will  be  ordered  to  afford  you 
every  facility  you  may  require. 

"  I  have,  etc., 

"  J.  C.  CALHOUN. 

"  His  Excellency,  LEWIS  CASS,  Detroit,  M.  T." 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  123 

In  March  following,  General  Cass  received  from  the  Secretary 
of  War  information  that  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  a  gentleman  of  science, 
and  particularly  skilled  in  mineralogy,  had  been  selected  to 
accompany  him  on  the  proposed  expedition.  He  also  received, 
in  another  communication,  a  letter  from  Giles  Sanford  &  Co.,  to 
the  Department,  with  reference  to  the  discovery  of  plaster  of 
Paris,  and  asking  permission  to  take  possession  of  it.  The  imme 
diate  reference  of  it,  and  the  subject  matter,  to  General  Cass  by 
the  Department,  is  indicative  of  the  unlimited  confidence  of  the 
government  in  his  integrity  and  intelligence.  It  was  not  abused. 
lie  immediately  acknowledged  its  receipt  by  the  following  reply: 

"DETROIT,  March  10th,  1820. 

"SiR: — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
letter  of  the  seventeenth  ult,  inclosing  a  copy  of  a  letter  from 
Giles  Sanford  &  Co. 

"Their  statement  with  respect  to  the  discovery  of  plaster  of 
Paris  upon  one  or  more  of  the  islands  in  the  vicinity  of  Michili- 
mackinac,  to  which  the  Indian  title  has  not  been  extinguished,  is 
correct.  Specimens  of  this  plaster  have  been  brought  here,  and 
it  is  reported,  by  competent  judges,  to  be  of  the  best  and  purest 
kind.  The  quantity  is  stated  to  be  inexhaustible,  and  as  vessels 
generally  return  empty,  or  nearly  so,  from  the  upper  lakes,  it 
could  be  transported  to  any  part  of  Lake  Erie  at  a  trifling  expense. 

"  I  have  great  doubts,  however,  whether  it  would  be  proper  for 
the  government  to  grant  any  permission  to  remove  this  plaster 
until  the  Indian  title  to  the  land  is  extinguished.  The  power  of 
granting  permission  for  that  purpose  is  not  given  in  the  c  act  to 
regulate  trade  arid  intercourse  with  the  Indian  tribes,  and  to  pre 
serve  peace  on  the  frontiers,'  and  appears,  in  fact,  to  be  inconsis 
tent  with  its  general  spirit  and  objects.  To  authorize  these  gen 
tlemen  to  negotiate  with  the  Indians  for  such  a  permission,  is 
contrary  to  the  settled  policy  which  has  always  been  pursued  by 
the  United  States.  I  know  of  no  case  in  which  individuals  have 
been,  or  should  be  permitted  to  hold  any  councils  with  the  Indians, 
except  to  procure  the  extinction  of  their  title  to  lands  claimed 
under  grants  from  one  of  the  States.  The  application  here  must 
be  to  the  tribe,  because  in  all  their  land  there  is  a  community  of 
interest,  which  can  not  be  severed  or  conveyed  by  the  acts  of 
individuals. 


124  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"But,  independent  of  precedent,  there  are  strong  objections  to 
this  course  in  principle.  If  private  persons  are  authorized  to 
open  such  negotiations  for  any  object,  the  government  will  find  it 
very  difficult  to  procure  from  the  Indians  any  cession  of  land  upon 
reasonable  terms. 

"  Were  these  islands  the  property  of  the  United  States.  I  think 
it  would  be  very  proper  to  permit  the  plaster  upon  them  to  be 
removed  by  every  person  making  application  for  that  purpose. 
The  supply  being  inexhaustible,  the  agricultural  interest  would  be 
greatly  promoted  by  such  a  measure,  and  the  dependence  upon  a 
foreign  country  for  this  important  article  would  be  removed. 

"  I  therefore  take  the  liberty  of  recommending  that  a  cession 
of  these  islands  be  procured  by  the  United  States  from  the  Indians. 
I  presume  that  this  may  be  done  without  the  payment  of  any 
annuity  to  them,  and  without  any  expense,  except,  perhaps,  a  few 
trifling  presents.  The  plaster  would  then  be  at  the  disposal  of 
government,  and  its  free  distribution,  under  such  regulations  as 
might  be  adopted  to  prevent  disputes  between  the  adventurers,  or 
a  monopoly  by  any  of  them,  would  be  equally  proper  and  bene 
ficial. 

"  Yery  respectfully,  sir, 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be 

"  Your  most  obedient  servant, 

"LEWIS  CASS. 

"lion.  JOHN  C.  CALIIOTJN,  Secretary  of  War." 

Impressed  with  the  importance  of  extinguishing  the  title  of  the 
Indians  to  the  lands  they  occupied,  General  Cass  again  addressed 
the  War  Department  on  that  subject,  on  the  eleventh  and  seven 
teenth.  And  in  a  letter  of  the  fifth  of  April,  the  Secretary  says : 

"  In  relation  to  procuring  cessions  of  land  from  the  Indians,  the 
government  has  decided  that  it  would  be  inexpedient  to  obtain 
any  further  extinguishment  of  Indian  title,  except  at  the  Sault  de 
St.  Marie,  where  it  is  the  wish  of  the  Department  that  an  incon 
siderable  cession,  not  exceeding  ten  miles  square  (unless  strong 
reasons  for  a  greater  cession  should  present  themselves  from  an 
actual  inspection  of  the  country),  should  be  acquired  upon  the 
most  reasonable  terms,  so  as  to  comprehend  the  proposed  military 
position  there. 

"  Herewith  you  will  receive  a  plate  of  the  country  about  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  125 

Sault  de  St.  Marie,  on  which  is  indicated  the  military  site  intend 
ed  to  be  occupied  for  defense.  You  will  also  procure  the  cession 
of  the  islands  containing  plaster,  provided  these  islands  are 
clearly  within  the  boundary  of  the  United  States,  and  can  be 
obtained  without  any  considerable  expense. 

"  A  commission,  authorizing  you  to  hold  these  treaties,  will- 
be  forwarded  to  you  in  a  few  days. 

"  As  it  is  desirable  to  know  by  what  title  the  people  at  Green 
Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien  hold  their  lands,  and  whether  or  not 
the  Indian  titles  to  those  lands  were  extinguished  by  the  French, 
at  any  period  subsequent  to  their  possession  of  the  country, 
(which  is  the  impression  of  this  Department),  you  will  communi 
cate  such  information  as  you  possess,  or  may  obtain,  during  your 
tour,  on  this  subject. 

"  In  addition  to  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  Captain  Douglass,  of  the  En 
gineer  Corps,  has  been  ordered  to  join  you,  and  Mr.  Whitney,  (in 
whose  behalf  application  has  been  made  for  that  purpose,)  may 
accompany  you,  if  you  can  accommodate  him.  Should  he  ac 
company  you,  he  will  be  allowed  the  same  compensation  made 
to  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  who  will  be  allowed  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents 
a  day  for  the  time  actually  employed." 

It  will  readily  occur  to  the  reader,  upon  a  perusal  of  these  doc 
uments,  that  different  motives,  relative  to  the  extinguishment  of 
Indian  title,  actuated  the  Secretary  of  War  and  General  Cass. 
The  military  defense  of  the  country  appeared  to  be  uppermost  in 
the  mind  of  the  former,  whilst  the  latter  embraced  within  his 
view,  also,  the  settlement  of  the  country,  and  its  ultimate  perma 
nent  prosperity.  The  government,  however,  sanctioned  the  en 
terprise  ;  and  its  projector  congratulated  himself  that  this  would 
be  a  good  stepping-stone  —  a  beginning,  at  least,  —  towards  the 
final  accomplishment  of  the  wise  policy  of  emigration  and  actual 
settlement,  which  he  then  favored  with  all  his  energies,  and  now 
is  crowned  with  splendid  results. 

The  expedition  —  viewed  in  all  its  aspects  —  was  the  most  im 
portant  ever  undertaken  under  the  auspices  of  the  government, 
and  was  so  regarded  by  the  public  prints  in  various  parts  of  the 
.United  States.  It  was  manned  as  recommended  by  General 
Cass,  in  his  first  suggestions  to  the  Department.  A  suitable  com 
plement  of  soldiers  was  detailed,  not  so  much  for  the  safety  of  the 
travelers,  as  for  its  effect  upon  the  Indians.  The  several  scientific 


126  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

gentlemen  who  had  been  selected  to  accompany  the  expedition 
reached  Detroit  in  May.  The  birchen  canoes,  in  which  the  ex 
pedition  was  to  be  conveyed,  were  ordered  from  the  Chippewas 
of  Lake  Huron,  near  Saginaw  Bay.  Combining  lightness  with 
strength,  they  could  be  readily  carried  over  portages,  and  bear 
considerable  burdens  when  afloat. 

The  traveling  party  consisted  of  General  Cass ;  Robert  A.  For- 
syth,  his  private  secretary ;  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft,  as  mineralogist ; 
Captain  D.  B.  Douglass,  professor  of  engineering  at  West  Point, 
as  topographer  and  astronomer ;  Doctor  Alexander  Wolcot,  as 
physician  ;  Lieutenant  Evans  Mackey,  United  States  Artillery,  as 
commandant  of  the  escort ;  and  James  D.  Doty  and  Charles  C. 
Trowbridge,  who  occupied  respectively  the  situation  of  official 
secretary  and  assistant  topographer.  Besides  these  gentlemen, 
ten  Canadian  voyageurs  were  taken  to  manage  the  canoes,  ten 
United  States  soldiers  to  serve  as  an  escort,  and  ten  Ottawa,  Chip- 
pewa,  and  Shawnee  Indians  to  act  as  hunters,  under  the  direc 
tions  of  James  Riley,  an  Anglo-American,  and  Joseph  Parks,  a 
Shawnee  captive,  as  interpreters. 

The  expedition  left  Detroit  on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  May. 
General  Cass,  with  several  of  the  members,  proceeded  by  land 
nine  miles,  to  Grove  Point,  on  Lake  St.  Clair.  The  banks  of  the 
river,  at  Detroit,  were  lined  with  a  large  and  enthusiastic  con 
course  of  people  as  the  canoes  passed  up ;  and  the  soldiers,  In 
dians,  and  Canadians,  were  exhilarated  with  the  scene,  and  merrily 
and  rapidly  took  their  departure.  The  party,  in  consequence  of 
a  heavy  gale,  were  detained  at  Grove  Point,  and  did  not  resume 
their  travel  until  the  twenty-sixth,  when  the  men  loaded  the 
canoes,  and,  at  mid-day,  the  expedition  embarked.  They  coasted 
along  the  lake,  passed  up  the  St.  Clair  river,  and  keeping  near 
the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Huron,  and  after  suffering  much  delay 
from  the  rain  and  wind,  on  the  sixth  of  June  reached  Michili- 
mackinac,  and,  with  a  complimentarj1-  salute  from  the  fort  to  the 
leader  of  the  expedition,  landed,  amid  the  congratulations  of  the 
citizens  of  that  northern  post,  who  pressed  forward  to  extend  the 
hand  of  welcome.  Here  terminated  the  first  great  pause  in  their 
journey,  after  a  tedious  voyage  of  fourteen  days,  and  at  a  remove 
from  their  starting  place,  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  long  miles. 
By  following  the  indentations  of  the  coast,  and  entering  Saginaw 
bay,  the  route  of  travel  was  longer  than  if,  as  on  board  of  a 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  127 

steamboat,  they  could  have  traversed  the  lake  farther  from  its 
storm-battered  and  rocky  shores. 

Having  spent  eight  days  on  the  island,  the  party  were  recruited, 
and  felt  better  prepared  for  plunging  deeper  into  the  north-west 
forest.  Before  venturing  to  enter  the  stronghold  of  the  Chippe- 
was,  whose  domain  encircled  Lake  Superior,  it  was  deemed 
prudent,  as  a  precautionary  measure,  to  take  along  an  additional 
military  force  of  twenty-two  men,  under  the  command  of  Lieuten 
ant  John  S.  Pierce,  of  the  United  States  Army,  a  brother  of 
Franklin  Pierce,  as  far  as  Sault  de  Ste.  Marie.  The  expedition, 
with  this  additional  force,  now  numbered  sixty-four  persons,  and 
embarking  from  the  island  on  the  fourteenth,  they  reached  the 
Sault  on  the  evening  of  the  sixteenth,  and  encamped  on  the  wide 
green  extending  along  the  river. 

This  place  was  the  seat  of  the  Chippewa  government,  and  being 
the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior,  and  at  the  head  of  ship  navigation, 
had  been  occupied,  as  a  military  and  trading  post,  from  an  early 
period  of  the  settlement  of  Canada.  Under  the  treaty  of  Green 
ville,  made  in  1795  by  General  Wayne,  a  reservation  was  made, 
covering  any  gifts  or  grants  of  land  in  the  North-west  Territory 
which  the  Indians  had  formerly  made  to  the  French  or  English, 
and  this  reservation  had  been  renewed  or  confirmed  by  treaties 
with  the  same  tribes,  since  the  conclusion  of  the  war  of  1812,  by 
the  treaty  of  Spring  AY  ells,  of  the  eighth  of  September,  1815,  and 
by  the  treaty  of  Fort  Harrison,  of  the  fourth  of  June,  1816.  Under 
these  treaties,  the  United  States  claimed  the  concession  formerly 
made  at  the  Sault,  to  the  French,  and  by  virtue  of  which  conces 
sion,  this  place  had  been  occupied  as  a  military  post.  General 
Cass  now  proposed  to  hold  a  council,  for  settling  the  boundaries 
of  the  grant,  and  thereby  obtain  an  acknowledgment  and  renewal 
of  the  concession. 

This  council  was  assembled  at  the  marquee  of  the  Governor, 
with  the  national  ensign  floating  above  it,  the  next  day  after  his 
arrival.  The  chiefs,  arrayed  in  their  most  attractive  habiliments, 
with  the  usual  profusion  of  feathers,  and  wearing  their  medals, 
received  from  time  to  time  from  the  British,  entered  the  marquee, 
and  seating  themselves  with  all  their  native  dignity,  opened  the 
council  with  the  ceremony  of  smoking  the  pipe  of  peace.  When 
this  was  finished,  and  the  interpreter,  James  Riley,  a  son  of  J. 
Y.  S.  Riley,  of  Schenectacly,  N.  Y.,  by  a  Saginaw  woman,  and 


128  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

acquainted  with  the  language  and  customs  of  the  Chippewas,  had 
taken  his  position,  by  direction  of  General  Cass,  he  explained  to 
the  chiefs  the  object  of  the  council.  They  gave  him  their  undi 
vided  attention ;  but  it  was  evident  that  the  interpreter's  speech 
was  not  well  received,  and  many  of  them  spoke,  in  reply,  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  proposition  of  re-occupancy.  At  first,  pretending 
ignorance  of  former  grants  to  the  French  and  English,  and  pressed 
from  that  position  by  a  recurrence  to  facts  which  they  could  not 
parry,  they  still  continued  to  evade,  and  the  talk  soon  became 
desultory  and  very  unsatisfactory.  They  differed  among  them 
selves,  and  the  discussion  soon  became  animated.  Some  expressed 
a  willingness  to  adjust  the  boundaries,  if  it  was  not  intended  to 
occupy  the  place  with  a  military  garrison,  accompanying  their 
remarks  with  the  suggestion,  that,  if  it  was  so  occupied,  they  were 
fearful  their  young  men  might  prove  unruly,  and  kill  the  cattle 
and  hogs  that  might  stray  away  from  the  garrison.  This  was 
designed  as  an  insidious  threat,  and  so  received  by  General  Cass; 
who  immediately,  in  an  emphatic  but  dignified  tone  and  manner, 
informed  them  that,  as  to  the  establishment  of  a  military  garrison 
at  that  place,  they  need  not  give  themselves  any  uneasiness,  for 
that  point  was  already  irrevocably  settled,  and  so  sure  as  the  sun, 
which  was  then  rising,  would  set  in  the  west,  so  sure  would  an 
American  garrison  be  sent  to  that  place,  whether  they  renewed 
the  grant  or  not.  Such  decision  always  has  great  weight  with  the 
Indians,  and  was  particularly  so  in  the  present  instance,  as  one 
of  the  officers  of  the  American  party,  just  before  the  assembling 
of  the  council,  very  indiscreetly  and  unauthorizedly,  had  intimated 
to  one  of  the  chiefs  that  it  was  not  intended  to  send  a  garrison 
there.  This  decisive  language  had  a  sensible  effect,  and  at  once 
brought  matters  to  a  crisis.  Their  animated  conversation  and 
violent  gesticulations  plainly  showed  that  high  words  were  passing 
among  the  Indians.  Shingabowassin,  of  tall  and  stately  stature, 
and  head  chief  of  the  band,  was  for  moderation.  Shingwauk,  a 
chief  who  was  on  the  war-path  in  1814,  was  for  extreme  measures. 
Sassaba,  a  tall,  martial-looking  chief,  wearing  a  scarlet  uniform, 
with  epaulets,  and  reputed  to  hold  the  rank  of  a  brigadier  in  the 
British  service,  was  the  last  chief  who  spoke  ;  and,  in  the  course 
of  his  speech,  assuming  a  look  of  savage  wildness,  he  drew  his 
war-lance,  and  stuck  it  furiously  in  the  ground  before  him,  and 
retaking  it,  left  the  marquee,  kicking  away  the  presents  which 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  129 

had  been  laid  before  him.  This  defiant  speech  brought  the  delibe 
rations  to  a  close,  and,  amid  great  agitation  and  excitement,  the 
council  was  summarily  dissolved,  the  Indians  going  to  their  hill, 
and  the  Americans  to  their  tents. 

The  Indian  encampment  was  situated  on  a  small  hill,  a  few 
hundred  yards  west  from  the  Governor's  marquee,  with  a  small 
ravine  between.  The  Indians  raised  the  British  flag  as  soon  as 
they  reached  their  encampment.  Supposing  that  their  superiority 
in  numbers  made  them,  on  that  occasion,  invincible,  they  ventured 
to  indulge  in  the  grossest  insolence.  The  business  of  the  party  at 
that  point  had  reached  a  crisis,  and  a  conflict  appeared  inevitable. 
The  Governor  instantly  ordered  the  expedition  under  arms,  and 
calling  the  interpreter,  proceeded  with  him,  naked-handed  and 
alone,  to  Sassaba's  lodge.  Several  of  the  party,  and,  among 
others,  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  being  armed  with  short  rifles,  volunteered 
to  accompany  the  Governor  as  a  body  guard,  but  he  decidedly 
refused  this.  On  reaching  the  lodge  of  this  hostile  and  violent  chief, 
he  with  his  own  hands  pulled  down  the  British  flag,  trod  upon 
it,  and,  entering  the  lodge,  told  Sassaba  that  the  hoisting  of  that 
insulting  flag  was  an  indignity  which  would  not  be  tolerated  on 
American  soil ;  that  the  United  States  were  the  natural  guar 
dians  and  friends  of  the  red  man,  and  desired  to  act  justly,  and 
promote  their  peace  and  happiness  ;  that  the  flag  was  the  emblem 
of  national  power,  and  that  two  national  flags  could  not  fly  in 
friendship  on  the  same  territory  ;  that  the  red  man  must  not  raise 
any  but  the  American,  and,  if  they  again  did  it,  the  United  States 
government  would  set  a  strong  foot  upon  their  necks,  and  crush 
them  to  the  earth ;  and  he  took  the  flag  to  his  own  quarters. 

This  intrepid  conduct  astonished  the  Indians,  and  was  all  that 
prevented  an  open  rupture.  Expecting  so  decisive  a  step  to  be 
followed  by  an  instant  attack  on  their  camp,  in  ten  minutes  after 
the  return  of  the  Governor  to  his  marquee,  the  Indians  had  cleared 
their  lodges  of  their  wromen  and  children,  and  covered  the  river 
with  their  canoes.  The  expedition,  now  under  arms,  were  every 
moment  expecting  to  hear  the  war-whoop,  and  prepared  them 
selves  to  receive  the  furious  shock.  They  remained  in  this  position 
for  some  time,  but  finally  it  was  observed  that  the  Indians  ceased 
to  hold  themselves  in  a  hostile  position,  and  the  soldiers  were 
dismissed  to  their  tents. 

The  bold  and  daring  course  pursued  by  General  Cass,  had  had 


130  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

its  effect,  and  evidenced  a  thorough  knowledge  of  Indian  charac 
ter.  They  respect  bravery.  The  movement  of  the  entire  force 
of  the  expedition  would  have  brought  on  an  immediate  fight ;  but 
to  see  one  man,  and  unarmed,  walk  boldly  into  their  camp  and 
tear  down  the  symbol  of  their  power  without  ceremony,  amazed 
them,  and  brought  them  to  reflection.  General  Cass  has  since 
been  told,  that,  when  this  proceeding  was  stated  to  Mrs.  Johnston, 
the  daughter  of  Wabojeeg,  she  told  the  chief  that  resistance  was 
madness,  and  that  this  man,  Cass,  had  too  much  the  air  of  a  great 
man  to  be  trifled  with,  and  would  carry  his  flag  through  the 
country.  She  counseled  peace.  Shingabowassin  responded  to 
this  advice,  and  Shingwauk  coincided.  Before  the  day  passed,  a 
better  state  of  feeling  prevailed  among  all  of  them,  and  Shinga 
bowassin  renewed  negotiations.  Towards  evening,  another  council 
of  chiefs  was  convened,  and  a  treaty  read,  and  signed  by  all,  ex 
cept  Sassaba,  ceding  four  miles  square,  reserving  the  perpetual 
right  to  fish  at  the  rapids  of  the  river ;  and  the  next  day,  the 
seventeenth  of  June,  the  expedition  resumed  its  journey,  and 
entered  upon  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior. 

On  the  twenty-first,  they  reached  the  Pictured  Rocks,  so  called, 
consisting  of  a  series  of  lofty  bluffs,  extending  along  the  southern 
shore  of  the  lake  for  many  miles,  and  presenting  some  of  the  most 
sublime  and  commanding  views  in  nature.  Among  many  strik 
ing  features,  one,  in  particular,  attracted  the  admiration  of  General 
Cass.  It  was  called  the  Doric  Hock,  an  isolated  mass  of  sand 
stone,  projecting  into  the  lake,  consisting  of  four  natural  pillars, 
supporting  an  entablature  of  the  same  material,  and  presenting 
the  appearance  of  a  work  of  art.  On  the  entablature  rested  a 
stratum  of  alluvial  soil,  covered  with  pine  and  spruce  trees,  and 
many  of  them  sixty  feet  in  bight.  The  most  remarkable  feature 
of  this  wonder  consisted  of  an  excavation  of  the  entablature, 
between  the  pillars,  in  the  form  of  a  common  arch,  giving  it  the 
appearance  of  a  vaulted  passage  into  the  court-yard  of  some 
massive  pile  of  antiquated  buildings.  On  the  evening  of  this  day, 
they  came  across  a  village  of  Chippewas,  about  six  miles  beyond 
the  termination  of  this  picturesque  shore,  and  were  welcomed  to 
their  lodges.  Here  they  were  entertained  with  dancing  and  other 
festive  feats. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  June,  the  party  left  Lake  Superior,  and 
ascended  Portage  river.  After  a  boisterous  passage  much  of  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  131 

way,  and  rainy  weather,  and  after  passing  from  one  portage  to 
another,  on  the  fifth  day  of  July  they  reached  the  Fon  du  Lac. 
Ascending  the  St.  Louis  river  to  one  of  its  sources,  they  descended 
a  tributary  stream  of  Sandy  lake  to  the  Mississippi  river ;  thence 
ascended  to  the  Upper  Keel  Cedar  lake,  the  principal  tributary 
of  the  Mississippi ;  hence  they  descended  the  Mississippi  fourteen 
hundred  miles,  to 'Prairie  du  Chien.  They  then  navigated  the 
Wisconsin  river  to  the  Portage,  and,  entering  the  Fox  river,  de 
scended  it  to  Green  Bay.  At  this  place,  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  and 
others  of  the  party,  separated  from  General  Cass,  for  topographi 
cal  exploration  along  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  to  Mack- 
mac.  General  Cass,  taking  Chicago  in  his  route,  returned  to  his 
home  at  Detroit.  Here  he  arrived  on  the  tenth  of  September, 
having  traveled  over  four  thousand  miles,  and  exploring  a  region 
of  country  hitherto  unknown  in  its  various  characteristics,  and 
having  procured  additional  valuable  knowledge  of  the  various 
disposition  and  numbers  of  the  Indians,  and  a  more  accurate  and 
reliable  topography  of  the  vast  country  watered  by  the  great  lakes, 
lie  had  made  several  treaties,  and  had  accomplished  the  objects 
of  the  expedition. 

Hastening  to  report  to  the  government,  he  transmitted  the 
following  dispatch : 

"DETROIT,  September  14th,   1820. 

"  SIR  : — I  am  happy  to  be  enabled  to  state  to  you  that  I  reached 
this  place  four  days  since,  with  some  of  the  gentlemen  who  accom 
panied  me  on  my  late  tour,  after  a  very  fortunate  journey  of  four 
thousand  miles,  and  an  accomplishment,  without  any  adverse 
accident,  of  every  object  entrusted  to  me.  The  party  divided  at 
Green  Bay,  with  a  view  to  circumnavigate  Lake  Michigan,  and, 
I  trust,  they  may  all  arrive  here  in  the  course  of  a  week. 

"  As  soon  as  possible,  I  shall  transmit  to  you  a  detailed  report 
upon  the  subject. 

"  Since  my  arrival,  I  have  learned  that  Mr.  Ellicott,  professor  of 
mathematics  at  the  military  school,  is  dead.  I  can  not  but  hope 
that  the  office  will  not  be  filled  until  the  return  of  Captain  Doug 
lass.  I  do  not  know  whether  such  an  appointment  would  suit 
him,  but,  from  my  knowledge  of  his  views,  feelings,  and  pursuits, 
I  presume  it  would ;  and  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  him, 
during  my  tour,  enables  me  to  say  that,  in  every  requisite  quali 
fication,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  I  have  never  found  a  man  who  is 


132  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

bis  superior.  His  zeal,  talents,  and  acquirements  are  of  the  first 
order,  and  I  am  much  deceived  if  he  does  not  soon  take  a  distin 
guished  rank  among  the  most  scientific  men  of  our  country.  His 
situation  as  an  assistant  professor  to  Colonel  Mansfield,  and  his 
connection  with  the  family  of  Mr.  Ellicott,  furnish  additional 
reasons  why  he  should  receive  this  appointment. 
"  Very  respectfully,  sir, 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  LEWIS  CASS. 
"  HON.  J.  C.  CALIIOUX,  Secretary  of  War." 

As  soon  as  it  could  be  prepared,  the  following  report  was  made, 
covering,  in  full,  the  inquiries  to  be  answered  by  the  expedition: 

"DETROIT,  October  21st,  1820. 

"  SIR: — I  had  the  honor  to  inform  you,  some  time  since,  that  I 
had  reached  this  place  by  land  from  Chicago,  and  that  the  residue 
of  the  party  were  daily  expected.  They  arrived  soon  after,  with 
out  accident,  and  this  long  and  arduous  journey  has  been  accom 
plished  without  the  occurrence  of  any  unfavorable  incident. 

"  I  shall  submit  to  you,  as  soon  as  it  can  be  prepared,  a  memoir 
respecting  the  Indians  who  occupy  the  country  through  which  we 
passed  ;  their  numbers,  disposition,  wants,  &c.  It  will  be  enough 
at  present  to  say  that  the  whole  frontier  is  in  a  state  of  profound 
peace,  and  that  the  remote  Indians  more  particularly  exhibit  the 
most  friendly  feelings  towards  the  United  States.  As  we  approach 
the  points  of  contact  between  them  and  the  British,  the  strength 
of  attachment  evidently  decreases,  and,  about  those  points,  few 
traces  of  it  remain.  During  our  whole  progress,  but  two  incidents 
occurred  which  evinced,  in  the  slightest  degree,  an  unfriendly 
spirit.  One  of  these  was  at  St.  Mary's,  within  forty-five  miles  of 
Drummond's  Island,  and  the  other,  within  thirty  miles  of  Maiden. 
They  passed  off,  however,  without  producing  any  serious  result. 

"  It  is  due  to  Colonel  Leavenworth  to  say,  that  his  measures 
upon  the  subject  of  the  outrage  committed  by  the  Winnebago 
Indians  in  the  spring,  were  prompt,  wise  and  decisive.  As  you 
have  long  since  learned,  the  murderers  were  soon  surrendered  ; 
and  so  impressive  has  been  the  lesson  upon  the  minds  of  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  133 

Indians,  that  the  transaction  has  left  us  nothing  to  regret,  but  the 
untimely  fall  of  the  soldiers. 

"  In  my  passage  through  the  Winnebago  country,  I  saw  their 
principal  chiefs,  and  stated  to  them  the  necessity  of  restraining 
their  young  men  from  the  commission  of  acts  similar  in  their 
character  to  those  respecting  which  a  report  was  made  by  Colonel 
Smith.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  similar  complaints  will  not 
again  be  made,  and  I  am  certain  that  nothing  but  the  intemper 
ate  passions  of  individuals  will  lead  to  the  same  conduct.  Should 
it  occur,  the  acts  will  be  disavowed  by  the  chiefs,  and  the  offend 
ers  surrendered  with  as  much  promptitude  as  the  relapsed  state 
of  the  government  will  permit. 

"  The  general  route  which  we  pursued  was  from  this  place  to 
Michilimackinac  by  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Huron.  From 
thence  to  Drummond's  Island,  and  by  the  River  St.  Mary's  to  the 
Sault.  We  then  entered  Lake  Superior,  coasted  its  southern 
shore  to  Point  Kawena,  ascended  the  small  stream  which  forms 
the  water  communication  across  the  base  of  the  point,  and,  after 
a  portage  of  a  mile  and  a  half,  struck  the  lake  on  the  opposite 
side.  Fifty  miles  from  this  place,  is  the  mouth  of  the  Ontonagon, 
upon  which  have  been  found  large  specimens  of  copper. 

"  We  ascended  that  stream  about  thirty  miles,  to  the  great 
mass  of  that  metal,  whose  existence  has  long  been  known.  Com 
mon  report  has  greatly  magnified  the  quantity,  although  enough 
remains,  even  after  a  rigid  examination,  to  render  it  a  mineral  - 
ogical  curiosity.  Instead  of  being  a  mass  of  pure  copper,  it  is 
rather  copper  imbedded  in  a  hard  rock,  and  the  weight  does  not 
probably  exceed  five  tons,  of  which  the  rock  is  the  much  larger 
part.  It  was  impossible  to  procure  any  specimens,  for  such  was 
its  hardness  that  our  chisels  broke  like  glass.  I  intend  to  send 
some  Indians  in  the  spring  to  procure  the  necessary  specimens. 
As  we  understand  the  nature  of  the  substance,  we  can  now  fur 
nish  them  with  such  tools  as  will  effect  the  object.  I  shall,  on 
their  return,  send  you  such  pieces  as  you  may  wish  to  retain  for 
the  government,  or  to  distribute  as  cabinet  specimens  to  the 
various  literary  institutions  of  our  country.  Mr.  Schoolcraft  will 
make  to  you  a  detailed  report,  upon  this  subject  in  particular, 
and  generally  upon  the  various  mineral  ogical  and  geological  ob 
jects  to  which  his  inquiries  were  directed.  Should  he  cany  into 
effect  the  intention  which  he  now  meditates,  of  publishing  his 


134  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

journal  of  the  tour,  enriched  with  the  history  of  the  facts  which 
have  been  collected,  and  with  those  scientific  and  practical  reflec 
tions  and  observations,  which  few  men  are  more  competent  to 
make,  his  work  will  rank  among  the  most  important  accessions 
which  have  ever  been  made  to  oar  national  literature. 

"  From  the  Ontonagon  we  proceeded  to  the  Fon  du  Lac,  pass 
ing  the  mouths  of  the  Montreal,  Mauvais,  and  Brule  rivers,  and 
entered  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Louis,  or  Fon  du  Lac  river,  which 
forms  the  most  considerable  water  communication  between  Lake 
Superior  and  the  Mississippi. 

"  The  southern  coast  of  the  lake  is  sterile,  cold  and  unpromising. 
The  timber  is  birch,  pine,  and  trees  of  that  description  which 
characterize  the  nature  of  the  country.  The  first  part  of  the 
shore  is  moderately  elevated,  the  next  hilly,  and  even  mountain 
ous,  and  the  last  a  low,  flat,  sandy  beach.  Two  of  the  most  sub 
lime  natural  objects  in  the  United  States — the  Grand  Sable  and 
the  Pictured  Rocks — are  to  be  found  upon  this  coast.  The  for 
mer  is  an  immense  hill  of  sand,  extending  for  some  miles  along 
the  lake,  of  great  elevation  and  precipitous  ascent.  The  latter  is 
an  unbroken  wall  of  rocks,  rising  perpendicularly  from  the  lake 
to  the  hight  of  three  hundred  feet,  assuming  every  grotesque  and 
fanciful  appearance,  and  presenting  to  the  eye  of  the  passenger  a 
spectacle  as  tremendous  as  the  imagination  can  conceive,  or  as 
reason  itself  can  well  sustain. 

"The  emotions  excited  by  these  objects  are  fresh  in  the  recol 
lection  of  us  all ;  and  they  will  undoubtedly  be  described,  so  that 
the  public  can  appreciate  their  character  and  appearance.  The 
indications  of  copper  upon  the  western  part  of  the  coast  are  nu 
merous  ;  and  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  silver,  in  small 
quantities,  has  been  found. 

"  The  communication  by  the  Montreal  writh  the  Chippewa 
river,  and  by  the  Mauvais  and  Brule  rivers  with  the  St.  Croix,  is 
difficult  and  precarious.  The  routes  are  interrupted  by  long,  nu 
merous,  and  tedious  portages,  across  which  the  boats  and  all  their 
contents  are  transported  by  the  men.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
their  communication  can  ever  be  much  used,  except  for  the  pur 
poses  to  which  they  are  now  applied.  In  the  present  state  of  the 
Indian  trade,  human  labor  is  nothing,  because  the  number  of 
men  employed  in  transporting  the  property  is  necessary  to 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  135 

conduct  the  trade,  after  the  different  parties  have  reached  their 
destination,  and  the  intermediate  labor  does  not  affect  the  aggregate 
amount  of  the  expense.  Under  ordinary  circumstances,  and  for 
those  purposes  to  which  water  communication  is  applied  in  the 
common  course  of  civilized  trade,  these  routes  would  be  aban 
doned.  From  the  mouth  of  the  Montreal  river  alone  to  its  source, 
there  are  not  less  than  forty-five  miles  of  portage. 

"  The  St.  Louis  river  is  a  considerable  stream,  and  for  twenty  - 
five  miles  its  navigation  is  uninterrupted.  At  this  distance,  near 
an  establishment  of  the  South-West  Company,  commences  the 
Grand  Portage,  about  six  miles  in  length,  across  spurs  of  the 
Porcupine  ridge  of  mountains.  One  other  portage,  one  of  a  mile 
and  a  half,  and  a  continued  succession  of  falls,  called  the  Grand 
Itapids,  extending  nine  miles,  and  certainly  unsurmountable. 
except  by  the  skill  and  perseverance  of  Canadian  boatmen,  con 
ducts  us  to  a  comparatively  tranquil  part  of  the  river.  From  here 
to  the  head  of  the  Savannah  river,  a  small  branch  of  the  St.  Louis, 
the  navigation  is  uninterrupted,  and,  after  a  portage  of  four 
miles,  the  descent  is  easy  into  Lac  du  Sable,  whose  outlet  is 
within  two  miles  of  the  Mississippi. 

"  This  was,  until  1816,  the  principal  establishment  of  the  Brit 
ish  North-West  Company  upon  these  waters,  and  is  now  applied 
to  the  same  purpose  by  the  American  Fur  Company. 

"  From  Lac  du  Sable,  we  ascended  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Upper  Red  Cedar  Lake,  which  may  be  considered  as  the  head  of 
the  navigation  of  that  river.  The  whole  distance,  three  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  is  almost  uninhabitable.  The  first  part  of  the 
route,  the  country  is  generally  somewhat  elevated  and  inter 
spersed  with  pine  woods.  The  latter  part  is  level,  wet  prairie. 

"  The  sources  of  this  river  flow  from  a  region  filled  with  lakes 
and  swamps,  whose  geological  character  indicates  a  recent  for 
mation,  and  which,  although  the  highest  table-land  of  this  part 
of  the  continent,  is  yet  a  dead  level,  presenting  to  the  eye  a  suc 
cession  of  dreary,  uninteresting  objects.  Interminable  marshes, 
numerous  ponds,  and  a  few  low,  naked,  sterile  plains,  with  a 
small  stream,  not  exceeding  sixty  feet  in  width,  meandering  in  a 
very  crooked  channel  through  them,  are  all  the  objects  which  are 
found  to  reward  the  traveler  for  the  privations  and  difficulties 
which  he  must  encounter  in  his  ascent  to  this  forbidding  region. 


136  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  The  view  on  all  sides  is  dull  and  monotonous.  Scarcely  a 
living  being  animates  the  prospect,  and  every  circumstance 
recalled  forcibly  to  our  recollection  that  we  were  far  removed 
from  civilized  life. 

"  From  Lac  du  Sable  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Peter's,  the  dis 
tance,  by  computation,  is  six  hundred  miles.  The  first  two  hun 
dred  present  no  obstacles  to  navigation.  The  land  along  the 
river  is  of  better  quality  than  above ;  the  bottoms  are  more  nu 
merous,  and  the  timber  indicates  a  stronger  and  more  productive 
soil.  But  near  this  point  commence  the  great  rapids  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  which  extend  more  than  two  hundred  miles.  The  river 
flows  over  a  rocky  bed,  which  forms  a  continuous  succession  of 
rapids,  all  of  which  are  difficult  and  some  dangerous.  The 
country,  too,  begins  here  to  open,  and  the  immense  plains  in 
which  the  buffalo  range  approach  the  river.  These  plains  con 
tinue  to  the  falls  of  St.  Anthony. 

"  They  are  elevated  fifty  or  sixty  feet  above  the  Mississippi, 
are  destitute  of  timber,  and  present  to  the  eye  a  flat,  uniform  sur 
face,  bounded,  at  the  distance  of  eight  or  ten  miles,  by  high 
ground.  The  title  of  this  land  is  in  dispute  between  the  Cliippe- 
was  and  Sioux,  and  their  long  hostilities  have  prevented  either 
party  from  destroying  the  game  in  a  manner  as  improvident  as  is 
customary  among  the  Indians.  It  is,  consequently,  more  abun 
dant  than  in  any  other  region  through  which  we  traveled. 

"  From  the  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Peter's  to  Prairie  du 
Chien,  and  from  that  place  to  Green  Bay,  the  route  is  too  well 
known  to  render  it  necessary  that  I  should  trouble  you  with  any 
observations  respecting  it. 

"  The  whole  distance  traveled  by  the  party,  between  the 
twenty-fourth  of  May  and  the  twenty-fourth  of  September,  ex 
ceeded  four  thousand  two  hundred  miles,  and  the  journey  was 
performed  without  the  occurrence  of  a  single  untoward  accident 
sufficiently  important  to  deserve  recollection. 

"  These  notices  are  so  short  and  imperfect,  that  I  am  unwilling 
to  obtrude  them  upon  your  patience.  But  the  demands  upon 
your  attention  are  so  imperious,  that  to  swell  them  into  a  geo 
graphical  memoir  would  require  more  time  for  their  examination 
than  any  interest  which  I  am  capable  of  giving  the  subject 
would  justify. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  137 

"  I  propose  hereafter  to  submit  some  other  observations  to  you 
in  a  different  shape. 

u  Very  respectfully,  sir, 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  LEWIS  CASS. 
"  Hon.  J.  C.  CALIIOUN,  Secretary  of  War.1' 

Mr.  Schoolcraft,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  published  a 
narrative  journal  of  the  travels  of  the  expedition,  and  in  it  gave 
a  minute  account  of  the  geography  and  topography  of  the 
country ;  hence  it  became  unnecessary  for  General  Cass  to  pre 
pare  a  more  extended  account  than  contained  in  the  foregoing  re 
port.  But,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  following  maturely  considered 
communication  to  the  War  Department,  he  was  of  the  opinion, 
that,  in  a  topographical  point  of  view,  further  examination  of  the 
country  was  desirable,  and  would  be  profitable  to  the  gov 
ernment. 

"DETROIT,  September  20th,   1820. 

"  SIK  : — In  examining  the  state  of  our  topographical  knowledge 
respecting  that  portion  of  the  north-western  frontier  over  which 
we  have  recently  passed,  it  occurs  to  me  that  there  are  some 
points  which  require  further  examination,  and  which  might  be 
explored  without  any  additional  expense  to  the  United  States. 

"  The  general  result  of  the  observations  made  by  Captain 
Douglass  will  be  submitted  to  you  as  soon  as  it  can  be  prepared. 
And  I  believe  he  will  also  complete  a  map  of  the  extensive  route 
wre  have  taken,  and  embracing  the  whole  of  the  United  States 
bounded  by  the  upper  lakes  and  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  extending  as  far  south  as  Rock  Island  and  the  southern  ex 
tremities  of  Lakes  Michigan  and  Erie.  The  materials  in  his  pos 
session  are  sufficient  for  such  an  outline,  and  he  is  every  way 
competent  to  complete  it.  But  there  are  several  important 
streams,  respecting  which  it  is  desirable  to  procure  more  accurate 
information  than  can  be  obtained  from  the  vague  and  contradic 
tory  relations  of  Indians  and  Indian  traders.  The  progress  of 
our  geographical  knowledge  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  extension 
of  our  territory  nor  with  the  enterprise  of  our  traders.  But  I 
trust  the  accurate  observations  of  Captain  Douglass  will  render  a 


138  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

resort  to  the  old  French  maps  for  information  respecting  our  own 
country,  entirely  unnecessary. 

"  I  beg  leave  to  propose  to  you,  whether  it  would  not  be 
proper  to  direct  exploring  parties  to  proceed  from  several  of  our 
frontier  ports  into  the  interior  of  the  country,  and  to  make  such 
observations  as  might  lead  to  a  correct  topographical  delineation 
of  it.  An  intelligent  officer,  with  eight  or  ten  men,  in  a  canoe, 
would  be  adequate  to  this  object.  He  would  require  nothing 
more  than  a  compass  to  ascertain  his  course,  for  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  correct  astronomical  observations  could  be  taken. 
In  ascending  or  descending  streams,  he  should  enter  in  a  journal 
every  course  which  he  pursues,  and  the  length  of  time  observed 
by  a  watch.  He  should  occasionally  ascertain  the  velocity  of  his 
canoe,  by  measuring  a  short  distance  upon  the  bank,  and  should 
also  enter  in  his  journal  his  supposed  rate  of  traveling.  This, 
whenever  it  is  possible,  should  be  checked  by  the  distance  as  es 
timated  by  traders  and  travelers.  By  a  comparison  of  these 
data,  and  by  a  little  experience,  he  would  soon  be  enabled  to  as 
certain  with  sufficient  precision  the  length  of  each  course,  and  to 
furnish  materials  for  combination,  which  would  eventually  exhibit 
a  perfect  view  of  the  country.  I  do  not  know  any  additional  expense 
which  it  would  be  necessary  to  encounter.  An  ordinary  compass 
is  not  worth  taking  into  consideration.  A  necessary  supply  of 
provisions,  a  small  quantity  of  powder,  lead  and  tobacco,  to  pre 
sent  occasionally  to  the  Indians,  and  a  little  medicine,  are  all  the 
articles  which  would  require  particular  attention.  Officers  em 
ployed  upon  such  services  should  be  directed  to  observe  the  natu 
ral  appearances  of  the  country  ;  its  soil,  timber  and  productions  ; 
its  general  face  and  character ;  the  hight,  direction  and  compo 
sition  of  its  hills  ;  the  number,  size,  rapidity,  &c.,  of  its  streams  ; 
its  geological  structure  and  mineralogical  products  ;  and  any 
facts  which  may  enable  the  public  to  appreciate  its  importance  in 
the  scale  of  territorial  acquisitions,  or  which  may  serve  to  enlarge 
the  sphere  of  national  science. 

"  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  officers  detached  upon  other 
duties  can  enter  into  the  detail  of  such  subjects  in  a  manner 
which  their  importance  would  render  desirable.  But  the  most 
superficial  observer  may  add  something  to  the  general  stock  ;  and 
to  point  their  inquiries  to  specific  objects  may  be  the  means  of 
eliciting  facts,  which  in  other  hands  may  lead  to  important  results. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  139 

The  most  important  tributary  stream  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  is 
the  St.  Peter's.  The  commanding  officer  at  the  mouth  of  that 
river  might  be  directed  to  form  an  expedition  for  exploring  it. 

"  It  is  the  opinion  of  Captain  Douglass,  and  it  is  strongly  for 
tified  by  my  personal  observation,  and  by  the  opinion  of  others, 
that  Lieutenant  Talcott,  of  the  Engineers,  now  at  the  Council 
Bluffs,  would  conduct  a  party  upon  this  duty  in  a  very  satisfac 
tory  manner.  lie  might  ascend  the  St.  Peter's  to  its  source,  and 
from  thence  cross  over  to  the  Red  river,  and  ascend  the  stream 
to  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  latitude,  with  directions  to  take  the 
necessary  observations  upon  so  important  a  point.  Thence  up 
that  branch  of  the  Red  river  interlocking  with  the  nearest  water 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  down  this  river  to  Leech  lake.  From  this 
lake  there  is  an  easy  communication  to  the  River  de  Corbeau, 
which  he  could  descend  to  the  Mississippi,  and  thence  to  St. 
Peter's. 

"  The  St.  Croix  and  Chippewa  rivers,  entering  the  Mississippi 
above  and  below  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  might,  in  like  man 
ner,  be  explored  by  parties  from  the  same  post.  The  former  in 
terlocks  with  the  Mauvais  and  Brule  rivers,  but  a  descent  into 
Lake  Superior  would  not  probably  be  considered  expedient,  so 
that  the  party  would  necessarily  ascend  and  descend  the  same 
stream. 

"  The  Chippewa  interlocks  with  the  Montreal  and  Wisconsin 
rivers,  and  consequently  the  same  party  could  ascend  the  former 
and  descend  the  latter  stream. 

"  A  party  from  Green  Bay  might  explore  Rocky  river  from  its 
source  to  its  mouth. 

"  A  correct  examination  of  Green  Bay  and  of  the  Menomonie 
river  might  be  made  from  the  same  post. 

"The  St.  Joseph  and  Grand  rivers  of  this  peninsula,  could  be 
examined  by  parties  detached  from  Chicago. 

"  It  is  desirable,  also,  to  explore  the  Grand  Traverse  Bay,  about 
sixty  miles  south  of  Michilimackinac,  on  the  east  coast  of  Lake 
Michigan. 

"  These  are  all  the  points  which  require  particular  examination. 
Observations  made  in  the  manner  I  have  suggested,  and,  connected 
with  those  already  taken  by  Captain  Douglass,  would  furnish 
ample  materials  for  a  correct  chart  of  the  country. 

"  It  is  with  this  view  that  it  might  be  proper,  should  you  approve 


140  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  plan  I  have  submitted  to  you,  to  direct  that  the  reports  of  the 
officers  should  be  transmitted  to  Captain  Douglass,  by  whom  they 
will  be  incorporated  with  his  own  observations,  and  will  appear 
in  a  form  best  calculated  to  promote  the  views  which  you  enter 
tain  upon  the  important  subject  of  the  internal  geography  of  our 
country. 

"  "Very  respectfully,  sir, 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  LEWIS  CASS. 
"Hox.  J.  C.  CALHOUN,  Secretary  of  War." 

The  above  communication  originated  Major  Long's  second 
expedition,  and  the  expedition  of  Henry  H.  Schoolcraft,  in  1832, 
to  Itosca  lake,  the  head  waters  of  the  Mississippi  river ;  and  for 
a  discovery  of  these  head  waters,  the  world  is  indebted  to  General 
Cass;  nor  is  it  presuming  too  much  to  add,  that  General  Cass 
was  mainly  instrumental  in  finally  obtaining  that  internal  geo 
graphy  of  the  western  country  which  Mr.  Calhoun  favored  ;  and 
had  he  not  followed  up  his  expedition,  described  in  this  chapter, 
with  unremitting  efforts  to  obtain  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
topography  of  the  regions  to  which  he  referred  in  the  foregoing 
communication,  it  is  problematical  whether  civilization  would  not 
have  been  a  quarter  of  a  century,  at  least,  behind  its  present 
advancement,  in  all  the  frontier  settlements  of  this  north-western 
country. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  141 


CHAPTER  X. 

Progress  of  Settlement — Land  Sales — General  Cass'  Purchase — Scarcity  of  Roads — Public  Surveys — 
Population  of  Michigan — Extinguishment  of  Indian  Title — His  Journey  to  Chicago — Treaty  with 
the  Indians— He  prohibits  the  Use  of  Whiskey— The  Pardoning  Power— New  Counties— Public 
Conveyances — Travelers — He  recommends  a  Change  of  Government — Legislative  Council. 

Most  of  the  year  1820  was  thus  occupied  by  General  Cass.  He 
devoted  himself  attentively,  upon  his  return  from  the  Mississippi, 
to  the  executive  duties  constantly  claiming  attention  at  Detroit. 
Public  lands  had  been  brought  into  market,  and  sold,  in  most 

CD 

instances,  to  actual  settlers.  With  the  progress  of  settlement 
came  the  necessity  of  extending  the  protecting  arm  of  the  govern 
ment.  The  laws  were  to  be  enforced,  and  hence  courts  must  be 
instituted,  and  officers  appointed  to  administer  justice,  who  would 
keep  the  fountain  pure.  Besides,  in  a  newly  settled  country,  it  is 
necessary  that  the  relations  of  neighborhood  should  be  maintained 
on  a  different  basis  from  what  is  observed  in  older  communities. 
The  ledger  is  not  as  often  posted;  the  accounts  between  creditor 
and  debtor  are  kept  in  the  mind,  and  left  to  memory  for  the  total 
footings,  instead  of  being  carefully  and  methodically  transcribed, 
and  left  to  paper  and  ink.  Occasional  chalkings,  and  imperfect 
and  badly  written  and  worse  spelled  figures  and  words  often  com 
prised  the  trade-books  of  the  merchant ;  and  as  for  the  mechanic 
and  artificer  in  iron,  like  the  earliest  of  which  we  read  in  all  anti 
quity,  they  never  were  at  pains  to  go  beyond  a  hieroglyphic,  if 
even  they  stopped  to  do  that ;  whilst  the  sturdy  and  indefatigable 
tiller  of  the  soil  squared  his  scores  as  he  went  along,  especially  on 
the  credit  side.  If  his  annual  surplus  crops  did  not  yield  enough 
to  balance  the  bill  for  groceries  and  merchandise  and  farm  expen 
ses,  u  the  open,  running  account"  was  continued,  and  another  year 
checked  upon  to  close  it.  As  in  longer  settled  countries,  so  in  this, 
occasionally  a  sharper  would  make  his  appearance  on  the  surface, 
well  fed  with  random  bait  carefully  stowed  away  in  his  maw,  and,  to 
the  surprise  of  the  honest  mechanic,  laborious  artificer,  and  simple- 
minded  farmer,  by  some  wonderful  legerdemain,  gradually,  but 


142  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

surely,  swallow  up  their  frugal  gains.  This  would  disturb  the 
peace  of  society,  and  mar  the  accustomed  harmony  of  the  little 
neighborhood,  if  it  did  not  tear  the  character  of  individuals. 

To  obviate,  or  rather  forestall,  crime,  and  save  the  hardy  pioneer 
from  such  pitfalls,  it  became  imperatively  necessary  to  start  the 
wheels  of  government  in  the  right  direction,  and  to  select  engi 
neers  that  knew  how  to  run  them,  and  knowing  how,  would  have 
the  integrity  to  do  so.  This  delicate  duty  was  ever  uppermost  in 
the  mind  of  their  Governor.  "No  speculator  himself,  and  destitute 
of  all  disposition  to  be  one,  yet  he  had  seen  too  much,  and  read 
too  much,  of  the  endless  transactions  of  business,  not  to  be  aware 
of  the  existence  of  such  a  disposition  in  others.  Consequently,  in 
all  his  communications  with  the  general  land  office,  he  constantly 
urged  the  policy  of  giving  preference,  in  all  reasonable  ways,  to 
the  settler.  Lands,  in  small  parcels,  and  at  low  prices,  was  his 
invariable  recommendation.  The  extent  of  General  Cass'  specu 
lations  in  real  estate,  is,  for  the  most  part,  comprised  in  two  pur 
chases — one,  of  five  hundred  acres,  on  the  bank  of  Detroit  river, 
at  the  price  of  twelve  thousand  dollars,  in  the  year  eighteen  hun 
dred  and  sixteen.  His  neighbors  told  him  that  the  sum  paid  was 
exorbitant;  and  if  any  thing  was  wanting  before,  that  act  was 
enough  to  confirm  them  in  the  belief  that  he  must  rely  upon  other 
sources  than  mere  traffic,  for  the  respectable  maintenance  of  his 
family.  It  is  true  that  the  price  paid  for  this  purchase,  (and  it  was 
paid,  after  the  example  of  his  puritanic  ancestry,  in  cash  upon  the 
delivery  of  the  deed.)  then  appeared  high,  and  most  extravagantly 
so;  but  General  Cass,  at  that  early  day,  intended  to  make  his 
then  residence  permanent,  and  he  bought  the  property,  in  fact,  for 
a  homestead.  And  if,  forty  years  afterwards,  the  ingathering 
shall  multiply  the  value  of  the  land,  thus  purchased,  by  fifties  of 
thousands,  until  it  reaches  nearly  two  thirds  of  a  million  of  dollars, 
the  philosopher,  in  his  reasoning  upon  this  aggregation,  must  not 
fail  to  overlook  the  fact,  that  it  is  the  result  of  natural  position, 
and  the  beneficent  measures  of  the  territorial  government. 

The  ordinance  of  '87  required  the  Governor,  as  a  qualification, 
to  hold,  in  his  own  right,  twelve  hundred  acres  of  land.  This 
qualification  was  complied  with  by  General  Cass.  The  tract  of 
twelve  hundred  acres  was  situated  at  or  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Detroit  river.  This  tract,  and  the  tract  of  five  hundred  acres, 
were  bought  of  private  individuals. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  143 

The  public  sales  of  1820-21,  gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  rising 
destinies  of  Michigan.  Several  cessions  of  land  had  been  pro 
cured  from  the  Indians,  and  these  were  necessary  before  a  full 
and  complete  title  could  be  acquired  by  the  United  States.  They 
were  honorable,  too,  to  the  American  government;  for,  whatever 
may  be  the  abstract  right,  under  the  laws  of  nature,  of  civilized 
nations  to  wrest  from  barbarians  the  soil  which  is  not  employed 
in  agriculture,  it  is  manifest  that  the  government  of  the  United 
States  had  a  paramount  right  to  these  lands  by  conquest.  They 
had  a  valid  and  indisputable  claim  by  conquest  from  the  English, 
and,  subsequently,  from  the  Indians  themselves,  in  Wayne's  war 
and  the  war  of  1812 ;  and  yet  they  only  claimed  the  right  of  pre 
emption  when  the  Indians  saw  fit  to  sell  their  lands. 

At  that  period,  but  few  roads  had  been  constructed  along  the 
sparse  settlements  through  the  wilderness,  and  these  were  in  a 
miserable  condition,  and  hardly  passable  for  the  traveler.  The 
constantly  increasing  settlements  were  calling  for  the  construction 
of  public  works  to  facilitate  emigration  into  different  sections,  and 
promote  easier  communication  with  each  other.  General  Cass 
made  extraordinary  efforts  to  obtain  the  aid  of  the  general  gov 
ernment  in  advancing  these  works  for  the  improvement  of  the 
Territory. 

These  calls  were  liberally  responded  to  by  the  general  govern 
ment.  Bills  passed  Congress,  and  appropriations  were  made  for 
opening  the  road  between  Detroit  and  the  Miami  river;  also,  for 
the  construction  of  a  road  from  Detroit  to  Chicago,  as  well  as  a 
road  from  Detroit  to  Fort  Gratiot,  and  the  improvement  of  La 
Ploisance  Bay. 

The  beautiful  system  of  surveys  of  the  public  domain  was  car 
ried  into  Michigan.  Two  straight  lines  were  drawn  through  the 
center  of  the  Territory — north  and  south,  east  and  west.  The  line 
north  and  south  was  denominated  the  principal  meridian,  and 
the  line  east  and  west,  the  base  line.  The  Territory  was  then 
surveyed  into  townships,  six  miles  square  ;  these  were  subdivided 
into  sections,  a  mile  square;  and  these  townships  were  numbered 
in  numerical  order,  increasing  from  the  meridian  and  base  lines. 
The  mathematical  accuracy  of  this  kind  of  survey,  and  the  addi 
tional  fact,  that  each  section  and  township  were  marked  by  the 
surveyors  on  the  trees  at  the  corner  of  each  section,  and  the  lines 
of  the  section,  also,  marked  by  shaving  off  the  bark  of  the  trees, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

furnished  unmistakable  land-marks  of  the  true  boundaries  of  each 
tract  surveyed. 

Thus  far  under  the  administration  of  General  Cass,  but  a  small 
quantity  of  land,  compared  with  the  whole,  had  been  brought 
into  market ;  and  this  was  in  the  eastern  portion  of  Michigan, 
and  lay  in  the  land  district  of  Detroit.  But  emigration,  in  silent 
progress,  was  now  gradually  scattering  its  settlers  over  the  forest. 
And  as  they  advanced  into  the  interior,  they  found,  frequently  to 
their  surprise, — for  the  representations  of  surveyors  in  many  in 
stances  had  been  of  a  different  character, — a  fertile,  dry,  and  un 
dulating  soil,  clothed  with  the  most  charming  scenery,  intersected 
by  limpid  and  rapid  streams,  and  studded  with  small  lakes  well 
stocked  writh  delicious  fish.  These  facts  were  not  concealed  from 
their  friends  and  acquaintances  left  behind  in  less  inviting  sec 
tions  of  the  country,  or  where  the  leading  avenues  to  wealth  and 
distinction  were  already  occupied.  The  interior  contained  no 
important  settlements,  but  amid  the  clearings  the  lonely  log  cabin 
curled  its  smoke  to  the  heavens  from  the  borders  of  its  lakes  and 
rivers  ;  and  among  the  stumps  and  riven  trunks  of  its  large  and 
stately  trees,  small  patches  of  wheat  glowed  in  the  sun — green 
and  inviting  islands  in  a  vast  and  magnificent  ocean  of 
wilderness. 

To  enable  these  settlers  to  be  overtaken  by  others,  and  to  in 
crease  the  facilities  for  commerce  and  open  communications  to 
market,  General  Cass  favored  the  immediate  construction  of  InVh- 

'  0 

ways.  These  roads,  he  insisted,  commencing  at  Detroit — the  great 
depot  of  the  Territory, — passing  through  the  most  important  parts 
of  the  peninsula,  and  terminating  at  the  borders  of  the  great  lakes 
which  almost  encircle  it,  were  essential  to  the  security  and  pros 
perity  of  the  country.  He  was  not  unmindful,  neither,  of  the  im 
portance  of  guarding  the  frontier  with  military  works.  In  refer 
ence  to  this  subject,  he  remarked,  in  one  of  his  communications 
to  the  department,  as  proof  of  the  necessity  of  its  attention,  that 
"  the  fort  at  Detroit  is  in  a  dilapidated  state.  Xo  repairs  have 
been  made  on  it  since  1812,  and  it  is,  in  fact,  incapable  of  de 
fense.  The  platform  could  not  bear  the  discharge  of  an  eighteen- 
pound  gun,  nor  is  there  a  single  piece  of  artillery  mounted  upon 
the  works.  The  pickets  and  abattis  are  rotten,  and  the  gates  un 
hung.  It  is  in  a  far  worse  condition  than  it  was  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  late  war.  The  military  works  at  Fort  Yv7'ayne, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  145 

Fort  Gratiot,  Sault  de  St.  Marie,  at  Green  Bay  and  Mackinaw, 
are  in  but  little  better  condition."  He  was  able,  however,  to 
awaken  but  little  attention  or  interest  at  this  time,  on  the  part  of 
the  general  government,  in  providing  a  solid  defense  to  the 
frontiers,  where  this  would  seem  to  have  been  most  required. 

As  settlements  extended,  he  saw  the  propriety  of  extinguishing 
Indian  titles  as  fast  and  as  far  as  possible.  So  far  as  the  peninsula 
of  Michigan  was  concerned,  most  of  this  work  had  been  per 
formed.  There  was  still  a  tract  lying  south  of  Grand  river,  and 
in  1821  his  services  as  Indian  negotiator  were  again  called  into 
requisition  ;  and  in  the  summer  of  that  year  he  again  embarked 
at  Detroit,  in  a  birch  canoe,  for  another  journey  over  stream  and 
portage.  He  ascended  the  Maumee,  crossed  the  intervening 
country  into  the  Wabash,  and  descending  that  river  to  the 
Ohio,  went  down  the  Ohio  to  the  Mississippi,  and  from  thence, 
striking  the  Illinois  river,  ascended  it  to  Chicago.  It  was  a  long, 
circuitous  and  lonely  voyage.  For  miles  he  saw  no  human  beings 
save  his  boatmen,  and  for  days  was  embowered  in  the  prime 
val  forest.  It  furnished  him,  nevertheless,  an  admirable  oppor 
tunity  to  become  acquainted  with  the  character  and  locality  of 
the  immense  country  through  which  he  so  silently  glided  ;  and 
an  abundance  of  time  for  reflection.  He  felt  he  was  traversing  a 
region  of  the  world  which  one  day  would  be  the  abode,  under  the 
segis  of  our  enlightened  republican  institutions,  of  millions  of  free 
men  yet  unborn,  and  that  the  future  benefit  of  the  services  which  he 
was  then  rendering  to  his  country  would,  in  its  advancement  and 
prosperity,  amply  compensate  all  his  personal  hazard  and  efforts 
in  its  behalf. 

Preliminary  to  the  commencement  of  the  negotiations  at  Chi 
cago,  the  American  commissioners,  who  were  General  Cass  and 
Judge  Sibley,  of  Detroit,  ordered  that  no  spirits  should  be  issued 
to  the  Indians,  and  informed  them, — as  they  would  say  it, — that 
the  bungs  were  driven  into  the  barrels.  A  deputation  of  chiefs 
waited  upon  the  commissioners  to  remonstrate  against  this  pre 
cautionary  measure,  and  at  its  head  was  the  hereditary  chief 
Top-ni-be,  really  a  respectable  man,  and  high  in  the  confidence  of 
the  Pottawatomie  tribe,  and  approaching  almost  his  hundredth 
year,  but  still  in  the  possession  of  his  mental  faculties,  and  physi 
cally  well  preserved.  Every  argument  was  used  by  General  Cass 
to  convince  them  that  the  measure  was  indispensable ;  he  told 
10 


14:6  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

them  that  they  were  exposed  to  daily  murders,  and  that  while  in 
a  state  of  intoxication  they  were  unable  to  attend  to  the  business 
for  which  they  were  convened,  and  urged  upon  them  not  to  drink 
the  fire-water.  All  this  was  useless,  and  the  discussion  was  only 
terminated  by  the  peremptory  refusal  of  the  commissioners  to  ac 
cede  to  their  request.  u  Father,"  said  the  hoary-headed  chief, 
when  he  was  urged  to  remain  sober  and  make  a  good  bargain  for 
his  people, — "  Father,  we  do  not  care  for  the  land,  nor  the  money, 
nor  the  goods.  What  we  want  is  whiskey.  Give  us  whiskey." 

At  Chicago, — then  a  mere  trading  post, —  after  several  talks,  in 
which  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  take  high  and  resolute  ground, 
he  made  a  treaty,  on  the  twenty -ninth  of  August,  with  the  Chip- 
pewas,  Ottawas,  and  Pottawatomies  of  Illinois,  by  which  nearly 
all  the  country  within  the  boundaries  of  Michigan,  south  of  Grand 
river,  and  not  before  ceded,  was  granted  to  the  United  States. 

General  Cass,  at  this  time  on  his  return  to  Detroit,  was 
called  upon  to  exercise  the  pardoning  power  in  two  cases  of 
murder,  and  here  noticed  for  its  novelty. 

Two  Indians, — named  Ive-wa-bish-kim  and  Ke-taw-kah, — were 
arraigned  at  the  September  term,  1820,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Territory  ;  the  former  for  the  murder  of  a  trader  at  Green 
Bay,  and  the  latter  for  the  murder  of  Dr.  Madison,  of  the  United 
States  Army.  Both  were  tried  and  found  guilty.  An  applica 
tion  was  made  to  the  Governor  to  pardon  them.  In  the  then 
present  attitude  of  our  Indian  relations,  and  well  aware  that 
British  agents  were  constantly  at  work  to  curry  favor  and  hold 
fast  the  friendship  of  the  Indians,  as  well  as  the  consideration 
that  higher  or  more  certain  evidence  of  malice  aforethought, 
perhaps,  should  be  required  in  the  case  of  a  savage,  the  Governor 
took  the  application  into  consideration.  Some  time  elapsed  be 
fore  he  made  up  his  final  decision  adverse  to  the  application.  The 
evidence  was  too  clear,  and  he  deemed  it  to  be  his  duty  to  let 
the  law  take  its  course.  December  twenty-seventh,  1821,  was 
the  day  of  execution  ;  and  from  the  current  accounts  of  the  event, 
these  men  met  their  fate  with  stoical  indifference. 

They  prepared  themselves  in  jail,  after  their  own  customs,  to 
meet  their  fate.  They  laid  aside,  as  an  offering  to  the  Great 
Spirit,  all  the  tobacco,  pipes,  and  such  other  articles  as  they  could 
get.  By  drawing  a  piece  of  leather  over  the  vessel  which  con 
tained  their  drink,  they  made  a  drum,  around  which, — having 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  147 

painted  themselves  black. — they  danced  their  death-dance.  With 
red  paint,  they  drew  upon  the  walls  of  the  prison  cell  figures  of 
men,  beasts  and  reptiles  ;  and  on  their  blankets  even  painted  the 
figure  of  an  Indian  suspended  by  the  neck.  The  gallows  was 
erected  in  a  spot  where  it  was  visible  to  them  ;  and  although  in 
formed  that  it  was  made  for  them,  it  excited  no  expression  of 
dread  or  apparent  fear  of  death.  Evidently  they  had  resolved  to 
die  with  Indian  fortitude,  admitting  their  fate  to  be  just  and  their 
punishment  deserved  ;  and  on  the  day  of  execution  they  ascended 
the  fatal  platform  with  firmness  and  composure.  When  the  last 
moment  arrived,  they  shook  hands  with  their  counsel  and  others 
who  stood  near,  and  asked  pardon  of  the  citizens  present  for  the 
crimes  they  had  committed.  Then  shaking  hands  with  each 
other,  the  officers  of  the  law  drew  the  caps  over  their  faces,  and 
these  swarthy  sons  of  the  forest,  as  it  were,  hand  in  hand,  passed 
into  the  spirit  land. 

In  the  following  year, — so  great  was  the  settlement  of  the 
country, — it  became  necessary  for  the  Governor  to  lay  off  and 
create  six  new  counties,  extending  from  the  head  of  Lake  Erie, 
parallel  with  Detroit  river  and  Lake  St.  Glair,  towards  Saginaw 
Bay.  Public  travel  also  began  to  increase,  insomuch  that,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  Territory,  a  public  stage  was  introduced  and 
plied  between  Detroit  and  the  seat  of  justice  of  Maeomb  county, 
in  connection  with  the  steamboat  on  Lake  Erie.  The  name  of 
the  steamboat  was  Walk-5n-the- Water,  and  named  after  the  Wy- 
andot  chief.  This  boat  had  no  competition  from  other  steam  ves 
sels,  being  the  only  one  which  navigated  the  lake,  and  was 
deemed  sufficient  to  transact  the  commercial  business  of  the  Ter 
ritory.  In  the  succeeding  year,  (1823.)  General  Cass,  by  the  re 
quest  of  the  Department  of  War,  met  the  Delaware  Indians,  and 
concluded  an  arrangement  with  them,  by  which  they  ceded  sev 
eral  valuable  tracts  of  land  lying  on  the  Muskingum  river,  in  the 
State  of  Ohio.  In  the  winter  of  this  year,  General  Cass  recom 
mended  a  change  in  the  territorial  form  of  government.  The  in 
crease  of  population  and  business  was  such,  that  he  felt  the 
responsibility  was  too  great  to  be  vested  in  the  governor  and 
judges, — embracing,  as  it  did,  the  legislative,  judicial  and  execu 
tive  functions  of  the  government.  He  thought,  too,  that  the 
people  should  have  more  voice,  and  should  have  a  representation, 
revocable  at  stated  periods.  In  his  judgment,  this  would  materially 


148  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

contribute  to  the  stable  progress  of  prosperity,  and  in  the 
end  give  more  satisfaction.  His  views  were  presented  to  Con 
gress  by  the  delegate,  and  Congress,  listening  to  the  application, 
passed  an  act  providing  for  the  establishment  of  a  Legislative 
Council,  to  consist  of  nine  members.  These  members  were  to  be 
appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  with  the  consent 
of  the  Senate,  out  of  eighteen  candidates  elected  by  the  people  of 
the  Territory ;  and,  with  the  Governor,  they  were  invested  with 
the  same  powers  which  had  been  before  granted  by  the  ordinance 
of  1787  to  the  Governor,  Legislative  Council  and  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  of  the  North- western  Territory.  By  this  act,  the 
legislative  power  arid  duties  of  the  governor  and  judges  were 
taken  away  ;  the  term  of  judicial  office  was  limited  to  four  years  ; 
and  eligibility  to  office  required  the  same  qualifications  as  the 
right  of  suffrage. 

This  action  on  the  part  of  Congress  invested  the  Territory  of 
Michigan  with  a  more  compact  and  energetic  government,  and 
met  the  cordial  approbation  of  the  inhabitants.  The  election  of 
councilors,  to  be  presented  to  the  consideration  of  the  President, 
awakened  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  government  among  the  peo 
ple  which  they  had  not  previously  experienced,  and  naturally  did 
they  consider  themselves  more  as  part  and  parcel  thereof.  In 
some  respects,  they  considered  that  they  had  changed  their  posi 
tion  from  that  of  servant  to  that  of  principal,  and  that  the  acts  of 
their  local  rulers  were  now  to  be  passed  in  review  by  themselves. 
They  also  experienced  that  other  sensation,  which  underlies  the 
growth  and  peaceful  prosperity  of  all  civilized  communities, — 
namely,  that  they  were  citizens,  exercising  the  elective  franchise 
guarantied  by  a  republican  constitution,  and  no  longer  occupying 
the  position  of  a  mere  dweller  or  visitor  in  the  land  selected,  vol 
untarily,  for  the  homes  of  themselves  and  families. 


OF  LEWIS  CABS.  149 


CHAPTEK  XL 

First  Session  of  Legislative  Council — General  Cass  delivers  his  Message — His  Recommendation— His 
Views  of  Political  Power — Of  Schools  and  Education — The  Copper  Mines — Treaty  with  the  Cliip- 
pewas — Council  of  Prairie  du  Chien — General  Cass'  Prudence  and  Tact — The  Gopher — Hunter's 
Narrative — Its  Exposure— The  Customs  aud  Traits  of  the  Indians — Their  Language,  Religion,  and 
Depopulation — General  Cass'  Description. 

In  conformity  with  the  Act  of  Congress,  nine  persons  were 
appointed  by  the  President,  to  constitute  the  Legislative  Council 
of  Michigan.  It  convened  for  the  first  time  on  the  seventh  day 
of  June,  1824,  at  the  Council  House  jn  Detroit.  General  Cass 
at  that  time  delivered  his  message,  in  which  he  briefly  reviewed 
the  progress  of  the  Territory,  since  his  administration  of  its 
government  commenced,  and  marked  out  what  he  considered 
the  proper  line  of  its  policy,  as  well  as  its  existing  condition.  In 
reference  to  the  devastations  during  the  war  of  1812,  he  remarks: 
"The  whole  population  was  prostrated  at  the  feet  of  the  relentless 
savages,  and  with  such  atrocious  circumstances  as  have  no  parallel 
in  the  annals  of  modern  warfare;  menaces,  personal  violence,  im 
prisonment,  and  depopulation,  were  indiscriminately  used,  as  either 
appeared  best  calculated  to  effect  the  object,  which  avowedly  was 
to  sever  our  citizens  from  the  allegiance  they  owed  to  their  country. 
Fortunately,  their  patriotism  and  energy  resisted  these  efforts,  and 
probably  in  no  portion  of  the  Union  was  more  devotedness  to  the 
general  cause  manifested  than  here." 

The  proceedings  of  this  Council  attracted  universal  attention 
among  the  citizens.  The  members  of  the  Legislature  were  guided 
by  the  Governor's  message,  which  contained  accurate  information 
of  the  condition  of  the  Territory,  and  indicated  a  thorough  know 
ledge,  on  the  part  of  the  Governor,  of  its  wants  and  capacities. 
He  recommended  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  township 
government,  in  which  matters  of  local  police  might  be  regulated 
by  the  people  in  their  primary  meetings ;  the  power  of  appoint 
ment  and  removal  of  territorial  oilicers;  a  limitation  of  tenure 
to  some  of  the  offices,  in  order  that  a  more  faithful  performance" 
of  the  duties  belonging  to  them  might  be  secured ;  the  necessity 


150  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  enacting  laws  for  the  surrendering  of  fugith7es  from  justice; 
the  organization  of  courts,  which  should  make  the  dispensation 
of  justice  convenient  and  attainable  in  remote  parts  of  the  Terri 
tory;  and  the  efficient  organization  of  the  militia.  lie  pointed 
out  the  benefits  which  would  result  mutually  to  the  constituent 
and  representative  by  the  division  of  the  Territory  into  districts ; 
the  importance  of  a  practical  and  well-digested  system  of  schools 
and  education;  the  situation  of  the  roads;  and  explained  to  them 
the  condition  of  the  finances  of  the  Territory,  and  recommended 
radical  changes  in  the  code  of  laws.  All  these  topics  were  dis 
cussed  in  a  statesmanlike  manner,  and  satisfied  as  well  the 
members  of  the  Council  as  the  inhabitants,  for  whose  welfare  he 
acted  and  wrote,  that  he  understood  their  interests,  and  had 
endeavored  to  subserve  them.  The  Legislature  responded  to 
these  recommendations  by  enactments  —  the  best  evidence  in 
their  power  to  give  of  their  unlimited  confidence  in  the  Chief 
Magistrate. 

The  Governor  believed  that  the  right  of  government  was  inhe 
rent  in  the  people ;  and  that  from  them,  in  a  republican  govern 
ment,  emanates  all  the  power  and  sovereignty.  In  commenting 
on  this  point,  he  remarks:  "The  legislative  power  heretofore 
exercised,  has  been  vested  in  officers  over  whom  the  people  had 
no  direct  control.  Authority,  thus  held,  is  certainly  liable  to 
abuse;  but  its  practical  operation  was  restrained  and  secured, 
as  well  by  the  limitations  provided  in  the  fundamental  ordinance 
as  by  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  and  the  superintending  control 
of  the  general  government.  Still  that  change  in  our  political 
system,  which  gives  to  the  people  the  right  of  electing  their  own 
Legislature,  is  not  only  correct  in  principle,  but  will  be  found 
most  salutary  in  its  operation. 

"The  power  of  appointment  to  office,  in  free  governments,  pre 
sents  for  solution  a  delicate  question.  In  this  Territorial  govern 
ment,  that  power  is  vested  in  the  Executive  alone.  I  feel  no 
disposition,  on  the  one  hand,  to  shrink  from  any  necessary  re 
sponsibility ;  nor,  on  the  other,  tenaciously  to  retain  any  power 
originally  granted  for  the  public  good,  but  which  the  public 
interest  now  requires  should  be  surrendered.  The  ordinance 
of  Congress  which  forms  the  basis  of  our  political  fabric,  was 
passed  thirty -five  years  ago.  It  was  a  political  experiment,  and 
successive  alterations  have  been  made,  and  to  remedy  defects 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  151 

which  experience  has  shown  to  exist,  and  to  accommodate  its 
principles  to  the  advancing  opinions  of  the  age.  My  own  obser 
vation  has  satisfied  me,  that  a  beneficial  change  may  be  made  in 
the  mode  of  appointment  to  office.  All  township  and  corpora 
tion,  and  many  county  officers,  particularly  those  whose  duties 
relate  to  the  fiscal  and  police  concerns  of  the  respective  counties, 
should  be  elected  by  the  people.  In  the  appointment  of  others, 
it  appears  to  me  proper  to  give  to  the  Council  a  participation. 
"No  system  which  has  been  adopted  in  the  United  States,  upon 
this  subject,  is  better  calculated  to  effect  the  object  than  that 
which  requires  a  nomination  by  an  executive  magistrate,  and 
the  concurrence  of  a  deliberative  body.  By  these  means,  we 
have  the  advantage  of  individual  responsibility  in  the  nomina 
tion,  and  also  a  check  upon  its  abuse,  in  the  required  concurrence 
of  a  co-ordinate  branch  of  the  government." 

Governor  Cass  also  called  the  attention  of  the  Legislature  to 
another  subject,  —  that  of  schools  and  education  —  a  subject  at 
that  day  not  so  much  discussed  or  generally  appreciated  as  since. 

"The  importance  of  this  subject,"  he  says,  "to  our  present 
and  future  prosperity,  must  be  too  well  appreciated  to  require 
any  observation  from  me.  A  practical  and  well-digested  system, 
which  should  extend  to  all  the  advantages  of  education,  would 
be  of  inestimable  value  to  this  young  and  growing  community. 
A  more  acceptable  service  could  not  be  rendered  to  our  fellow- 
citizens  ;  and  no  more  equitable  tax  can  be  levied  in  any  country, 
than  one  whose  application  is  directed  to  preparing  its  citizens 
for  appreciating  and  preserving  the  blessings  of  self-government.*' 

In  relation  to  the  accountability  of  the  representative  to  his 
constituents,  lie  comments  as  follows:  "It  is  always  desirable 
that  the  connection  between  the  representative  and  constituent 
should  be  as  intimate  as  practicable;  and  with  this  view,  districts 
are  usually  established,  within  which,  it  may  fairly  be  presumed, 
the  electors  will  be  acquainted  with  the  characters  and  preten 
sions  of  those  who  request  their  suffrages.  When  these  districts 
are  extensive,  and  particularly  when  they  embrace  a  whole  State 
or  Territory,  the  immediate  accountability  of  the  representative 
to  those  arnong  whom  he  lives,  and  who  know  him  best,  is  weak 
ened.  I  believe  it  would  be  expedient  to  divide  the  Territory 
into  districts,  and  assign  to  each  the  election  of  two  members  of 
the  Council." 


152  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

No  person  will  pretend,  but  that  these  sentiments  are  such  as 
would  be  expected  from  a  believer  in  the  doctrines  of  republican 
ism.  In  antagonism  to  the  once  popular  dogma  of  limiting  all 
civil  power  and  authority  to  the  few,  and  the  few  centered  in  one, 
he  planted  his  administration  upon  the  basis  of  popular  suffrage : 
that  being  the  government  of  the  people,  and  baptized  with  their 
hearts'  blood,  it  should  be  amenable  to  them,  and  at  all  times 
subject  to  their  revision.  The  Legislature  promptly  seconded 
their  Governor;  and  in  all  their  legislation,  this  sentiment  was 
steadily  kept  in  view.  With  what  benefit  and  success,  let  the 
subsequent  history  of  Michigan  attest. 

In  the  course  of  this  year,  (1824,)  General  Cass  directed  the 
attention  of  the  general  government  to  the  resources  of  that  part 
of  the  Territory  situate  on  Lake  Superior,  and>  in  particular,  the 
copper  mines.  He  recommended  that  steps  be  taken  to  obtain 
from  the  Indians  the  right  to  explore  that  country  for  mining 
purposes,  with  liberty  to  remove  iron  or  other  precious  metals 
found  there.  There  were  obstacles  in  the  way  of  procuring  an 
absolute  title;  but  all  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  pur 
chase,  could  be  as  well  attained  by  procuring  the  assent  of  the 
Indians  to  prosecute  mining  operations,  leaving  the  cession  of 
title  to  so*me  subsequent  negotiation.  The  country  was  known 
to  abound  in  rich  mines  of  copper  and  iron.  The  observations 
and  report  of  the  expedition  of  1820  had  fully  established  this 
truth,  and  subsequent  information  confirmed  it.  The  future  value 
of  these  mines  was  perfectly  obvious  to  General  Cass.  Writing 
on  this  subject,  in  November  of  this  year,  to  Thomas  II.  Benton, 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  he  remarks : 

"  The  metaliferous  region  is  upon  and  about  the  lake  shore,  and 
the  extinction  of  the  Indian  title  to  such  a  portion  of  it  as  may  be 
deemed  advantageous,  would  not  diminish  their  means  of  subsist 
ence.  But  I  still  think,  as  I  thought  originally,  that  it  would  be 
most  proper  to  negotiate  with  them  for  the  right  to  explore  the 
country,  and  carry  on  mining  operations  wherever  appearances 
may  promise  the  most  productive  results.  All  the  advantages  we 
could  expect  to  derive  from  the  mineral  riches  of  the  country 
would  be  gained  by  the  right  to  procure  and  take  away  any  por 
tion  of  them.  No  calculation  can  be  made  of  the  extent  and 
pecuniary  value  of  these  copper  mines.  No  doubt  is  entertained 
but  that  the  metal  may  be  procured  with  as  much  ease  as  in  any 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  153 

part  of  the  world.  In  fact,  it  is  well  known  that  large  masses  of 
pure  malleable  copper  have  been  discovered  in  different  parts  of 
the  country,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that,  when  those 
regions  are  fully  explored,  these  masses  will  be  found  to  be  still 
more  abundant.  The  cost  of  making  the  purchase  I  have  des 
cribed,  may  be  kept  within  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  and 
full  justice  be  done  to  the  Indians  interested.  It  might,  I  doubt 
not,  be  made  for  a  much  less  sum,  were  it  consonant  to  the  prin 
ciples  or  policy  of  the  government  to  procure  cessions  from  the 
Indians  at  the  lowest  possible  rate.  But  it  is  due  to  the  character 
of  our  country,  and  to  the  feelings  of  our  citizens,  that,  in  our 
negotiations  with  these  wretched  people,  we  should  remember  our 
own  strength  and  wealth,  and  their  weakness  and  poverty ;  that 
we  should  look  back  upon  what  they  have  lost  and  we  have  gained, 
and  never  forget  the  great  moral  debt  we  owe  them/' 

At  the  session  of  Congress  which  assembled  on  the  first  Monday 
of  December,  1824,  a  bill  passed  the  Senate  conferring  authority 
on  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  appoint  a  commissioner 
to  treat  with  the  Indians  for  permission  to  search  for  copper  on 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior.  The  bill,  however,  was  lost  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  ;  but  the  necessity  for  carrying  out 
the  sn^ffestion  of  General  Cass  became  so  obvious  to  the  next 

r^o 

Congress,  that  it  passed  the  bill,  and  a  treaty  was  made  with  the 
Chippewas,  granting  to  the  United  States  the  right  to  search  for 
and  carry  away  the  metals  or  minerals  found  in  any  part  of  their 
country.  This  was  the  commencement  of  mining  in  the  Superior 
region,  and  the  enterprising  miner,  and  the  companies  he  repre 
sents,  may,  in  justice,  attribute  their  right  to  tear  up  the  rocks 
and  mountains,  and  excavate  the  subterranean  caverns  of  earth, 
to  the  vigilant  watchfulness  and  far-seeing  statesmanship  of  Gen 
eral  Cass  at  this  early  day. 

In  the  year  1825,  the  general  government  believed  it  was  their 
duty  to  make  an  effort  to  terminate,  if  possible,  the  feuds  and 
enmities  existing  among  the  north-west  tribes  of  Indians.  Wars, 
for  many  successive  years,  had  been  waged  between  the  Chippe- 
.was  and  Sioux;  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  and  the  Sioux;  and  the 
lowas  and  the  Sioux.  The  last  named  tribe  roamed  an  extensive 
country,  and  was  turbulent  and  revengeful,  and  powerful.  It  was 
thought,  if  this  state  of  hostilities  was  suffered  longer  to  continue 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  the  evil  would  become 


154  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

incalculable.  Besides,  there  was  extreme  danger  of  these  wars 
extending  over  a  large  surface  of  countiy.  The  government 
became  fearful  that  other  tribes,  far  up  the  Missouri  and  Missis 
sippi  rivers,  would  become  involved  in  hostilities,  and  a  general 
warfare  be  the  consequence.  This  would  be  a  deplorable  evil, 
retarding  the  advancement  of  the  country,  and  creating  new  and, 
perhaps,  insurmountable  obstacles  to  a  removal,  of  the  tribes  fur 
ther  east,  beyond  the  Mississippi.  To  promote  peace  among 
themselves,  and  to  establish  limits  to  their  hunting  grounds,  so 
that  one  tribe  should  not  invade  the  domain  of  the  other,  and  thus 
remove  the  principal  source  of  all  their  difficulties,  General  Cass 
was  associated  with  Governor  Clarke,  of  the  State  of  Missouri, 
Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  and  well  acquainted  with  them, 
and  who  had  been  the  associate  of  Lewis  across  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains,  in  a  commission  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  general  pacifica 
tion  and  boundaries.  The  commissioners,  in  August,  at  Prairie 
du  Chien,  met.  in  pursuance  of  invitation  to  these  Indians,  large 
deputations  of  the  Sioux,  Chippewas,  Sacs,  Foxes,  Winnebagoes, 
lowas,  and  Menominees,  and  many  of  them  having  come  from 
points  a  thousand  miles  from  the  treaty  ground.  This  great 
council,  being,  from  numbers,  necessarily  of  many  dispositions 
and  minds,  was  quite  unwieldy,  and  it  was  many  days  before  the 
commissioners  were  able  to  penetrate  their  views.  Their  numer 
ous  claims  came  in  conflict,  and  were  perseveringly  and  doggedly 
urged.  It  was  a  herculean  task  to  reconcile  these  formidable 
differences,  and  induce  concession  and  relinquishment.  The 
nature  of  the  transaction  was  different  from  an  ordinary  treaty, 
where  lands  were  to  be  given  up  on  the  one  side,  and  a  consider 
ation  paid  therefor  on  the  other.  "  There  were  no  tangible  induce 
ments — no  glittering  gold  and  showy  presents.  The  consideration 
of  their  concession  was  entirely  a  moral  one.  It  was  asking  the 
turbulent  and  war-seeking  Chippewa,  the  brave  and  daring  Sioux, 
to  lay  down  the  tomahawk,  and  extend  the  hand  of  peace  and 
friendship  to  one  another,  while  each  held  the  unavenged  trophies 
of  valor,  obtained  in  deadly  combat."  All  the  caution  and  pru 
dence  of  the  commissioners  were  required  to  meet  successfully  the 
great  acuteness  of  the  Indians  in  defining  their  rights,  and  their 
pertinacity  in  maintaining  them ;  and  had  not  the  commissioners 
been  thoroughly  conversant  with  their  character,  and  undismayed 
with  their  frequent  startling  ebullitions  of  passion,  the  conference 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  155 

would  have  been  a  failure.  But,  to  the  perpetual  good  of  the 
Indians,  the  commissioners  concluded  a  treaty  with  them,  on  the 
nineteenth  of  August.  To  give  due  solemnity  to  this  treaty,  none 
of  the  ceremonies,  usual  on  such  occasions,  were  omitted  by  the 
commissioners.  To  these  ceremonies  the  Indians  attach  great 
importance,  and  such  a  token  of  respect  to  their  usages  and  cus 
toms,  operated  favorably  in  holding  them  more  faithfully  to  the 
fulfillment  of  their  agreements.  Accordingly,  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  treaty,  the  commissioners  entertained  all  of  the  Indians  with 
a  feast.  There  wras  a  peculiarity  attending  it,  however,  which 
struck  the  guests  with  astonishment.  General  Cass  made  use  of 
the  occasion  to  explain  to  them  the  evils  which  they  suffered  from 
an  indulgence  in  ardent  spirits,  and  pointed  out  to  them  the  ter 
rible  consequences,  if  they  continued  the  practice.  To  convince 
them,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  government  was  not  actuated  by 
a  parsimonious  spirit,  or  a  desire  to  save  the  cost  of  the  liquor, 
which  it  had  been  customary  to  distribute  at  the  signing  of  treaties, 
and  then  omitted,  the  commissioners  took  care  to  have  an  ample 
supply  of  whiskey,  to  be  brought  in  among  them.  As  they  were 
proceeding  to  help  themselves,  General  Cass  ordered  the  vessels 
containing  the  liquor  to  be  overturned,  and  the  entire  contents  to 
be  wasted  on  the  ground.  The  Indians,  by  their  repeated  excla 
mations  of  Te-yaw,  showed  much  disappointment,  and  were  aston 
ished  by  this  short,  practical,  and  novel  temperance  lecture.  The 
objects  of  this  treaty  were,  in  part,  attained.  It  resulted  in  a 
common  acceptance  of  certain  geographical  or  other  known  boun 
daries,  and  its  beneficial  results  accrue  with  each  coming  year. 
The  lines  of  separation,  defined  with  so  much  solemnity,  and  by 
such  general  consent,  are  appealed  to  as  decisive.  War  may  still 
prevail,  as  it  has  existed  for  ages,  but  border  contests,  the  most 
inveterate  and  sanguinary,  may  be  appeased. 

In  his  forest  travels,  General  Cass  had  the  opportunity,  and, 
sometimes,  the  leisure,  to  examine  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdom,  in  the  unequivocal  exhibition  of  nature.  In  one  of  his 
excursions  into  the  recesses  of  the  wilderness,  he  found  himself  in 
the  country  of  the  gophers — small  animals  which  dwell  princi 
pally  in  the  earth,  and  known  to  naturalists  under  the  name  of 
Pseudostoma  Bursarium.  Their  natural  habits  lead  them  to  bur 
row  in  the  ground,  and  they  are  furnished  with  two  pouches, 
formed  by  a  prolongation  and  indentation  of  the  skin  of  the  cheek, 


156  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

by  which  the  pouch,  while  it  opens  outwards,  is  contained  within 
the  jaws.  The  object  of  this  strange  apparatus  is  said  to  be  to 
enable  the  little  animal  to  excavate  his  dwelling,  in  the  sandy 
ground  where  he  loves  to  resort,  by  filling  his  pouches  with  sand, 
and  then  carrying  the  burden  to  the  entrance  of  his  hole,  and 
there  depositing  it,  by  pressing  his  fore  paws  upon  his  cheeks. 

At  this  time,  the  animal  was  not  much  known,  and  he  suc 
ceeded  in  procuring  one,  and  gave  directions  that  the  skin  should 
be  carefully  prepared  for  preservation.  It  was  in  the  month  of  July, 
and  it  became  necessary  to  turn  the  skin  of  the  pouches  inside 
out,  in  order  that  it  might  be  effectually  dried.  In  this  position, 
they  presented  the  appearance  of  two  strange-looking  projections, 
pushed  out  from  the  cheeks,  and  whose  object  it  would  be  difficult 
to  divine.  lie  saved  these  exuvice  of  the  gopher,  and  afterwards 
sent  them  to  a  naturalist,  in  New  York — a  man  of  much  worth ; 
at  one  time  of  high  political  standing,  and  who  was  then  a  point 
of  concentration  for  many  facts  in  natural  history,  which,  without 
his  zeal,  would,  for  the  time,  have  been  lost  to  science.  General 
Cass  did  not  replace  the  inverted  pouches  in  their  proper  position, 
never  dreaming  of  the  unlucky  renown  they  were  about  to  acquire, 
and  never  supposing,  for  a  moment,  that  any  mistake  could  exist 
respecting  their  natural  arrangement.  But  so  it  was:  the  stuffed 
specimen  was  sent,  by  the  New  York  philosopher,  to  Europe,  with 
the  projecting  appendages,  and  the  animal  formed  the  subject  of 
a  memoir,  of  Cuvier,  to  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  This 
zoological  stranger  was  described  as  belonging  to  a  new  species 
of  quadrupeds  ;  speculations  were  indulged  upon  his  proper  posi 
tion  and  habits  of  life:  thus  warning  us  that  the  highest  acquire 
ments  may  be  at  fault,  and  that  we  must  not  always  surrender  our 
confidence  to  the  greatest  names. 

In  the  year  1823,  John  Dunn  Hunter's  narrative  of  the  "Man 
ners  and  Customs  of  several  Indian  tribes,  located  west  of  the 
Mississippi,'1  appeared,  from  a  publishing  house  in  Philadelphia, 
and,  at  the  time,  attracted  much  attention.  General  Cass,  in  the 
course  of  his  tours  through  the  west,  had  satisfied  himself  thatthis 
work  was  an  imposture.  In  determining  to  expose  it  to  the  world, 
his  mind  was  led  to  dwell  on  the  subject  of  Indian  character,  lan 
guage,  and  condition,  and  he  wrote  the  article  which  appeared  in 
the  fiftieth  number  of  the  North  American  Review,  in  January, 
1826.  The  subject  was  full  of  interest,  and  written  in  a  style 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  157 

uncommonly  earnest,  chaste,  and  eloquent;  and  the  public  were 
gratified  to  learn  that  a  theme  so  interesting  had  engagei  the 
attention  of  so  cultivated  and  liberal  a  mind. 

General  Cass  was  too  much  attached  to  truth  and  opposed  to 
imposture,  to  stand  by  and  see  the  character  and  ways  of  the  poor 
Indian  mercilessly  hawked  at  by  an  unseen  foe.  "  More  than 
three  centuries  have  passed  away,"  says  he,  "  since  the  American 
continent  became  known  to  the  Europeans.  At  the  period  of  its 
discovery,  it  was  inhabited  by  a  race  of  men,  in  their  physical 
conformation,  their  moral  habits,  their  social  and  political  rela 
tions,  their  languages,  and  modes  of  life,  differing  essentially  from 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Old  World.  From  Hudson  Bay  to  Mex 
ico,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  country 
was  possessed  by  numerous  petty  tribes,  resembling  one  another 
in  their  general  features,  but  separated  into  independent  commu 
nities,  always  in  a  state  of  alarm  and  suspicion,  and  generally  on 
terms  of  open  hostility.  These  people  were  in  the  rudest  condi 
tion  of  society,  wandering  from  place  to  place,  without  sciences 
and  without  arts,  (for  we  can  not  dignify  with  the  name  of  arts  the 
making  of  bows  and  arrows  and  the  dressing  of  skins,)  without 
metallic  instruments,  without  domestic  animals ;  raising  a  little 
corn  by  the  labor  of  their  women  with  a  clam-shell  or  the  scapula 
of  the  buffalo,  devouring  it  with  true  savage  improvidence,  and 
subsisting  during  the  remainder  of  the  year  upon  the  precarious 
supplies  furnished  by  the  chase  and  by  fishing.  They  were  thinly 
scattered  over  an  immense  extent  of  country,  fixing  their  summer 
residence  upon  some  little  spot  of  fertile  land,  and  roaming,  with 
their  families  and  their  mat  or  skin  houses,  during  the  winter, 
through  the  forests,  in  pursuit  of  the  animals  necessary  for  food 
and  clothing.  Such  a  state  of  society  could  not  but  arrest  the 
attention  of  the  adventurer,  to  whom  everything  was  new  and 
strange.  A  spirit  of  inquiry  had  been  recently  awakened  in 
Europe,  and  the  discovery  of  the  mariner's  compass  and  the  art 
of  printing  had  wonderfully  enlarged  the  sphere  of  human  obser 
vation  and  given  new  vigor  to  the  human  faculties.  And  we 
find,  accordingly,  that  the  man  of  America  soon  became  the  sub 
ject  of  examination  and  speculation,  and  many  a  ponderous  tome 
has  been  written  on  the  topic,  from  the  letter  of  Yeneyzani  to 
Francis  the  First,  in  1524,  down  to  the  latest  work,  manufactured 
in  London  by  some  professional  book-maker,  whose  accurate 


158  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

knowledge  of  the  Indian  character  and  condition  has  been  ac- 
quii^d  by  profound  observation  within  Temple-bar,  or  who  strings 
together  the  falsehoods  of  such  men  as  the  personage  who  calls 
himself  John  Dunn  Hunter ;  and  whose  finale  is  always  a  jere 
miad  upon  the  savage  treatment  of  the  aborigines  of  this  conti 
nent  by  their  barbarous  Anglo-American  neighbors. 

u  Of  the  external  habits  of  the  Indians,  if  we  may  so  speak,  we 
have  the  most  ample  details.  Their  wars,  their  amusements, 
their  hunting,  and  the  more  prominent  facts  connected  with  their 
occupations  and  condition,  have  been  described  with  great  pro 
lixity,  and  doubtless  with  much  fidelity,  by  a  host  of  persons, 
whose  opportunities  for  observation,  and  whose  qualifications  for 
description,  have  been  as  different  as  the  places  and  the  eras  in 
which  they  have  written.  Eyes  have  not  been  wanting  to  see, 
nor  tongues  to  relate,  nor  pens  to  record,  the  incidents  which 
from  time  to  time  have  occurred  among  our  aboriginal  neighbors. 
The  eating  of  fire,  the  swallowing  of  daggers,  the  escape  from 
swathed  buffalo  robes,  and  the  juggling  incantations  and  cere 
monies  by  which  the  dead  are  raised,  the  sick  healed,  and  the 
living  killed,  have  been  witnessed  by  many,  who  related  what 
they  saw,  but  who  were  grossly  deceived  by  their  own  credulity 
and  by  the  skill  of  the  Indian  Waubeno.  We  have  ourselves,  in 
the  depth  and  solitude  of  our  primeval  forests,  and  among  some 
of  the  wildest  and  most  remote  of  our  Indian  tribes,  gazed  with 
ardent  curiosity,  and  perhaps  with  some  slight  emotion  of  awe, 
upon  the  Jongleur,  who  with  impudent  dexterity  performed  feats 
which  probably  it  is  wiser  to  witness  than  to  relate.  And  when 
the  surrounding  naked  and  painted  multitude,  exulting  in  the  im 
posing  performance,  and  in  the  victory  obtained  over  the  incredu 
lity  of  the  white  strangers,  fixed  their  eyes  upon  us,  and  raised 
their  piercing  yell,  breaking  the  sounds  by  the  repeated  applica 
tion  of  the  hand  to  the  mouth,  and  dancing  around  us  with  the 
activity  of  mountebanks  and  the  ferocity  of  demons, 

'  We  dare  not  say,  that  then  our  blood 
Kept  on  its  wont  and  tempered  flood ;' 

nor  that,  under  less  favorable  circumstances,  the  same  might  not 
have  been  terrific,  and  impressed  us  with  recollections  equally 
difficult  to  reject  and  to  account  for.  And  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  that  similar  scenes  in  other  times,  with  proper  '  appliances 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  159 

and  means  to  boot,'  have  been  the  origin  of  most  of  those  stones 
of  Indian  miracles  and  prophecies  which  occupy  so  large  a  por 
tion  of  the  narratives  of  our  earlier  historians  and  travelers. 

"  But  of  the  moral  character  and  feelings  of  the  Indians,  of 
their  mental  discipline,  of  their  peculiar  opinions,  mythological 
and  religious,  and  of  all  that  is  most  valuable  to  man  in  the  his 
tory  of  man,  we  are  about  as  ignorant  as  when  Jacques  Cartier 
first  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  constitution  of  their  society, 
and  the  ties  by  which  they  are  kept  together,  furnish  a  paradox 
which  has  never  received  the  explanation  it  requires.  We  say 
they  have  no  government.  And  they  have  none  whose  operation 
is  felt  either  in  rewards  or  punishments.  And  yet  their  lives  and 
property  are  protected,  and  their  political  relations  among  them 
selves  and  with  other  tribes  are  duly  preserved.  Have  they,  then, 
no  passions  to  excite  them  to  deeds  of  violence,  or  have  they  dis 
covered,  and  reduced  to  practice,  some  unknown  principle  of  ac 
tion  in  human  nature  equally  efficacious  with  the  two  great  mo 
tives  of  hope  and  fear,  upon  which  all  other  governments  have 
heretofore  rested  ?  Why  does  an  Indian,  who  has  been  guilty  of 
murder,  tranquilly  fold  his  blanket  about  his  head,  and,  seating 
himself  upon  the  ground,  await  the  retributive  stroke  from  the 
relation  of  the  deceased  ?  A  white  man,  under  similar  circum 
stances,  would  flee  or  resist,  and  we  can  conceive  of  no  motive 
which  would  induce  him  to  submit  to  such  a  sacrifice.  Those 
Indians  who  have  murdered  any  of  our  citizens,  have  generally 
surrendered  themselves  for  trial.  The  Winnebagoes  convicted  at 
Belleville,  the  Osages  at  the  post  of  Arkansas,  and  the  seven  per 
sons  now  confined  at  Mackinac  for  the  murder  of  four  American 
citizens  upon  Lake  Pepin,  in  August,  1824,  freely  delivered 
themselves  to  our  authority,  as  necessary  offerings  for  their  own 
guilt,  and  to  exonerate  their  tribes  from  suspicion  or  injury.  And 
it  is  but  a  just  tribute  to  the  impartial  execution  of  our  laws  to 
state,  that  the  persons  who  were  guilty  of  the  atrocious  murder  of 
a  number  of  Indians,  a  few  months  since  in  Indiana,  were  con 
victed  and  executed  in  June  last. 

u  This  result  is,  however,  sometimes  avoided  by  an  agreement 
on  the  part  of  the  friends  of  the  murdered  person  to  receive  a 
present  instead  of  the  life  of  the  offender.  It  is  the  price  of  blood, 
and  contributions  are  freely  made  to  it  by  all  the  relations  of  the 
criminal.  But  its  acceptance  or  rejection  is  purely  voluntary,  and 


160  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

as  there  is  no  obligation  to  receive,  so  no  offense  is  given  by  re 
fusing  this  peace-offering.  The  victim  dies,  if  the  love  of  revenge 
is  stronger  than  the  love  of  property.  In  1824,  an  Ottawa  Indian 
was  killed  by  a  Miami.  A  formal  negotiation  was  carried  on  be 
tween  the  two  tribes,  which  finally  resulted  in  the  payment  of 
five  thousand  dollars  by  the  latter  to  the  former.  It  is  worthy  of 
remark,  that  the  right  to  kill  a  murderer,  without  any  preparatory 
demand,  is  confined  to  persons  of  the  same  tribe.  When  the 
criminal  arid  the  victim  belong  to  different  tribes,  a  demand  must 
be  made  previously  to  the  adoption  of  any  other  measure,  which, 
if  not  satisfied,  is  followed  by  war. 

"  Within  the  last  year,  we  ourselves,  far  in  the  interior  of  the 
country,  while  surveying  the  initiatory  ceremonies  of  the  Indian 
Meetay,  one  of  their  mystical  societies,  saw  a  Chippewa,  whose 
grave  and  serious  demeanor  attracted  our  observation.  His  ap 
pearance  led  to  the  inquiry,  whether  any  peculiarity  in  his  situa 
tion  impressed  upon  his  deportment  the  air  of  seriousness  which 
was  too  evident  to  be  mistaken.  It  was  ascertained  that  he  had 
killed  a  Pottawatomie  Indian  during  the  preceding  season,  and 
that  the  Pottawatomies  had  made  the  usual  demand  for  his  sur 
render.  On  a  representation,  however,  that  he  was  deeply  in 
debt,  and  that  his  immediate  death  would  cause  much  injustice 
to  some  of  the  traders,  the  injured  tribe  at  length  agreed  to  post 
pone  his  execution  till  another  season,  that  the  produce  of  his 
winter's  hunt  might  be  applied  to  the  discharge  of  his  debts.  He 
had  been  successful  in  his  exertions,  and  had  paid  the  claims 
against  him.  He  was  about  to  leave  his  friends,  and  to  receive, 
with  the  fortitude  of  a  warrior,  the  doom  which  awaited  him.  He 
was  now,  for  the  last  time,  enjoying  the  society  of  all  who  were 
dear  to  him.  ~No  man  doubted  his  resolution,  and  no  man  doubted 
his  fate.  Instructions,  however,  were  given  to  the  proper  agent, 
to  redeem  his  life  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States. 

"  But  the  difficulty  of  surveying  the  Indians  in  their  own 
country  is  in  direct  proportion  to  its  importance.  They  are  jeal 
ous  and  suspicious,  unwilling  to  associate  with  strangers,  and  slow 
to  give  them  their  confidence.  Persons  unacquainted  with  them, 
and  ignorant  of  their  language,  can  not  reside  with  them,  and  follow 
them  from  camp  to  camp,  through  the  vicissitudes  of  the  seasons, 
and  exposed  to  privations,  which  Indians  only  can  provide  against 
or  successfully  encounter.  A  fortitude  and  zeal  which  could 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  161 

meet  and  overcome  these  obstacles,  are  rarely  found,  and  still 
more  rarely  applied  to  such  pursuits. 

u  The  Totem  is  the  armorial  badge  or  bearing  of  each  tribe  into 
which  the  various  nations  are  divided.  It  is  the  representation  of 
the  animal  from  which  the  tribe  is  named.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  discuss  the  principles  and  objects  of  this  institution.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  important  in  aboriginal  polity,  and  its  full  develop 
ment  would  lead  to  new  views  and  opinions.  Its  operation  is  felt 
in  religious  ceremonies,  in  the  laws  regulating  marriages,  and  in 
the  succession  and  election  of  civil,  or,  as  they  are  called,  Village 
Chiefs.  If  one  of  the  tribes  has  a  right  to  furnish  the  chief,  the 
others  have  a  right  to  elect  him.  The  tribes  are  named  from  the 
eagle,  the  hawk,  the  beaver,  the  buffalo,  and  from  all  the  '  beasts 
of  the  field,  the  fowls  of  the  air,1  and  the  fishes  of  the  rivers  and 
the  lakes.  The  succession  in  the  tribes  is  in  the  female  line,  and 
the  figure  of  the  sacred  animal  is  the  Totem,  which  every  indi 
vidual  of  the  tribe  affixes,  whenever  his  mark  is  necessary,  or 
whenever  he  wishes  to  leave  a  memorial  of  himself.  This  beloved 
symbol  adheres  to  him  in  death,  and  is  painted  upon  tbe  post 
which  marks  his  grave." 

Speaking  of  the  multiplicity  of  languages  and  dialects  among 
the  Indians,  he  remarks  :  u  It  is  easy  to  conceive,  that  roving 
bands  of  savages,  in  the  hunter  state,  may  separate  for  very  trivial 
causes,  and  that  dialects  may  soon  be  formed,  whicli  will  gradu 
ally  recede  from  one  another,  until  all  etymological  traces  of  their 
common  origin  can  with  difficulty  be  discerned.  Languages 
which  are  not  fixed  by  letters  must  be  liable  to  perpetual  fluctua 
tions  ;  and  as  the  intercourse  between  different  tribes  is  dimin 
ished  by  mutual  hostilities,  or  by  distance,  their  dialects  will  rap 
idly  recede  from  one  another.  In  this  manner  many  dialects,  and 
possibly  all,  have  been  formed.  The  Foxes  have  a  traditionary 
legend  upon  this  subject,  which  we  are  tempted  to  give,  because 
it  happily  explains  their  opinion  of  the  mode  in  which  these  sepa 
rations  of  natural  and  political  connection,  and,  consequently,  of 
languages,  have  been  brought  about. 

"  Many  years  since,  say  they,  two  bands  of  our  people  were 
living  near  each  other.  The  chief  of  one  of  these  bands  wanted 
some  Indian  tobacco,  and  sent  one  of  his  young  men  to  the  chief 
of  the  other  band  to  procure  some.  The  latter,  being  a  little 
offended  with  his  relation,  told  the  young  man  that  he  would  send 
11 


162  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

no  tobacco,  and  that  lie  had  long  tusks,  intimating  that  he  was 
disposed  to  quarrel.  The  young  man  replied  that  the  tobacco 
was  wanted  for  a  feast.  The  chief  then  took  up  a  pair  of 
JLpuTcwine,  (large  bone  needles,  made  of  the  ribs  of  the  elk,  and 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  rush  mats,)  and  throwing  his  pipe 
upon  the  ground,  put  these,  like  tusks,  upon  each  side  of  his 
mouth,  and  said,  '  My  teeth  are  long  and  strong,  and  will  bite.' 
The  young  man  returned  and  communicated  the  result  to  his 
chief,  who  assembled  his  warriors,  and  said,  c  My  warriors,  let  us 
prepare  to  pull  out  these  long  tusks,  lest  they  should  grow  sharp 
and  bite  us.'  He  then  directed  them  to  accompany  him  to  an 
attack  upon  the  other  party,  and  they  proceeded  to  form  an  am 
buscade  near  their  camp.  As  the  day  dawned,  the  chief  said, 
clt  is  now  light  enough,  we  can  see  to  pull  out  his  teeth.'  The 
attack  commenced,  and  many  were  destroyed.  This  is  the  way, 
says  the  tradition,  in  which  the  great  Indian  family  became 
divided.  Till  then  they  were  one  people. 

"  The  Wyandots,  and  the  various  tribes  of  the  Six  Nations, 
speak  dialects  having  a  general  affinity  ;  but  they  require  inter 
preters  in  their  intercourse  with  one  another.  The  Chippewa,  or 
Algonquin  language,  is  spoken  by  the  Chippewas,  Ottawas,  Pot- 
tawatomies,  Sacs  and  Foxes,  Shawnees,  Kickapoos,  Menomonees, 
Miamis,  and  Delawares ;  and  these  dialects  approximate  one 
another  in  the  order  of  arrangement,  the  Chippewa  being  the 
standard  dialect  and  the  Delaware  the  most  remote.  For  the 
three  first,  no  interpreter  is  required ;  for  the  three  next,  one  is 
convenient  but  not  necessaiy ;  and  the  three  last  are  too  imper 
fectly  understood  by  any  of  the  others  to  enable  them  to  converse 
without  assistance.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  at  the  era  of  discov 
ery,  a  knowledge  of  the  Chippewa  or  Algonquin  tongue, — for 
they  are  the  same, — would  have  enabled  a  traveler  to  communi 
cate  with  all  the  Indians,  except  the  Wyandots  and  their  kindred 
tribes,  from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Chesapeake,  and  from  the  ocean 
to  Lake  Superior. 

"  The  Trans-Mississippi  languages  are  divided  into  two  great 
families.  At  the  head  of  one  we  may  place  the  Sioux,  and  of  the 
other,  the  Pawnee.  The  Sioux  language  is  to  the  nations  west  of 
the  Mississippi  what  the  Chippewa  is  to  those  east  of  it.  That 
river  is  the  boundary  between  these  great  families ;  for  the 
"Winnebagoes,  who  live  upon  the  Fox,  Ouisconsin,  and  Rock 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  163 

rivers,  are  evidently  intruders  there.  Their  hereditary  country 
was  in  the  south-west.  Perhaps  some  branches  of  the  Illinois 
family  lived  at  a  remote  period  upon  the  Des  Moines.  But  the 
exceptions  to  the  general  statement  are  too  few  to  require  a  spe 
cific  enumeration.  Interpreters  are  convenient,  and  in  some  of 
these  dialects  are  necessary,  for  any  communication ;  but  we  be 
lieve  unerring  traces  of  the  Sioux  language  will  be  found  in  all 
the  dialects,  except  those  of  the  Pawnee  family,  extending  from 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Indians  who  roam  through  the  country  at 
the  heads  of  the  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  arid  occupy  the  passes 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

"  In  the  division  of  labor  among  the  Indians,  the  composition 
and  delivery  of  speeches  are  not  often  entrusted  to  the  same  per 
son.  In  all  important  questions,  the  chiefs  previously  assemble 
and  prepare  the  speech  which  is  to  be  delivered.  And  here  the 
influence  of  talent  and  authority  is  exerted  and  felt.  But  the 
public  delivery  of  the  speech  is  a  mere  act  of  memory  on  the  part 
of  the  orator.  The  addresses  for  which  Tecumthe  has  had  credit, 
were  prepared  principally  by  Walk-in-the-water,  the  Grey-eyed- 
man,  and  Isidore, — three  "Wyandot  chiefs  ;  and  the  celebrated  re 
monstrance  to  Proctor,  against  his  evacuation  of  the  country  upon 
the  Detroit  river,  and  in  which  he  was  told  that  he  appeared  like 
a  dog  running  off  with  his  tail  between  his  legs,  was  thus  pre 
pared  in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Walker,  a  respectable  half-Wyandot 
woman,  upon  whose  authority  w*e  state  the  fact.  Tecumthe  was 
not  an  able  composer  of  speeches.  We  understand  that  he  was 
particularly  deficient  in  those  powers  of  the  imagination  to  which 
we  have  been  indebted  for  the  boldest  flights  of  Indian  eloquence, 
lie  was  sometimes  confused,  and  generally  tedious  and  circum 
locutory. 

"The  Prophet,  the  brother  of  Tecumthe,  was  an  able  coadjutor. 
His  character  has  not  been  well  understood.  He  is  shrewd  and 
sagacious,  and  well  qualified  to  acquire  an  influence  over  those 
about  him.  We  are  inclined  to  think,  that  at  the  commencement 
of  his  career  he  was  a  fanatic,  who  had  seen  visions  and  dreamed 
dreams,  and  who  believed  the  doctrines  he  professed  and  incul 
cated.  This  practical  conquest  of  the  imagination  over  the 
reason  is  not  very  rare,  even  in  civilized  life;  and  there  is  a 
singular  feature  in  the  system  of  Indian  education,  by  which 
its  occurrence  is  encouraged  and  promoted.  It  is  admirably 


164:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

contrived  to  render  the  Indians  reckless  of  consequences,  and 
its  influence  is  not  less  powerful  than  the  sternest  principle  of 
fatalism.  The  tutelary  genii  guard  the  lives  of  their  favorites, 
and  the  eagle  receives  upon  his  beak  the  balls  of  their  enemies. 
The  process  commences  before  the  age  of  puberty,  and  continues 
for  a  shorter  or  longer  term,  as  the  revelations  are  more  or  less 
propitious.  The  appearance  of  some  animals  foreshows  a  happy 
destiny;  while  others,  and  particularly  snakes,  portends  misfor 
tune.  When  the  dreams  are  fortunate,  the  discipline  is  termi 
nated  :  but  when  otherwise,  it  is  interrupted,  and  after  some 
time  renewed,  with  the  hope  of  a  more  favorable  result.  If, 
however,  in  this  hope  they  continue  to  be  disappointed,  their 
situation  is  remediless,  and  they  must  submit  with  fortitude  to 
the  calamities  which  await  them.  Subsequent  events  in  life  are 
materially  affected  by  this  process,  and  vivid  impressions  are 
formed,  which  are  never  eradicated.  This  result  is  produced 
by  a  system  of  watching  and  fasting,  vigorous,  painful,  and  long 
continued.  During  this  period,  which  is  called  the  time  of  fast 
ing,  (in  the  Chippewa,  JLfaJcatea,)  many  rites  are  practiced  to 
render  the  lessons  impressive,  and  to  excite  the  feelings  to  a 
proper  degree  of  susceptibility.  The  guardian  Manitou  finally 
appears  in  a  dream,  assuming  the  shape  of  some  animal,  and  is 
ever  after  during  life  the  object  of  adoration.  The  real  or  imagi 
nary  qualities  of  this  animal,  indicate  the  character  and  the 
proper  business  in  life  of  the  dreamer.  If  it  is  an  eagle,  he 
must  be  a  warrior;  if  a  wolf,  a  hunter;  and  if  a  turkey  buzzard, 
a  prophet  or  physician. 

•;But  to  return  once  more  to  the  book  in  question.  Mr.  John 
Dunn  Hunter  is  one  of  the  boldest  impostors  that  has  appeared 
in  the  literary  world  since  the  days  of  Psalmanazar.  His  book, 
however,  is  without  the  ingenuity  and  learning,  which,  like  re 
deeming  qualities,  rendered  the  History  of  Formosa  an  object 
of  rational  curiosity.  It  is  a  worthless  fabrication,  and,  in  this 
respect,  beneath  the  dignity  of  criticism;  compiled,  no  doubt, 
partly  from  preceding  accounts,  and  partly  from  the  inventions 
of  Hunter.  He  says  he  left  the  Osages  in  1816,  when  he  was 
nineteen  or  twenty  years  of  age ;  and,  as  he  recollects  the  inci 
dents  of  his  capture,  he  was  then  probably  four  or  five.  He 
was,  therefore,  taken  about  1800  or  1801;  and  as  the  outrage 
was  committed  by  a  party  of  Kickapoos,  the  residence  of  his 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  165 

father  must  have  been  in  Indiana  or  Illinois.  His  description 
of  the  scene  shows  that  it  was  an  act  of  the  most  determined 
hostility.  And  all  this  was  in  a  period  of  profound  peace.  Such 
an  aggression  in  1800,  or  in  1801,  would  have  electrified  the 
whole  country  west  of  the  mountains.  We  have  our  own  distinct 
recollections,  to  justify  us  in  saying  that  no  such  incident  occurred. 
The  Kickapoos  were  quiet  from  the  signature  of  Wayne's  treaty 
till  the  commencement  of  the  difficulties  with  Tecumthe  and  the 
Prophet. 

"  Hunter  proceeds  to  state,  that  the  party  of  Kickapoos,  who 
took  him,  were  themselves  attacked  and  destroyed  by  the  Paw 
nees,  into  whose  possession  he  then  fell.  In  1800,  and  for  some 
time  after,  not  a  Kickapoo  lived  west  of  the  Mississippi.  They 
occupied  the  plains  about  the  Illinois,  and  between  that  river  and 
the  Wabash.  They  are  separated  from  the  Pawnees  by  extensive 
districts,  and  by  the  Osages,  Kansas,  and  Missouris.  The  Paw 
nees  and  Kickapoos  have  never  been  brought  into  contact  with 
each  other,  nor  have  they  ever  been  engaged  in  mutual  hostilities. 
After  residing  some  time  with  the  Pawnees,  by  a  similar  freak  of 
fortune,  he  was  thrown  into  the  possession  of  the  Kansas.  We 
have  then  an  affecting  description  of  the  i  venerable  chief  To-hut- 
che-nau.'  Where  this  respectable  man  lived,  except  in  these 
pages,  we  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain.  There  never  has 
been  a  chief  of  that  name  known  among  the  Kansas,  nor  is 
the  word  itself,  nor  anything  like  it,  to  be  found  in  the  Kansas 
language.  A  transfer  to  the  Osages  terminated  this  pilgrimage 
from  tribe  to  tribe.  And  with  them  he  continued  until  his  final 
restoration  to  civilized  life.  It  was  during  this  period  that 
Tecumthe  is  said  to  have  made  his  visit  to  the  Osages.  and 
delivered  his -celebrated  speech. 

"The  Osage  tribe  occupy  the  immense  plains  extending  from 
the  Missouri  and  the  Arkansas  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  They 
are  the  Ishmaelites  of  the  trans-Mississippi  country.  Their  hand 
is  against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  is  against  them. 
The  nations  of  the  Algonquin  family,  —  the  Shawnese,  Dela- 
wares,  Miamis,  Kickapoos,  —  and  also  the  southern  Indians, 
have  been  at  war  with  them  for  ages.  So  late  as  1818,  we 
witnessed  the  arrival  of  a  war  party  of  Shawnese,  among  their 
own  people,  from  a  hostile  expedition  against  the  Osages.  The 
Bcalps  which  they  bore  evinced  their  success,  and  the  shouts  of 


166  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  multitude  left  no  doubt  of  the  deep  interest  they  felt  in  the 
destruction  of  their  enemies.  No  Shawnese  had,  in  1812,  ever 
visited  the  Osages  as  a  friend,  nor  was  Teeumthe  ever  within 
many  hundred  miles  of  a  party  of  that  nation. 

"But  the  most  wonderful  event  in  the  life  of  Hunter,  is  his 
journey  to  the  Pacific.  And  wonderful  indeed  is  it,  that  a  party 
of  thirty-six  Kansas  and  Osages  should  have  reached  the  brink  of 
that  distant  ocean.  No  Osages  or  Kansas  ever  traversed  the 
Eocky  Mountains.  Their  inveterate  enemies  —  the  Alyetons — • 
guard  those  passes ;  and  even  beyond,  they  must  encounter  many 
hostile  tribes,  before  they  can  reach  the  ocean.  And  this  despe 
rate  expedition  was  undertaken  with  no  other  object,  that  we  can 
discover,  than  to  indulge  in  sentimental  reflections  and  descrip 
tions,  which  are  said  by  the  Quarterly  to  have  'great  simplicity 
and  beauty.' 

"Hunter's  impudence  is  exceeded  only  by  his  ignorance.  He 
says:  'The  unbounded  view  of  the  waves,  the  incessant  and 
tremendous  dashing  of  the  waves  along  the  shore,  accompanied 
with  a  noise  resembling  the  roar  of  loud  and  distant  thunder, 
filled  our  minds  with  the  most  sublime  and  awful  sensations,  and 
fixed  on  them,  as  immutable  truths,  the  traditions  we  had  received 
from  our  old  men,  that  the  great  waters  divide  the  residence  of  the 
Great  Spirit  from  the  temporary  abodes  of  his  red  children.  We 
here  contemplated,  in  silent  dread,  the  immense  difficulties  over 
which  we  should  be  obliged  to  triumph  after  death,  before  we 
could  arrive  at  those  delightful  hunting-grounds  which  are  un 
alterably  destined  for  such  only  as  do  good,  and  love  the  Great 
Spirit.  We  looked  in  vain  for  the  stranded  and  shattered  canoes 
of  those  who  had  done  wickedly.  We  could  see  none,  and  were 
led  to  hope  that  they  were  few  in  number.'  All  this  is  clumsy 
fabrication.  The  Osages  occupy  a  country  of  boundless  plains. 
They  know  nothing  of  the  ocean,  nor  do  they  believe  that  the 
land  of  departed  spirits  is  beyond  it.  The  heaven  of  the  Indians 
is  as  sensual  as  the  Mahometan  paradise;  and  every  tribe  places 
it  in  situations,  and  fills  it  with  objects,  most  familiar  and  agree 
able 

'And  thinks,  admitted  to  that  equal  sky, 
His  faithful  dog  shall  bear  him  company.' 

The  Osages  know  nothing  of  canoes,  and  we  have  the  best  of 
authority  for  saying,  that  there  is  not  one  in  the  nation.     And 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  167 

yet  their  departed  friends  are  sent  over  an  ocean  of  which  they 
never  heard,  in  vessels  such  as  they  never  saw ! 

"Their  opinion  of  the  condition  of  the  soul  after  death,  is 
derived  from  their  habits  and  modes  of  life.  Their  land  of 
spirits  is  an  extensive  prairie,  peopled  with  their  friends,  filled 
with  game,  and  abounding  in  all  that  an  Indian  can  desire. 
When  they  are  buried,  their  clothes  and  other  necessary  articles 
are  buried  with  them,  that  they  may  not  suffer  in  the  country  for 
which  they  have  departed.  Every  warrior  has  a  horse  which  is 
never  used  but  in  war.  This  horse,  with  his  saddle  and  accoutre 
ments  upon  him,  is  brought  to  his  master's  grave  after  death,  and 
is  placed  directly  over  it.  He  is  then  shot  in  the  forehead,  and 
there  left,  ready  to  be  mounted  by  his  master,  on  their  arrival  in 
the  land  of  departed  spirits. 

"We  intended  to  expose  Hunter's  statements  respecting  the 
courtship  of  the  Indians,  his  trash  about  their  materia  medica, 
and  many  other  topics  which  he  has  introduced  into  his  book, 
but  we  have  exhausted  our  own  patience.  It  is  evident,  that  the 
compiler  of  Hunter's  work  had  examined  the  preceding  accounts 
of  the  Indians  which  have  been  published ;  but  he  was  not 
able  to  discriminate  between  the  different  customs  of  different 
tribes,  and  has,  therefore,  described  the  Osages  and  the  neighbor 
ing  nations  as  possessing  customs  of  which  they  have  no  knowl 
edge.  Among  others,  he  speaks  of  throwing  the  tomahawk, — 
a  well-known  amusement  among  the  northern  Indians,  but  never 
practiced  in  the  south-west.  The  pipe  tomahawk,  which  alone 
they  use,  is  wholly  unfit  for  this  purpose.  He  describes  the  rifle 
as  the  common  weapon  of  men  and  boys;  but  that  instrument  is 
very  seldom  used  by  the  Indians  of  the  plains,  and,  in  fact,  lias 
not  been  known  among  them  till  within  a  few  years  —  probably, 
not  one  in  ten  is  armed  with  it.  The  bow  and  arrow  are  their 
most  efficient  weapons  against  the  buffalo,  and  the  north-west 
fusils,  as  they  are  called,  are  the  most  common  fire-arms.  He 
also  describes  the  boys  as  working  with  the  women  —  a  most  dis 
graceful  employment,  utterly  unknown  among  the  Indians.  And 
he  speaks  of  wild  rice,  as  an  article  of  food,  which,  in  fact,  is  found 
in* no  part  of  the  country  where  he  pretends  to  have  lived.  These 
more  minute  circumstances  he  could  not  mistake,  if  he  described 
facts  only  as  they  existed ;  and  if  not,  it  is  in  such  descriptions  that 
his  falsehoods  become  the  most  apparent.  But  one  of  his  grossest 


168  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

errors  relates  to  the  Ottawas.  He  speaks,  in  many  places  of  his 
work,  of  the  Ottawas  as  a  tribe  of  south-western  Indians.  He 
had  heard,  or  his  compiler  had  read,  of  such  a  tribe;  and  they 
placed  it  in  a  most  unfortunate  situation.  There  is  not  an  Ottawa 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  nor  south  of  the  heads  of  the  Illinois 
river." 

General  Cass  thought  it  his  duty  to  expose  Hunter's  book,  be 
cause  it  had  gained  considerable  popularity,  and  because  he  thought 
it  was  highly  important  that,  if  the  public  could  not  advance,  they 
should  not,  at  least,  go  backward,  in  their  knowledge  of  the  history 
and  character  of  the  Indians.  The  wTorld,  he  thought,  had  been 
amused  with  fable  and  fiction  long  enough  on  this  subject,  and  it 
was  time  to  look  for  facts,  or  be  contented  with  the  limited  stock 
that  existed.  To  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  respecting  the  im 
posture  of  this  fictitious  Hunter,  he  applied  to  several  gentlemen 
for  any  information  or  light  they  might  give  him  in  relation  to  it. 
He  received  the  following  testimony — copies  of  the  original  letters 
in  his  possession — from  gentlemen  of  the  highest  respectability,  and 
whose  declarations  are  entitled  to  confidence.  The  first  is  from 
General  Clark — the  companion  of  Lewis  in  their  adventurous  jour 
ney  to  the  Pacific  Ocean — formerly  Governor  of  Missouri,  and, 
for  a  long  time,  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  at  St.  Louis: 

"Si.  Louis,  September  3d,  1825. 

"  SIR  : — In  answer  to  your  inquiries  respecting  the  man  who 
calls  himself  Hunter,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  stating  that  he  is  an 
impostor.  Many  of  the  most  important  circumstances  mentioned 
by  him  are,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  barefaced  falsehoods.  I 
have  been  acquainted  in  this  country  since  1803,  and  have  resided 
in  it  since  1807,  and,  for  eighteen  years,  have  been  connected  with 
the  Indian  Department.  It  is  not  possible  he  could  have  lived 
with  the  tribes  he  mentions,  and  gone  through  the  scenes  he 
describes,  without  some  knowledge  of  him,  and  of  his  history, 
having  reached  me. 

"WILLIAM  CLAKK." 

The  next  letter  is  from  Mr.  Vasquez,  a  sub  agent  for  the  Kansas 
tribe  at  the  time  of  writing  it,  and  well  acquainted  with  the  In 
dians  in  that  country.  He  accompanied  Pike,  in  his  journey  to 
the  Inten^l  Provinces : 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  169 

"ST.  Louis,  September  3d,  1825. 

«  SIR: — I  have  received  your  note  of  yesterday.  In  answer  to 
the  inquiries  contained  therein,  I  can  say  that  I  have  been  en 
gaged  in  trade  with  the  Kansas  tribe  of  Indians  nineteen  years, 
between  the  years  1796  and  1824,  and  that,  during  the  whole  of 
that  time,  there  was  no  white  man  a  prisoner,  of  any  age  or  des 
cription,  among  them  ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  such  a  circumstance 
has  occurred  for  the  last  thirty  years. 

"  BARONET  VASQTJEZ." 

The  writer  of  the  next  letter,  Major  Choteau,  at  its  date  had 
more  knowledge  of  the  Osages,  in  the  opinion  of  General  Cass, 
than  any  man  then  living.  It  was  owing  to  his  exertions,  and 
those  of  his  brother,  that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  tribe  sepa 
rated  from  the  others,  and  left  the  Missouri  for  the  Arkansas  : 

"St.  Louis,  September  3d,   1825. 

"  SIR  : — In  answer  to  your  favor,  I  have  the  honor  to  state  that 
my  acquaintance  with  the  Osages  has  been,  since  1775  to  this  day, 
in  the  capacity  of  trader,  agent,  or  otherwise,  and  that,  during 
that  period,  there  never  was  any  white  boy  living  or  brought  up 
by  them.  I  can  further  add,  that,  had  this  circumstance  hap 
pened,  it  could  not  but  have  come  to  my  knowledge. 

"  P.  CHOTEAU." 

One  more  letter,  written  by  Mr.  Dunn,  at  its  date  a  member  of 
the  Missouri  Legislature,  and  the  gentleman  whom  Hunter  stated 
to  have  been  his  great  patron  and  friend  : 

"  CAPE  GIRADEAU,  September  4th,  1825. 

"  SIR  : — I  have  the  honor  to  state,  in  answer  to  your  inquiries 
on  the  subject,  that  I  have  never  known  such  a  person  as  John 
Dunn  Hunter,  the  reputed  author  of  "  Memoirs  of  a  Captivity 
among  the  Osage  Indians,  between  the  years  1804  and  1820."  I 
have  been  a  resident,  in  the  vicinity  of  this  place,  for  the  last 
twenty  years,  during  which  time  I  have  never  heard  of  a  person, 
bearing  the  same  name  with  myself,  in  this  country.  I  am.  there 
fore,  confident  that  the  author  alluded  to  is  an  impostor,  and  that 
the  work  issued  under  his  name  is  a  fiction  ;  most  probably  the 
labor  of  an  individual  who  has  never  seen  the  various  tribes  of 
Indians  of  whom  he  speaks. 


170  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  I  can  further  state  that  I  have  known  no  man  of  the  name  of 
"Wyatt  in  this  country,  who  seems  to  have  been  mentioned  as  one 

of  the  friends  of  Hunter.  „ 

"  JOHN  DUNN." 

British  writers  and  British  ignorance  were  prone  to  misrepre 
sent  not  only  the  condition  of  the  Indians,  and  their  true  character 
and  disposition,  but  also  the  conduct  of  the  American  and  British 
governments  towards  them.  Their  comparison  was  invidious,  and 
often  the  facts  cited  were  sheer  fabrications.  General  Cass  saw 
so  much  of  this  obloquy,  and  felt  it  too,  that  he  has  deemed  it  an 
imperative  duty  to  unmask  it,  whenever  a  suitable  opportunity 
has  been  afforded.  The  subject  of  our  Indian  relations  was  very 
imperfectly  understood  thirty  years  since,  even  by  the  mass  of  the 
people  in  this  country,  and  when  developed,  as  they  have  been 
from  time  to  time,  it  is  almost  unnecessary  to  add,  that  they  reflect 
the  highest  credit  on  the  American  government,  at  the  same  time 
they  expose  not  more  the  unjustifiable  measures  of  the  London 
cabinet  than  the  perverseness  of  London  and  Edinburgh  writers. 

Speaking  of  the  progress  of  Indian  depopulation,  General  Cass 
observes:  "As  long  as  the  destruction  of  the  game  was  restricted 
to  an  adequate  supply  of  the  wants  of  the  Indians  themselves,  it 
is  probable  there  was  little  diminution  in  the  number  of  animals, 
and  that  here,  as  in  other  cases,  population  and  subsistence  had 
preserved  an  equal  ratio  to  each  other.  But  when  the  white  man 
arrived,  with  his  cloths,  guns,  and  other  tempting  articles,  and  the 
introduction  of  new  wants  drove  the  Indians  to  greater  exertions 
to  supply  them,  animals  were  killed  for  their  furs  and  skins. 
An  important  article  of  exchange  was  made  known  to  the  Indians, 
which  they  were  stimulated  to  procure,  and  an  alarming  declen 
sion  became  visible  in  the  animals  essential  to  their  support. 
Their  population,  scanty  as  it  was,  soon  began  to  press  upon  their 
means  of  subsistence,  and  the  operation  of  these  causes  was  accel 
erated  by  the  introduction  of  fire-arms,  and  the  consequent  facility 
afforded  for  destroying  game.  The  occupation  of  the  hunter  ere 
long  became  laborious,  and  his  labor  was  rewarded  with  dimin 
ished  success.  He  found  the  means  of  supplying  his  family  de 
creased,  as  their  attachment  to  the  articles  brought  among  them, 
and  their  wants,  increased.  Game  became  less  abundant,  and 
receded  from  the  circle  of  destruction,  which  advanced  with  the 
advancing  settlements. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  171 

"We  are  satisfied  that  this  cause  has  had  a  strong  influence  in 
reducing  the  Indian  population.  Its  operation  has  been  aided  by 
other  circumstances  :  by  the  small  pox,  whose  ravages  have  been 
sometimes  frightful,  and  by  ardent  spirits,  which  have  prostrated 
the  mental  and  physical  energies,  and  debased  the  character  of 
the  Indians,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  white  settlements ; 
but  whose  general  effect,  we  are  strongly  inclined  to  believe,  has 
been  greatly  over-rated.  Among  the  remote  tribes,  spirits  are 
scarcely  ever  seen,  and  they  do  not  constitute  an  article  of  general 
use  even  among  those  who  are  much  nearer  to  us.  The  regula 
tions  of  the  government  are  such,  and  they  are  so  rigidly  enforced, 
that  the  general  introduction  of  spirits  into  the  Indian  country  is 
too  hazardous  for  profitable  speculation.  Xor  could  it  bear  the 
expense  of  very  distant  transportation  ;  for,  if  sold  and  consumed, 
a  corresponding  reduction  must  be  made  in  clothing,  guns,  pow 
der  and  ball — articles  essential  to  the  successful  prosecution  of 
their  hunting  expeditions,  and  without  which,  the  trader  would 
soon  find  his  credits  unpaid,  and  his  adventure  equally  ruinous  to 
the  Indians  and  himself. 

u  But  their  own  ceaseless  hostilities,  as  indefinite  in  their  ob 
jects  as  in  their  duration,  have,  more  than  any  other  cause,  led 
to  the  melancholy  depopulation,  traces  of  which  are  everywhere 
visible  through  the  unsettled  country  ;  less,  perhaps,  by  the  direct 
slaughter  which  these  hostilities  have  occasioned  than  by  the 
change  of  habits  incident  to  their  prosecution,  and  by  the  scarcity 
of  the  means  of  subsistence  which  has  attended  the  interruption 
of  the  ordinary  employments  of  the  Indians.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  fire-arms,  by  equalizing  the  physical  power  of  the 
combatants,  have  among  these  people,  as  in  Europe,  lessened  the 
horrors  of  war. 

"  The  Indians  in  that  extensive  region,  (beyond  the  Missis 
sippi,)  are  to  this  day  far  beyond  the  operation  of  any  causes, 
primary  or  secondary,  which  can  be  traced  to  civilized  man,  and 
which  have  had  a  tendency  to  accelerate  their  progressive  depop 
ulation.  And  yet  their  numbers  have  decreased  with  appalling 
rapidity.  They  are  in  a  state  of  perpetual  hostility,  and  it  is  be 
lieved  there  is  not  a  tribe  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific 
which  has  not  some  enemy  to  flee  from  or  to  pursue.  The  war- 
flag  is  never  struck  upon  their  thousand  hills,  nor  the  war-song 
unsung  through  their  boundless  plains. 


172  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  We  have  only  stated  a  few  prominent  facts ;  but,  were  it  ne 
cessary,  many  others  might  be  added,  to  prove  that  the  decreasd 
in  the  number  of  the  Indians,  whatever  it  may  be,  lias  been  owing 
more  to  themselves  than  to  the  whites.  To  humanity  it  is  indeed 
consolatory  to  ascertain,  that  the  early  estimates  of  aboriginal 
population  were  made  in  a  spirit  of  exaggeration  ;  and  that, 
although  it  has  greatly  declined,  still  its  declension  may  be  traced 
to  causes  which  were  operating  before  the  arrival  of  the  Euro 
peans,  or  which  may  be  truly  assigned,  without  any  imputation 
upon  the  motives  of  the  first  adventurers  or  their  descendants. 

"  But  after  all,  neither  the  government  nor  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  any  wish  to  conceal  from  themselves,  nor 
from  the  world,  that  there  is  upon  their  frontiers  a  wretched,  for 
lorn  people,  looking  to  them  for  support  and  protection,  and  pos 
sessing  strong  claims  upon  their  justice  and  humanity.  These 
people  received  our  forefathers  in  a  spirit  of  friendship,  aided 
them  to  endure  privations  and  sufferings,  and  taught  them  how 
to  provide  for  many  of  the  wants  with  which  they  were  sur 
rounded.  The  Indians  were  then  strong,  and  we  were  weak ; 
and  without  looking  at  the  change  which  has  occurred  in  any 
spirit  of  morbid  affectation,  but  with  the  feelings  of  an  age  accus 
tomed  to  observe  great  mutations  in  the  fortunes  of  nations  and  of 
individuals,  we  may  express  our  regret  that  they  have  lost  so 
much  of  what  we  have  gained.  The  prominent  points  of  their 
history  are  before  the  world,  and  will  go  down  unchanged  to  pos 
terity.  In  the  revolution  of  a  few  ages,  this  fair  portion  of  the 
continent  which  was  theirs  has  passed  into  our  possession.  The 
forests  which  afforded  them  food  and  security,  where  were  their 
cradles,  their  homes,  and  their  graves,  have  disappeared,  or  are 
disappearing,  before  the  progress  of  civilization.  We  have  ex 
tinguished  their  council  fires,  and  plowed  up  the  bones  of  their 
fathers.  Their  population  has  diminished  with  lamentable  rapid 
ity.  Those  tribes  that  remain,  like  the  lone  column  of  a  fallen 
temple,  exhibit  but  the  sad  relics  of  their  former  strength  ;  and 
many  others  live  only  in  the  names  which  have  reached  us 
through  the  earlier  accounts  of  travelers  and  historians.  The 
causes  which  have  produced  this  moral  desolation  are  yet  in  con 
stant  and  active  operation,  and  threaten  to  leave  us,  at  no  distant 
day,  without  a  living  proof  of  Indian  sufferings,  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  immense  desert  which  sweeps  along  the  base  of  the  Rocky 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  173 

Mountains.  Xor  can  we  console  ourselves  with  the  reflection, 
that  their  physical  declension  has  been  counterbalanced  by  any 
melioration  in  their  moral  condition.  Wo  have  taught  them 
neither  how  to  live  nor  how  to  die.  They  have  been  equally  sta 
tionary  in  their  manners,  habits,  and  opinions  ;  in  everything  but 
their  numbers  and  their  happiness ;  and  although  existing  more 
than  six  generations  in  contact  with  a  civilized  people,  they  owe 
to  them  no  one  valuable  improvement  in  the  arts ;  nor  a  single 
principle  which  can  restrain  their  passions,  or  give  hope  to  des 
pondence,  motive  to  exertion,  or  confidence  to  virtue." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Year  1826 — General  Cass  again  Traverses  the  Lakes — Holds  an  Indian  Council  at  Fon  du  Lac — 
Indians  Appear  with  the  British  Flag— A  Treaty  Concluded— Repairs  to  the  Wabash— In  Council 
with  Pottawatomies  and  Miamis — His  Speech  to  Them — Concludes  Treaties — The  Legislature — 
Territorial  Boundaries — The  Message — Accountability  of  Public  Officers — Qualifications  Requisite — 
Democratic  Tone  of  his  Messages. 

The  year  1826  was  a  busy  year  for  General  Cass.  In  addition 
to  the  ordinary  duties  of  his  Indian  Superintendency,  he  was  re 
quested  by  the  War  Department  again  to  traverse  the  lakes,  and 
meet  the  Chippewas  of  the  extreme  north-west  in  council  at  Fon 
du  Lac.  This  place  was  an  old  Indian  trading  post,  situate  on 
the  St.  Louis  river,  and  five  hur>dred  miles  distant  from  Sault  St. 
Marie.  With  Thomas  L.  McKenney,  who  was  Associate  Com 
missioner,  he  proceeded  on  his  mission  in  July.  As  usual  trav 
eling  in  his  bark  canoe,  the  voyage  occupied  eighteen  days,  and 
much  tempestuous  weather  and  high  seas  were  experienced. 
Upon  reaching  the  treaty  ground,  he  found  two  thousand  Indians 
assembled  to  meet  him.  The  chiefs  who  were  there  appeared 
with  the  British  flag,  and  with  British  medals  suspended  from 
their  necks.  This  was  annoying,  but  the  council  proceeded  ;  and 
on  the  fifth  of  August  a  treaty  was  concluded  and  signed,  the 
great  object  of  which  was  to  remove  the  causes  of  contention  be 
tween  the  various  tribes  as  to  the  limits  of  their  hunting  grounds. 
Upon  the  conclusion  of  this  treaty,  General  Cass  directed  one  of 
his  attendants  to  take  the  flag  and  medals  from  the  chiefs.  When 
this  was  done,  he  very  coolly  placed  the  flag  and  medals  under 
his  feet,  and  told  the  chiefs  that  when  he  returned  he  would  give 
them  the  flag  and  medals  they  were  to  use.  This  was  a  bold  act 
on  the  part  of  the  Commissioner,  but  it  impressed  the  Indians 
with  his  courage,  and  made  them  listen  more  attentively  and 
favorably  to  his  views  and  advice.  This  duty  performed,  and  re 
turning  to  his  home,  General  Cass  repaired  to  the  Wabash,  to 
negotiate  with  the  Miamis  and  Pottawatomies,  in  October  follow 
ing.  He  opened  this  council  with  the  delivery  of  the  following 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  175 

speech,  and  which  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  style  and  manner  of 
his  intercourse  with  the  Indians  on  similar  occasions  : 

"  MY  CHILDREN — POTT  AW  ATOMIES  AND  Mi  AMIS  : 

"  We  thank  the  Great  Spirit  that  he  has  opened  the  paths  to 
conduct  us  all  here  in  safety,  and  that  he  has  given  us  a  clear  sky 
and  a  cloudless  sun  to  meet  together  in  this  council-house.  Your 
great  father,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  has  sent  me,  to 
gether  with  the  two  gentlemen  who  sit  with  me,  to  meet  you  here 
upon  business  highly  important  to  you,  and  we  request  that  you 
would  open  your  ears,  and  listen  attentively  to  what  we  have  to 
say  to  you. 

"  When  the  Great  Spirit  first  placed  you  upon  this  island,  he 
gave  you  plenty  of  game  for  food  and  clothing,  arid  bows  and 
arrows  with  which  to  kill  it.  After  some  time,  it  became  difficult 
to  kill  the  game,  and  the  Great  Spirit  sent  the  white  man  here, 
who  supplied  you  with  guns,  powder,  and  balls,  and  with  blankets 
and  clothes.  We  were  then  a  very  small  people ;  but  we  have 
since  greatly  increased,  and  we  are  now  spread  over  the  whole 
face  of  the  country.  You  have  decreased,  and  your  numbers  are 
now  much  reduced.  You  have  but  little  game,  arid  it  is  difficult 
for  you  to  support  your  women  and  children  by  hunting.  Your 
great  father,  whose  eyes  survey  the  whole  country,  sees  that  you 
have  a  large  tract  of  land  here  which  is  of  no  service  to  you.  You 
do  not  cultivate  it,  and  there  is  but  little  game  upon  it.  The  buf 
falo  has  long  since  left  it,  and  the  deer  are  going.  There  are  no 
beavers,  and  there  will  soon  be  no  other  animals  worth  huntin^ 

'  O 

upon  it. 

"  There  are  a  great  many  of  the  white  children  of  your  father 
who  would  be  glad  to  live  upon  this  land.  They  would  build 
houses,  and  raise  corn,  and  cattle,  and  hogs.  You  know  that  when 
a  family  grows  up  and  becomes  large,  they  must  leave  their  father's 
house  arid  look  out  for  a  place  for  themselves — so  it  is  with  your 
white  brethren.  Their  family  is  increased,  and  they  must  find 
some  new  place  to  move  to.  Your  great  father  is  willing  to  give 
fur  this  land  much  more  than  it  is  worth  to  you.  He  is  willing 
to  give  more  than  all  the  game  upon  it  would  sell  for.  He  will 
make  you  a  considerable  present  now,  and  he  will  allow  you  an 
annuity  hereafter.  You  know  well  that  all  he  promises  he  will 
perform. 


176  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  The  stipulations  made  to  you  heretofore  are  punctually  ful 
filled.  Large  annuities  in  specie  are  paid  to  you,  and  they  are 
sufficient  to  make  you  comfortable ;  much  more  so  than  you  were 
before  the  treaty  of  St.  Mary's.  Your  great  father  is  not  only 
anxious  to  purchase  the  country  of  you,  but  he  is  desirous  that 
you  should  remove  far  from  his  white  children.  You  must  all 
see  that  you  can  not  live  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  white  people. 
You  have  bad  men,  so  have  we.  Your  people  will  steal  our  horses, 
kill  our  cattle  and  hogs,  and  commit  other  injuries  upon  our  prop 
erty.  Some  of  our  people  who  have  committed  crimes  escape  into 
your  country,  and  it  becomes  difficult  to  take  them.  Besides,  when 
you  divide  our  settlements,  we  can  not  have  roads,  and  taverns, 
and  fences.  The  game,  too,  dies  before  our  improvements,  and 
when  that  goes,  you  must  follow  it.  But  above  all,  your  young 
men  are  ruining  themselves  with  whiskey. 

"  Since  within  the  recollection  of  many  of  you,  your  numbers 
have  diminished  one  half,  and  unless  you  take  some  decisive  step 
to  check  this  evil,  there  will  soon  not  be  a  red  man  remaining 
upon  these  islands.  We  have  tried  all  we  could  to  prevent  you 
from  having  this  poison,  but  we  can  not.  Your  bad  men  will 
buy,  and  our  bad  men  will  sell.  Old  and  young  among  you  will 
drink.  You  sacrifice  your  property,  you  abandon  your  women 
and  children,  and  destroy  one  another.  There  is  but  one  safety 
for  you,  and  that  is,  to  fly  from  this  mad  water.  Your  father 
owns  a  large  country  west  of  the  Mississippi ;  he  is  anxious  that 
all  of  his  red  children  would  remove  there,  and  sit  down  in  peace 
together.  There  they  can  hunt  and  provide  for  their  women  and 
children,  and  once  more  become  a  happy  people.  "We  are  au 
thorized  to  offer  you  a  residence  there  equal  to  your  lands  here  in 
extent,  and  pay  you  an  annuity  which  will  make  you  comfortable, 
and  provide  means  for  your  removal. 

"  You  will  there  have  a  country  abounding  with  game,  and  you 
will  also  have  the  value  of  the  country  you  leave.  You  will  be 
beyond  the  reach  of  whiskey,  for  it  can  not  reach  you  there.  Your 
great  father  will  not  suffer  any  of  his  white  children  to  reside 
there,  for  it  is  reserved  for  his  red  people.  It  will  be  yours  as 
long  as  the  sun  shines  and  the  rain  falls. 

"  You  must  go  before  long — you  can  not  remain  here — you 
must  remove  or  perish.  Now  is  the  time  for  you  to  make  a  good 
bargain  for  yourselves  which  will  make  you  rich  and  comfortable. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  1T7 

"  Come  forward,  then,  like  wise  men,  and  accept  the  terms  we 
offer.  We  understand  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  between. 
Pottawatomies  and  Miamis,  respecting  their  claims  to  this  land. 
This  difference  we  should  be  glad  to  have  you  settle  among  your 
selves.  If  you  can  do  this,  it  will  be  well,  if  not,  we  shall  examine 
into  the  circumstances  and  decide  between  you." 

The  preceding  was  written,  and  was  read  by  sentences  to  the 
interpreter,  Mr.  Barrow,  who  delivered  it  to  the  Indians ;  to 
this  followed  a  few  extempore  remarks  by  General  Cass,  namely: 

"  Mr.  McCoy,  whom  you  know  is  a  good  man,  will  go  with 
you  over  the  Mississippi,  and  continue  to  live  among  you.  You 
know  him  to  be  a  good  man,  and  a  sincere  friend  to  you,  and 
would  not  advise  you  to  do  any  thing  that  would  be  an  injury  to 
you.  You  stand  alone — there  is  none  to  support  you — the  Shaw- 
nees  and  Delawares  are  all  gone.  You  have  been  invited  by 
your  great  father,  the  President,  and  are  now  sitting  around  our 
council  fire,  in  our  council  house,  and  under  our  flag.  Your 
young  men  are  not  always  prudent,  they  will  drink  and  quarrel; 
we  hope  the  old  and  wise  men  will  keep  the  young  men  from 
doing  any  injury.  If  blood  should  be  shed  at  our  council  fire, 
we  never  should  forgive  it, — we  have  the  will  and  power  to 
punish  it. 

"  Your  great  father  has  a  quick  ear,  a  sharp  eye,  and  a  long 
arm.  If  a  Pottawatomie  strikes  a  Miami,  or  a  Miami  strikes  a 
Pottawatomie,  he  strikes  us, — no  matter  where  he  goes,  we  prom 
ise  here  before  our  brethren,  red  and  white,  we  will  never  kindle 
another  council  fire,  nor  smoke  another  pipe,  before  we  punish 
him.  Your  young  men  must  listen  to  what  the  chiefs  tell  them. 
They  should  do  as  in  former  days,  when  chiefs  had  power  and 
the  young  men  were  wise, — let  them  clear  out  their  eyes,  and  let 
the  words  I  have  spoken  go  to  their  hearts. 

"  IL  ou  now  have  the  proposition  we  were  authorized  to  make 
you.  We  wish  you  to  remember  it,  and  think  upon  it,  and 
return  us  an  answer  as  soon  as  possible.  When  you  are  ready, 
let  us  know  it,  and  we  will  hoist  the  flag,  which  shall  be  the 
signal  that  we  are  ready  to  receive  your  answer." 

The  Pottawatomies  came   to   terms  first,   and   a   treaty  was 
signed  with  them  on  the  sixteenth  of  October.     The  Miamis  came 
forward  and  concluded  a  treaty  on  the  twenty-third  of  the  same 
12 


178  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

month.  The  written  speech  read  at  this  council  is  familiarly 
known  as  "  The  Mississinawa  Speech,"  and  was  highly  applauded 
throughout  the  United  States. 

In  November  the  legislature  again  convened ;  and  notwith 
standing  the  Indian  Superintendency  had  this  year  occupied 
much  of  the  thoughts  and  time  of  General  Cass,  yet  he  had 
steadily  kept  in  view,  at  the  same  time,  the  great  interests  of 
Michigan,  and  was  prepared  to  advise  the  council  of  what  these 
interests  required  at  their  hands.  Unlike  the  civil  jurisdiction 
of  older  settled  countries,  he  not  only  was  called  upon  to  admin 
ister  the  laws,  but  it  was  necessary  to  look  forward  into  the  future, 
and  judge  as  well  of  the  future  as  of  the  present  wants  and 
requirements  of  the  Territory.  Among  the  principal  topics  to 
which  he  called  their  attention,  was  the  dividing  limit  between 
Michigan  and  the  contiguous  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illi 
nois.  In  defining  the  State  limits  of  Ohio,  Congress  had  over 
looked  the  rights  of  Michigan. 

The  southern  .boundary  of  the  latter  was  a  line  running  due 
east  from  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan  to  Lake  Erie, 
as  defined  by  the  authority  of  the  United  States.  The  Legisla 
ture  of  Ohio  contended  that  this  line  was  declared  to  be  the 
northern  boundary  of  Ohio  by  Congress  in  1802,  and  was 
accepted  by  their  people,  with  this  provision,  however,  that  if  the 
southerly  bend  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan  should  extend  so  far 
south,  that  a  line  drawn  due  east  from  it  should  not  intersect 
Lake  Erie,  or  if  it  should  intersect  this  lake  east  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Miami  river,  then  in  that  case,  with  the  sanction  of  Congress, 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  State  should  be  established  by,  and 
extend  to,  a  direct  line  running  from  the  southern  extremity  of 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  most  northerly  cape  of  Miami  Bay,  after 
intersecting  the  due  north  line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Great 

O 

Miami ;  thence  north-east  to  the  territorial  line,  and  by  said  line 
to  the  boundary  of  Pennsylvania. 

Upon  this  subject, — fraught  with  so  much  importance  to  the 
people  of  his  jurisdiction, — General  Cass  dilated  with  perspi 
cacity,  being  perfectly  familiar  with  every  page  and  line  of 
congressional  enactments  relating  to  it.  lie  considered  the 
action  of  Ohio  as  wrong,  and  an  indefensible  encroachment  upon 
Michigan.  He  apprised  the  council  and  the  people  of  their 
rights,  and  of  the  true  limits  of  the  Territory  ;  and  the  information 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  179 

thus  embodied  remained  for  reference  and  unimpeachable 
evidence  in  the  public  archives.  All  subsequent  action  on  this 
important  subject  was  guided  by  this  information  ;  and  the 
people  of  the  Peninsular  State  adhered  to  it  in  their  feelings  with 
as  much  devotion  and  sacredness  as  did  the  people  of  Israel  to 
the  sayings  of  Moses. 

"  The  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Ohio,"  says  he,  in  his  revered 
message  of  November,  1826,  "has  contended  that  the  northern 
boundary  of  that  State  is  a  line  run  directly  from  the  southern 
extreme  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  north  cape  of  Miami  Bay. 
The  line  actually  run  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States, 
and  in  conformity  with  the  various  acts  of  Congress  upon  the 
subject,  commences  at  the  southern  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan, 
and  proceeds  due  east  to  Lake  Erie.  The  country  north  of  that 
line,  and  bounding  upon  Ohio,  is  subject  to  our  jurisdiction,  and 
that  jurisdiction  can  only  be  changed  by  the  Authority  of  the  gene 
ral  government.  A  resolution  was  introduced  into  Congress,  at 
the  last  session,  but  not  acted  on,  to  provide  for  a  cession  to  Ohio 
of  the  country  claimed  by  her.  Although  I  consider  the  right  of 
this  Territory  too  clear  to  be  shaken,  and  that  our  interests  are 
safe  where  alone  they  can  be  affected,  still  the  expression  of  your 
sentiments  upon  the  subject  would  be  useful  in  the  discussion  it 
may  produce,  and  I  suggest  the  expediency  of  your  interference. 

"  With  Indiana,  also,  oar  boundary  is  unsettled.  The  ordinance 
of  Congress  of  July  13th,  1787,  which  formed  the  basis  of  the 
governments  north  of  the  Ohio,  provided  that  a  line,  to  be  run  due 
east  and  west  from  the  southern  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan  to 
Lake  Erie  and  the  Mississippi  respectively,  should  be  the  bound 
ary  between  the  States  upon  the  Ohio,  and  those  north  of  them, 
if  Congress  should  find  it  expedient  to  establish  more  than  three 
States.  The  power,  thus  vested,  has  been  exercised  by  the  admis 
sion  already  of  three  States  into  the  Union,  and,  by  the  existing 
provision,  for  the  admission  of,  at  least,  one  more.  The  original 
arrangement  of  this  matter  is  in  that  part  of  the  ordinance  which 
is  declared  to  be  a  compact,  and  unalterable  but  by  mutual  consent. 

"Virginia,  by  her  act  of  cession,  was  a  party  to  the  arrange 
ment,  and  her  consent,  as  well  as  that  of  the  States  and  Territo 
ries  to  be  affected,  is  essential  to  the  validity  of  any  change  in 
this  instrument.  The  boundary  of  Indiana  has  been  extended  ten 
miles  north  of  this  line,  and,  as  the  consent  of  the  proper  parties 


180  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

lias  never  been  given  to  this  measure,  we  have  a  right  to  expect 
that,  our  just  claims  will  yet  be  regarded. 

"  In  like  manner,  the  boundary  of  Illinois  has  been  extended  to 
the  parallel  of  forty-two  degrees  thirty  minutes,  probably  forty 
miles  north  of  the  line  established  by  the  ordinance.  How  the 
claims  of  this  Territory  to  the  country  that  severed  from  it,  can 
be  best  enforced,  and  what  time  it  may  be  expedient  to  urge 
them,  I  leave  for  you  to  determine. 

"  But  there  is  a  question  connected  with  the  existing  jurisdic 
tion  of  Illinois,  which  the  interests  of  an  important  section  of 
country  demand  should  be  settled  without  delay.  The  parallel 
of  forty-two  degrees  thirty  minutes  probably  intersects  the  Missis 
sippi  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Riviere  aux  Fievre.  Upon  that  stream, 
as  is  well  kno.vn,  there  are  various  lead  mines,  to  which  the 
Indian  title  has  been  extinguished,  and  which  are  now  profitably 
and  extensively  worked.  A  considerable  population  is  now  en 
gaged  in  this  business,,  much  of  which,  there  is  little  reason  to 
doubt,  is  in  the  county  of  Crawford.  Illinois  has  recently  extended 
her  jurisdiction  over  this  settlement,  and  difficulties  have  already 
occurred  in  the  execution  of  process  which  threaten  serious  conse 
quences.  It  is  desirable  that  provision  should  be  made  by  Con 
gress  for  running  the  temporary  line,  if  the  boundary  can  not  be 
definitively  settled,  and  it  would,  doubtless,  promote  the  accom 
plishment  of  this  measure,  should  you  express  your  views  on  that 
subject  in  a  memorial  to  that  body.'' 

Years  afterwards,  after  repeatedly,  in  conventions,  solemnly 
resolving  that  the  boundary  between  Ohio  and  Michigan  was  truly 
set  forth  by  General  Cass,  the  people,  in  pursuance  of  the  express 
requirement  of  the  general  government,  as  a  condition  precedent 
to  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  State,  and  by  the  advice  of  him 
who  penned  the  foregoing,  as  the  least  of  two  evils  and  wrongs, 
consented  to  a  modification,  and  accepted  from  Congress  the  fol 
lowing  boundary: — The  northern  boundary  line  of  the  State  of 
Ohio  shall  be  established  at,  and  shall  be,  a  direct  line  drawn 
from  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  most  north 
erly  cape  of  the  Maumee  (Miami)  Bay,  after  that  line,  so  drawn, 
shall  intersect  the  eastern  boundary  line  of  the  State  of  Indiana, 
and  from  the  said  north  cape  of  the  said  bay  north-east  to  the 
boundary  line  between  the  United  States  and  the  province  of 
Upper  Canada,  in  Lake  Erie;  and  thence,  with  the  said  last 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  181 

mentioned  line,  to  its  intersection  with  the  western  line  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania." 

But  the  message  of  November,  1826,  was  deeply  interesting  in 
other  respects.  The  accountability  of  public  officers  to  the  people 
was  treated  of  clearly,  and  the  applicability  of  the  views  presented 
is  not  circumscribed  to  State  or  Territorial  limits.  They  are  in 
strict  consonance  with  those  promulgated  in  1801,  and  worthy  of 
the  school  of  which  General  Cass  was  so  distinguished  a  disciple. 
He  assumed  the  position  that  the  purity  of  government,  and  the 
incorruptibility  of  all  its  officers,  was  in  proportion  as  they  were 
closely  or  remotely  connected  with  the  people.  "  I  have  hereto 
fore  submitted  to  the  Legislature  my  views  in  relation  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  system  of  township  government ;  but  I  deem  the 
subject  so  important  that  I  must  again  recommend  it  to  your 
attention.  These  institutions  have,  elsewhere,  produced  the  most 
beneficial  effects  upon  the  character  of  the  community,  and  upon 
the  general,  course  of  public  measures.  They  embrace  within 
their  scope  those  questions  of  local  police  which  are  interesting 
to  every  citizen,  and  which  every  citizen  is  competent  to  discuss 
and  determine.  In  the  more  extensive  concerns  of  a  country,  the 
necessary  regulations  for  these  subordinate  matters  can  not  be 
adopted  and  enforced.  Besides,  in  proportion  as  all  governments 
recede  from  the  people,  they  become  liable  to  abuse.  Whatever 
authority  can  be  conveniently  exercised  in  primary  assemblies, 
may  be  deposited  there  with  safety.  They  furnish  practical 
schools  for  the  consideration  of  political  subjects,  and  no  one  can 
revert  to  the  early  history  of  our  revolutionary  struggle  without 
being  sensible  that  to  their  operation  we  are  indebted  for  much 
of  the  energy,  unanimity,  and  intelligence  which  were  displayed 
by  our  government  and  people,  at  that  momentous  crisis."  And 
again,  in  a  special  message  twenty  days  afterwards :  "  The  act  of 
Congress,  changing  the  mode  of  appointment  to  office  in  this 
Territory,  by  requiring  that  nominations  should  be  made  by  the 
Governor  to  the  council,  and  the  act  of  the  Territorial  Legislature 
limiting  the  tenure  of  certain  offices,  have  made  important  changes 
in  this  branch  of  our  local  government.  It  appears  to  me  proper, 
on  the  first  occasion  of  a  general  appointment  to  office,  that  I 
should  submit  to  you  principles  by  which  I  shall  be  guided  in  tho 
discharge  of  that  portion  of  the  duty  which  is  entrusted  to  me. 

"  It  is  necessary  that  all  persons  bearing  office  should  possess 


182  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  proper  qualifications,  and  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the  commu 
nity.  Wherever  either  of  these  requisites  is  wanting,  the  office 
will  be  executed  with  diminished  usefulness.  It  is  not  possible 
that  the  comparative  claims  of  all  who  are  proposed,  or  who  are 
applicants,  can  be  known  to  the  nominating  power.  He  must 
proceed  upon  such  information  as  may  be  given  to  him.  The 
authority  is  vested  in  him,  not  for  his  own  sake,  but  for  that  of 
the  community.  I  have  always  considered  myself,  in  the  execu 
tion  of  this  duty,  a  trustee  for  the  public,  called  upon  to  perform 
a  specific  act,  in  which  they  alone  were  interested.  There  are 
circumstances  connected  with  the  nature  and  duties  of  certain 
offices,  and  with  the  exercise  of  public  suffrage,  which  render  it 
inexpedient  that  all  appointments  should  be  filled  by  popular 
elections.  Where,  however,  this  authority  can  be  deposited  with 
most  safety,  is  a  political  problem,  respecting  which  much  differ 
ence  of  sentiment  has  prevailed  in  the  United  States.  Latterly, 
the  opinion  has  gained  ground  that  the  constitution  of  the  general 
government  furnishes  the  best  model  for  imitation,  and  that  the 
right  of  confirmation  or  rejection,  vested  in  a  representative  body, 
afforded  the  greatest  security  which  can  be  devised  for  the  pru 
dent  exercise  of  this  power.  An  elective  body  is  too  often  without 
responsibility,  and  a  single  individual  without  control.  By  uniting 
the  advantages  of  both,  we  provide,  as  far  as  human  institutions 
can  do,  against  the  abuse  of  this  delegated  authority. 

"An  expression  of  the  public  opinion  ought  to  have  great 
weight  in  all  nominations  to  office.  Where  it  is  unanimous  or 
uncontradicted,  it  should  be  conclusive.  In  county  offices,  newly 
created  or  occasionally  vacated,  where  the  citizens  assemble  upon 
proper  notice,  and  without  any  concealment,  and,  by  the  form  of 
an  election,  recommend  a  person  to  office,  I  can  conceive  few 
reasons  which  would  justify  the  neglect  of  such  an  application. 
The  process  appears  to  me  as  little  liable  to  objection  as  any 
other  by  which  the  qualifications  of  candidates  can  be  ascer 
tained.  But,  the  practical  difficulty  is,  that  there  is  frequently 
such  a  contrariety  of  sentiment,  that  no  general  opinion  can  be 
collected.  Counter  meetings  are  held,  and  remonstrances  trans 
mitted,  and  different  names  are  presented  to  the  Executive  for 
each  office,  supported  by  the  recommendation  of  respectable 
citizens.  Under  such  circumstances,  there  is  but  a  choice  of 
difficulties,  and  a  selection  must  be  made  as  the  facts  in  each 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  183 

case  may  seem  to  require.  I  sincerely  trust,  when  any  of  our 
fellow-citizens  find  the  person  recommended  by  them  has  not 
received  the  office  applied  for,  they  will  attribute  the  result  to 
the  duty  of  examining  the  whole  ground,  and  of  attending  to  all 
the  representations  which  may  be  made,  and  not  to  the  slightest 
disregard  of  their  wishes  or  opinions.  It  is  a  task  which,  how 
ever  it  may  be  executed  with  delicacy,  must  yet  be  executed  with 
firmness." 

On  another  occasion  —  "At  the  late  session  of  Congress,  an  act 

O  ' 

was  passed,  extending  to  the  citizens  of  Florida  and  Arkansas  the 
privilege  of  choosing  almost  all  their  officers  holding  their  offices 
under  Territorial  laws ;  and  authorizing  the  local  Legislature  to 
appoint  the  few  not  eligible  by  the  people.  I  see  no  reason  why 
the  principles  of  this  act  should  not  be  extended  to  this  Territory ; 
and  I  submit  for  your  consideration  the  expediency  of  an  applica 
tion  to  Congress  for  that  purpose.  It  will  be  found  that  appoint 
ments  to  office  thus  made,  will  be  more  satisfactory  than  when 
they  are  made  upon  the  nomination  of  a  single  individual.  The 
people  in  their  respective  counties  are  better  acquainted  with  the 
qualifications  of  candidates  for  county  offices,  than  an  executive 
magistrate  can  be,  and  more  competent  to  determine  upon  them. 
This  measure  would  give  to  the  people  a  direct  and  proper  influ 
ence  in  the  management  of  their  affairs  —  an  influence  which,  at 
all  times,  ought  to  be  exerted  in  a  republican  government,  and 
which  will  be  more  fully  exerted  in  that  change  in  our  political 
condition  to  which  we  are  rapidly  approaching." 

A  more  complete  commentary  upon  the  theory  and  practical 
applicability  of  power  never  was  written.  General  Cass  had  the 
candor  and  ability  so  to  define  his  sentiments, upon  the  manner 
in  which  the  delicate  trust  of  appointments  should  be  executed, 
that  he  who  runs  may  read  and  understand.  And  what  is  of 
infinitely  greater  moment,  he  conformed  his  executive  conduct 
to  the  principles  he  so  perspicuously  enunciated.  The  people 
over  which  he  ruled  so  many  years,  understood,  in  advance, 
what  to  expect  of  their  Chief  Magistrate.  How  well  he  served 
them,  and  how  perfectly  satisfactory,  the  business,  population, 
and  opulence  of  the  State,  and  their  continued  evidences  o£ 
approbation,  most  abundantly  prove. 

In  all  his  public  action  with  the  legislative  department  of  the 
government,  he  was  controlled  in  a  great  degree  by  the  old 


184  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

maxim,  "the  world  is  governed  too  much."  He  was  opposed 
to  ill-advised  and  frequent  legislation.  When  a  law  was  once 
deliberately  enacted,  his  disposition  was  to  give  it  a  fair  trial; 
and,  at  any  rate,  not  to  engraft  amendment  upon  amendment, 
unless  it  was  evident  that  the  tree,  at  its  base,  was,  beyond 
peradventure,  sound  enough  to  sustain  all  the  branches.  In  his 
own  language  —  "Our  code  of  laws  must  accommodate  itself 
to  the  progress  of  our  institutions,  and  to  the  more  important 
changes  in  public  opinion.  A  little  observation  and  reflection, 
however,  will  satisfy  us,  that  in  the  United  States,  generally, 
legislative  experiments  have  been  made  too  frequently,  and  with 
too  much  facility.  Laws  are  no  sooner  known,  than  they  are 
repealed.  Important  innovations  are  made  upon  established 
principles ;  and  experience,  the  only  sure  test  in  matters  of 
legislation,  soon  demonstrates  their  inefficacy,  and  they  give 
way  to  some  statutory  provision.  I  trust  that  a  character  of 
permanency  will  be  given  to  the  laws  you  are  about  to  revise ; 
and  that  after  engrafting  upon  them  such  provisions  as  have 
been  found  salutary,  they  will  be  left  to  operate  until  our  legal 
institutions  shall  be  matured  by  time  arid  experience." 

And  now,  whoever  shall  take  the  trouble  to  look  over  the  laws 
of  Michigan,  as  found  upon  the  pages  of  her  statute  books,  will 
not  fail  to  discover  two  prominent  characteristics  standing  out  in 
bold  relief,  namely:  uniformity,  but  precious  little  legislation 
upon  the  same  point,  and  a  democratic  tone  and  spirit  pervading 
the  whole.  And  with  the  above  sentiments  safely  deposited 
among  her  public  records,  it  surely  will  not  be  deemed  fanciful, 
to  attribute  to  them  these  results  in  her  legislative  history.  Un 
doubtedly,  she  has  had  other  Solons,  whose  profound  wisdom  and 
unerring  sagacity  have  been  felt  in  all  her  councils  and  delibera 
tions;  but  it  ought  not  to  be  deemed  invidious  to  say,  that  the 
volume  of  impartial  history  points  to  one  greater  than  all  —  to 
him  who  was  her  Governor  for  eighteen  consecutive  years. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  185 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Another  Negotiation  with  the  Indians — Journey  to  Lake  Winnebago — Hostile  Feeling  among  the 
Winnebagoes — Descends  the  Wisconsin — Personal  Danger  at  an  Indian  Village — Providential 
Escape — Attack  on  the  Miners — War  Messages— General  Cass  organizes  the  Miners  for  Defense 
— Alarm  at  Fever  River — He  hastens  to  St.  Louis — General  Atkinson  orders  on  Troops — Rapidity 
of  General  Cass'  Movements — Arrival  at  Green  Bay — Treaty  of  Butte  do  Morts— Singular  Occur 
rence — Cause  of  Indian  Difficulties — British  Agents — The  North  American  Review — Article  of 
General  Cass. 

In  the  month  of  June,  182T,  General  Cass,  with  Colonel 
McKenney  as  his  associate  Commissioner,  left  his  home  in 
Detroit,  for  another  negotiation  with  the  Indians,  at  Lake  Winne 
bago.  This  time,  he  was  to  meet  in  council  the  Chippewas,  the 
M enominees,  and  Winnebagoes ;  and  his  instructions  from  the 
War  Department  were,  to  establish  the  boundary  line  between 
the  tribes,  as  agreed  upon  at  the  treaty  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  and 
to  define  the  boundaries  of  the  lands  set  apart  to  the  New  York 
Indians.  On  his  arrival  at  Green  Bay,  he  did  not  find  the 
Winnebagoes,  who  were  to  be  parties  to  the  contemplated  nego 
tiation.  It  was  rumored,  that  they  were  making  efforts  to  enlist 
the  Pottawatomies  to  join  them  in  a  war  of  extermination. 

The  council  was  opened,  and  while  holding  it  with  the  Indians 
at  that  place,  a  runner  came  in  with  the  startling  intelligence, 
that  the  Winnebagoes,  who  were  expected,  instead  of  attending, 
had  broken  out  into  hostilities,  and  had  actually  attacked  the  set 
tlements.  At  that  time,  the  communication  between  Green  Bay 
and  Prairie  du  Chien,  upon  the  Mississippi  river,  where  these 
events  were  passing,  was  by  water  up  the  Fox  river  about  two 
hundred  miles  to  the  portage,  thence  across  to  the  Wisconsin  and 
down  that  stream  to  the  Mississippi,  which  it  enters  three  or  four 
miles  below  Prairie  du  Chien.  General  Cass  embarked  in  a 
birch  canoe  with  fifteen  paddles  to  visit  the  scene  of  difficulty, 
and  to  take  such  measures  for  the  protection  of  the  people  and 
for  restraining  the  Indians  as  might  be  found  necessary.  He 
ascended  the  Fox  river,  crossed  the  portage,  and  descended  the 
Wisconsin  about  ninety  miles ;  there  he  met  a  boat  coming  up, 
belonging  to  the  American  Fur  Company,  with  some  of  their 


186  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

traders  on  board,  from  whom  he  first  learned  the  true  state  of 
things,  which  was  more  alarming  than  he  had  anticipated.  The 
Winnebagoes  had  struck  at  some  of  the  settlements  about  the 
Prairie,  and  fire  and  blood  had,  as  usual,  marked  their  course. 
They  were  at  open  war,  and  preparing  to  attack  the  frontiers, 
where  the  alarm  was  naturally  very  great.  Some  of  these  traders 
were  intelligent  men,  well  acquainted  with  the  Indians,  and  en 
joying  their  confidence,  which  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  they 
were  permitted  to  proceed  with  their  party  upon  their  voyage 
without  molestation,  for  the  Indians  feel  much  kindness  towards 
the  traders  who  treat  them  well.  They  urged  General  Cass  not  to 
proceed  farther,  but  to  turn  back,  as  he  had  no  force,  and  his  po 
sition  would  be  a  very  dangerous  one.  They  said  the  Winneba 
goes  told  them  that  they  should  shut  up  the  portage  path,  and 
that  no  other  boat  after  theirs  should  pass.  However,  General  Cass 
felt  that  he  could  not  yield  to  these  representations,  though  he 
felt  their  weight,  but  he  felt  also  the  necessity  of  continuing  his 
mission  at  all  hazards,  as  the  consequences  were  all  important  to 
that  district  of  country.  The  traders  told  him  that  the  hostile 
"Winnebagoes  were  encamped  upon  a  high  prairie  some  thirty 
miles  lower  down.  Approaching  the  place  indicated,  the  Indians 
were  seen  from  the  canoe  to  be  in  an  evident  state  of  agitation, 
moving  rapidly  about  and  watching  the  descending  party.  The 
flag  of  the  United  States  was  flying  from  the  canoe,  and  though 
the  Indians  did  not  know  who  was  in  it,  they  saw  at  once  that 
the  movement  was  an  uncommon  one,  and  that  probably  some 
public  officer  was  on  board.  General  Cass  directed  the  boat  to 
approach  the  shore  as  near  as  possible,  and  then  debarking  with 
his  interpreter  and  secretary,  he  ordered  the  crew  to  paddle  out 
into  the  middle  of  the  stream,  and  there  to  await  the  result.  He 
then  ascended  the  high  bank  where  the  Indians  were  assembled, 
and  the  first  thing  which  struck  him  was  the  sight  of  the  squaws 
and  children  who  were  running  away  across  the  prairie.  It  is 
always  a  bad  sign  with  the  Indians  when  their  wromen  and  chil 
dren  flee  from  the  meetings  which  they  hold  with  the  white  man. 
On  approaching  the  Indians,  they  received  General  Cass  coldly, 
but  without  any  direct  demonstrations  of  hostility.  Some  of  the 
chiefs  had  been  in  council  with  him  and  knew  him,  and  all  of 
them  soon  learned  that  he  was  their  American  father,  charged, 
under  their  great  father  the  President,  with  all  the  business 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  187 

between  them  and  their  white  brethren.  A  conversation  took 
place,  and  after  awhile  the  pipe,  that  indispensable  instrument 
of  consultation,  went  around,  and  they  seemed  to  be  a  good  deal 
mollified.  General  Cass  remonstrated  with  the  chiefs  in  a  firm 
tone  against  their  dangerous  proceeding,  and  stated  their  inevita 
ble  destruction,  should  they  continue  in  their  course.  He  invited 
them  to  come  to  Green  Bay,  where  a  council  was  then  sitting, 
and  if  they  had  any  just  causes  of  complaint,  he  requested  them 
to  make  them  known  to  the  commissioners,  and  assured  them 
that  justice  should  be  done  to  them.  An  hour  or  two  was  spent 
in  this  intercourse,  and  the  elder  chiefs  evidently  became  im 
pressed  with  the  conviction  that  they  had  placed  themselves  in  a 
dangerous  position,  and  they  promised  to  do  all  they  could  to  re 
strain  their  young  men,  and  also  that  they  would  attend  the 
council  at  Green  Bay.  The  interview  seemed  to  pass  off  well, 
and  the  conduct  of  the  Indians,  so  far  as  came  within  the  obser 
vation  of  General  Cass,  was  respectful.  The  young  men  sur 
rounded  the  chiefs,  listening  attentively  in  the  usual  Indian  man 
ner,  but  without  saying  a  word.  They  always  evince  on  these 
occasions  great  deference,  the  effect  of  which  is,  however,  de 
stroyed  by  the  first  impulsive  movement.  When  General  Cass 
had  taken  leave  of  the  chiefs,  and  turned  away  from  them,  a 
young  man  suddenly  leveled  his  gun  at  him  and  pulled  the  trig 
ger,  but  luckily  it  missed  fire.  He  was  immediately  seized  by 
the  chiefs,  and  his  gun  taken  from  him.  It  was  obvious  that  the 
chiefs  were  afraid  to  commit  an  act  so  flagrantly  hostile  as  would 
have  been  the  murder  of  the  representative  of  the  United  States 
in  one  of  their  councils,  and  therefore  instantly  arrested  the  act 
of  the  young  man.  The  party  re-embarked  in  their  canoe,  and 
continued  their  voyage  to  Prairie  du  Chien,  which  they  reached 
without  further  accident,  though  several  parties  of  hostile  Winne- 
bagoes  were  roaming  about.  At  the  Prairie  General  Cass  found 
the  inhabitants  in  the  highest  state  of  alarm,  bavins*  resorted  to 

O  /  O 

the  old  unoccupied  fort.  He  took  such  measures  as  were  in  his 
power  to  provide  for  the  immediate  danger  and  to  organize  the 
people  for  their  defense,  and  he  promised  them  to  repair  with  all 
speed  to  St.  Louis,  and  there  to  place  himself  in  communication 
with  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  and  with  the  general 
commanding  the  troops  of  the  United  States,  and  to  have  a  force 
sent  up  without  delay  for  their  relief.  At  Fever  river,  now 


188  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Galena,  the  miners  had  been  driven  in  and  the  settlements  broken 
up.  Boats  upon  the  Mississippi  had  been  attacked,  and  the 
danger  was  rapidly  spreading.  General  Cass  stopped  at  Fever 
river,  where  the  inhabitants  were  assembled.  He  gave  them  his 
advice,  and  explained  to  them  his  mission.  At  that  time,  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  down  to  the  Missouri  line,  there 
were  no  settlers,  and  but  few  on  the  left  bank.  On  a  recent 
excursion  to  Rock  Island  and  Burlington,  on  the  opening  of  a 
railroad,  General  Cass  adverted  to  the  wonderful  difference  he 
found  in  the  condition  of  the  country  after  an  interval  of  twenty- 
eight  years, — a  change  which  resembles  rather  the  dreams  of  an 
Eastern  imagination  than  the  sober  realities  of  actual  life.  Arrived 
at  St.  Louis,  the  necessary  arrangements  were  immediately  made 
for  the  protection  of  the  frontier,  and  a  force  was  dispatched 
which  reduced  the  Winnebagoes  to  obedience.  From  St.  Louis 
General  Cass  ascended  the  Illinois  in  his  canoe  and  passed  into 
Lake  Michigan,  by  the  water  communication,  without  leaving  it. 
At  the  head  of  the  Des  Plaines,  a  branch  of  the  Illinois  which 
approaches  near  Chicago,  is  a  shallow  lake,  appropriately  named 
Mud  lake.  The  party  entered  it  towards  evening,  and  it  soon 
became  so  dark  that  they  could  not  discern  the  bank.  The  lake 
was  covered  with  the  broad  leaves  of  a  kind  of  lily,  favorite 
haunts  of  disgusting  looking  water  snakes.  A  birch  canoe  can 
not  touch  the  shore  without  danger  of  having  a  hole  broken 
through  its  slight  material.  It  is  brought  near  the  land,  and 
there  retained  while  the  passengers  disembark,  and  this  is  effected 
by  their  being  carried  ashore  upon  the  backs  of  the  voyageurs. 
And  in  the  same  manner  is  the  freight  disposed  of.  The  canoe  is 
then  taken  from  the  water  and  carried  by  the  men  upon  the  land. 
Finding  they  could  not  get  to  shore  safely,  the  party  spent  the 
night  upon  that  slimy  sheet  of  water.  Eighteen  men  in  a  small 
canoe,  in  a  hot  summer  night,  with  the  poles  stuck  into  the  mud 
across  the  canoe  to  steady  it,  accompanied  with  the  most  intense 
rain  and  with  the  most  intense  thunder  and  lightning, — such  are 
the  reminiscences  which  belong  to  that  memorable  night.  And 
he  who  was  not  there,  or  has  never  been  in  such  a  place,  if  such 
another  place  there  is,  has  little  conception  of  what  a  formidable 
enemy  a  mosquito  can  be.  During  that  long  night, — long  in  suf 
fering,  though  short  in  the  calendar,  for  it  was  in  the  month  of 
July,  —  their  venomous  attacks  were  beyond  the  power  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  189 

description.  As  soon  as  the  dawn  of  day  enabled  the  party  to  discern 
the  surrounding  objects,  the  anchor  poles  were  taken  from  the 
mud,  and  the  voyage  was  resumed.  A  small  branch  of  the  Chi 
cago  creek  takes  its  rise  close  to  this  Mud  lake,  and  the  whole 
region  being  flat  and  marshy,  when  the  waters  are  high  this 
creek  flows  back  into  the  lake,  and  thus  a  communication  was 
formed  by  which  boats  passed  from  the  Des  Plaines,  which  runs 
through  the  lake,  to  the  Chicago  creek,  and  of  course  to  Lake 
Michigan.  This  channel  of  communication,  though  almost  shut 
up  by  the  rank  water  vegetation,  was  found  in  the  morning,  and 
the  travelers  entered  it,  and  as  the  descent  to  Lake  Michigan  is 
rapid,  and  the  distance  but  a  few  miles,  that  space  was  soon 
passed  over,  and  the  canoe  rested  upon  the  broad  bosom  of  that 
great  lake.  The  magnificent  city  which  occupies  the  junction  of 
the  Chicago  creek  and  the  lake,  and  of  miles  around,  had  then 
no  existence.  The  white  man  was  not  there  with  the  power  and 
the  desire  to  change  everything  around  him.  There  were  no 
troops,  and  but  few  families,  and  these  were  connected  with  the 
Indian  trade.  They  were  of  course  exposed  at  all  times  to  the 
sudden  hostility  of  the  Indians.  As  the  canoe  approached  their 
cabins  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  the  voyageurs  commenced  their 
songs,  and  these  were  heard  by  the  traders  and  at  first  mistaken 
for  the  shouts  of  the  Indians.  Knowing  that  the  times  were 

o 

dangerous,  they  were  at  first  in  great  fear,  being  entirely  desti 
tute  of  the  means  of  resistance,  but  they  were  soon  and  happily 
re-assured  by  the  sight  of  our  flag  and  by  the  arrival  of  the  canoe, 
and  it  was  with  demonstrations  of  the  liveliest  joy  that  they 
received  General  Cass  upon  the  bank. 

In  the  almost  fabulous  progress  of  our  country,  there  are  few 
greater  marvels  than  the  change  which  a  few  years  has  wrought 
by  the  building  up  of  the  great  city  which  now  occupies  that 
spot,  then  so  lonely  and  exposed.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  that 
but  the  other  day,  as  it  were,  silence  and  solitude  spread  over 
all  those  regions,  interrupted  only  by  the  Indian,  or  by  the  wild 
animals,  his  co-tenants  of  the  forest,  whom  God  has  given  to  him 
for  his  support. 

From  Chicago  to  the  point  of  departure  at  Green  Bay,  the 
voyage  was  upon  Lake  Michigan,  and  was  happily  terminated 
after  a  rapid  passage. 

General  Cass  made  the  trip  from  Prairie  du  Chien  to  St.  Louis 


190  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

in  six  days,  notwithstanding  the  stoppage  at  Fever  river — the 
shortest  time  then  known. 

Great  anxiety  was  felt  at  Green  Bay,  in  the  meantime,  for  the 
General's  safety,  rumors  having  reached  there  that  he  had  been 
massacred  by  the  Indians,  on  his  way  down  the  Wisconsin  river. 
As  soon  as  the  troops  left  St.  Louis,  he  set  out  on  his  return  to 
Green  Bay,  by  the  way  of  the  Illinois  river  and  Lake  Michigan, 
in  the  same  canoe,  and  reached  the  treaty  ground  in  safety,  having 
traveled  a  circuit  of  about  eighteen  hundred  miles,  with  unprece 
dented  rapidity.  His  celerity  of  movement,  and  the  alacrity  with 
which  the  United  States  troops  responded  to  his  call,  probably 
averted  a  war  that  might  have  embraced  the  whole  north-western 

O 

frontier.  He  met  now,  at  the  treaty  ground,  a  large  body  of 
Indians,  reputed  to  number  three  thousand.  These  he  addressed, 
advising  them  to  preserve  the  peace,  but  taking  good  care  to  let 
them  know  that,  if  they  wanted  war,  they  would  find  their  great 
father  prepared  for  them. 

General  Cass  having,  in  some  degree,  allayed  the  excitement, 
and,  by  bold  measures,  awed  them  into  apparent  friendship,  pro 
ceeded  with  the  council,  and  the  commissioners  concluded  a  treaty 
on  the  fifteenth  of  September,  at  the  Butte  de  Morts — Hillock  of 
the  Dead.  By  it,  a  division  line  was  agreed  upon,  between  the 
Chippewas  and  the  Menominees ;  also,  he  obtained  a  cession  of 
the  Green  Bay  reservation,  and  the  determination  of  its  bounda 
ries  ;  and  to  the  United  States  government  was  referred  the  mat 
ters  in  dispute  between  the  Menominees  and  the  New  York 
Indians.  As  the  Indians  were  preparing  to  leave  the  treaty 
ground,  their  attention  was  suddenly  arrested  by  the  wild  and 
startling  scream  of  a  squaw.  She  had  been  stabbed  by  her  hus 
band,  for  attempting  to  prevent  him  from  parting  with  the  supplies 
given  to  him  for  whiskey.  General  Cass  promptly  ordered  him 
into  custody,  and  made  arrangements  to  punish  him.  To  the 
inquiry,  What  should  be  done  with  the  man,  General  Cass  replied : 
"  We  will  make  a  woman  of  him."  He  adopted  this  mode  of 
punishment  as  it  was  regarded  by  the  Indians  as  the  most  degrad 
ing  they  could  suffer.  The  infliction  of  this  punishment  occurred 
as  follows : 

The  Indians  were  all  assembled  together  around  the  Butte  de 
Morts,  the  women  and  children  in  front.  The  culprit  was  then 
brought  before  them,  and  General  Cass,  through  an  interpreter, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  191 

explained  to  them  what  he  was  about  to  do.  He  spoke  to  them 
of  the  kind  intention  of  the  squaw;  of  her  object  in  attempting  to 
preserve  their  provisions  and  clothing  from  the  grasp  of  the  heart 
less  whiskey  dealer ;  that  the  man  had  struck  her  with  his  knife, 
and,  if  others  had  not  interfered,  would  have  taken  her  life ;  that 
the  man  who  could  do  that  to  a  helpless  squaw,  was  unfit  to  rank 
among  braves,  and  was  no  longer  a  man.  The  warriors  were 
indignant  at  this  interference  of  the  General,  and  a  desire  was 
manifested  by  them  to  resist  his  orders.  But  he  proceeded  un 
moved  in  the  performance  of  the  ceremony.  The  Indian  was 
deprived  of  his  leggins  and  ornaments  ;  his  knife  taken  from  him, 
the  blade  broken  off,  and  the  handle  returned  to  him.  A  dirty 
petticoat,  procured  from  an  old  squaw,  was  then  put  on  him,  and, 
thus  dressed,  he  was  led  through  the  crowd,  and  pronounced  hence 
forth  "  a  woman."  This  sentence  was  far  more  terrible  to  the 
culprit  than  death  itself.  Henceforth  he  could  not  associate  with 
the  braves  of  his  tribe,  and  he  was  subject  to  all  the  drudgery  and 
servility  common  to  the  squaws. 

In  the  course  of  two  months,  occupied  on  business  relating  to 
this  movement  of  the  Indians,  and  making  this  treaty,  General 
Cass  traveled  over  three  thousand  five  hundred  miles,  arriving  at 
his  home  the  latter  part  of  August ;  but  only  to  set  out,  in  a  few 
days,  to  negotiate  again  with  the  Pottawatomies.  On  the  nine 
teenth  of  September  he  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Pottawato 
mies  living  in  St.  Joseph  county,  Michigan,  obtaining  a  cession  of 
their  lands  for  building  a  military  road  from  Detroit  to  Chicago. 

The  Indian  troubles  of  this  year  are  attributable  to  the  with 
drawal  of  the  troops  from  most  of  the  military  posts  in  the  Indian 
country.  Prairie  du  Chien,  the  seat  of  the  outbreak,  was  a  small 
settlement,  surrounded  by  the  Sacs,  Foxes,  "Winnebagoes,  and 
Sioux,  and  without  a  soldier  to  protect  it ;  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  inhabitants  themselves  without  weapons  of  defense.  A  mili 
tary  force  was  obviously  proper  and  necessary,  but  it  was  removed 
up  the  Mississippi  to  St.  Peter's.  The  western  people,  well  aware 
of  the  insolence  of  the  Indians  when  no  force  was  near  to  chastise 
it,  had  memorialized  Congress  upon  this  subject,  but  hitherto  to 
no  purpose,  for  the  senior  Major  General  favored  another  policy. 
He  would  have  a  cordon  of  military  posts  and  establishments  on 
the  exterior  instead  of  the  interior,  thereby  leaving  the  most  settled 
and  frequented  portions  of  the  country  exposed  to  the  attacks  of 


192  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  savages,  as  their  caprice  might  dictate.  General  Cass,  in  a 
memorial,  had  reviewed  the  whole  ground,  and  showed  how  indis 
pensable  it  was  to  the  defense  of  the  frontier,  to  the  maintenance 
of  our  rights,  and  the  protection  of  our  citizens,  to  foster  a  policy 
of  systematized  and  thorough  defense  by  the  construction  of  mili 
tary  roads,  and  the  erection  of  suitable  and  permanent  defenses. 
At  this  period,  exclusive  of  the  Indians  on  Lake  Superior  and  the 
head  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  there  were,  within  the  Territory 
of  Michigan,  more  than  twenty-eight  thousand  Indians ;  and,  what 
was  of  far  more  consequence,  over  them  the  Indian  agents  of  the 
British  government  exercised  an  influence  incompatible  with  the 
honor  of  the  American  government,  and  injurious  to  the  peaceful 
interests  of  the  inhabitants  of  Michigan.  Detroit,  Mackinaw, 
Chicago,  and  Prairie  du  Chien  were  wholly  destitute  of  any  mili 
tary  force.  The  experience  of  this  year,  however,  served  to  con 
firm  the  authorities  at  the  federal  capital  that  General  Cass  knew 
what  lie  was  talking  about,  and  fully  posted  as  to  the  interests  and 
duty  of  his  government,  and,  in  some  measure,  corrected  the  evil 
of  abandonment,  and  induced  a  re-occupation  of  the  deserted  posts 
at  Chicago  and  Prairie  du  Chien. 

In  consequence  of  this  apparent  indifference  manifested  by  the 
government,  not  only  the  people  most  interested  began  to  exhibit 
uneasiness,  arising  from  fear  that  they  were  to  be  deprived  of  the 
protecting  arm  of  the  War  Department,  but  a  wrong  impression 
was  gaining  ground  among  the  people  of  the  older  States,  in  rela 
tion  to  the  number  and  character  of  the  Indians.  Stories  were 
industriously  invented  and  circulated  by  British  agents,  that  it 
was  out  of  the  question  to  think  of  bringing  them  into  friendly 
relationship  with  the  whites.  This  had  the  effect  to  retard  emi 
gration,  which  was  now  setting  towards  the  west  from  the  Middle 
States,  and  from  the  extreme  east.  The  troubles  were  magnified, 
and  the  actual  condition  of  the  inhabitants  was  maliciously  mis 
stated.  To  correct,  as  far  as  was  practicable,  this  wrong  sentiment, 
and  to  exhibit,  in  true  colors,  the  aborigines  of  this  continent, 
General  Cass  resorted  to  the  public  press,  and  in  the  fifty-fifth 
number  of  the  North  American  Review,  exposed  these  errors,  and 
presented  to  the  reading  world,  under  new  aspects,  this  interest 
ing  and  vital  subject.  Instead  of  relying  upon  reason  and  argu 
ment  entirely,  the  article  was  altogether  of  a  historical  and 
statistical  character.  Speaking  as  well  from  his  own  personal 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  193 

observation  as  from  the  scanty  records  and  very  imperfect  tradi 
tions  that  had  come  down  from  other  generations,  it  was  worthy 
of  receiving,  and  did  receive,  great  attention  from  the  reflect 
ing  men  of  that  day.  It  rolled  back  the  waves  of  prejudice 
and  calumny,  set  in  motion  by  the  enemies  of  our  peace  and 
happiness,  and  put  to  silence  their  pensioned  presses  and  venal 
pens. 

"The  true  character  of  this  policy,"  says  the  General,  "has 
been  well  understood,  even  in  this  country ;  and  abroad,  it  has 
too  often  furnished  the  motive  or  the  pretext  for  grave  accusation 
and  virulent  invective.  This  subject,  we  propose  now  to  examine, 
and,  in  connection  with  it,  briefly  to  review  the  conduct  of  the 
two  rival  nations,  whose  general  measures,  in  peace  and  war, 
had  produced  the  most  permanent  effects  upon  the  manners,  and 
morals,  and  condition  of  the  Indians,  previously  to  the  existence 
of  the  American  government.  The  operation  of  the  British 
policy  has  been  so  much  more  extensive  and  durable  than  that 
of  the  French,  that  in  the  observations  which  we  shall  submit  to 
our  readers,  this  relative  importance  will  be  kept  in  view. 

"The  peace  of  1763  terminated  the  long  contest  between  the 
French  and  the  British  for  superiority  upon  the  Korth  American 
continent.  During  its  continuance,  which  exceeded  a  century, 
the  Iroquois  were  in  the  English  interest,  and  the  other  tribes  in 
the  French.  We  speak  in  general  terms,  and  without  adverting 
to  the  inconsiderable  exception,  occasioned  by  the  local  residence 
of  some  small  tribes,  and  by  other  partial  causes.  The  great  con 
tending  parties  availed  themselves  of  the  passions  and  wants  of 
the  Indians  to  harass  their  enemies,  and  employed  them  without 
scruple,  whenever  their  services  were  useful ;  and  each  was  more 
successful  in  arraigning  the  conduct  of  his  rival,  than  in  defend 
ing  his  own,  for  this  atrocious  practice,  equally  repugnant  to  their 
duty  as  civilized  and  Christian  nations.  "We  feel  no  disposition  to 
look  back  upon  the  exciting  scenes  of  these  times  gone  by.  The 
Indians  were  employed,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  their  habits  and 
propensities ;  and  many  a  traditionary  story,  as  wrell  as  the  more 
permanent  memorials  of  history,  have  brought  down  to  us,  even 
through  successive  generations,  afflicting  details  of  these  enormi 
ties.  The  cupidity  of  the  savages  was  stimulated  by  pecuniary 
rewards;  and  human  scalps,  as  proofs. of  death,  were  bought  and 
sold  in  Christian  markets. 
13 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"As  the  fortunes  of  the  French  waned,  and  the  superiority  of 
the  British  became  more  and  more  manifest,  the  zeal  and  exer 
tions  of  the  Indians  in  the  interest  of  the  latter  gradually  relaxed, 
and  they  became  spectators  rather  than  actors,  in  the  great  drama 
which  was  rapidly  approaching  its  termination.  The  Iroquois 
appear  to  have  become  sensible,  that,  in  exalting  one  power  and 
annihilating  the  other,  their  policy  had  been  directed  by  very 
limited  views,  and  that  it  would  convert  an  ally  into  a  master. 
Even  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  their  deputies,  in  an 
address  to  that  sovereign,  portrayed,  with  great  truth  and  feeling, 
the  calamitous  issue  that  awaited  them.  'We  doubt  not,'  say 
they,  'but  our  great  Queen  has  been  acquainted  with  our  long 
and  tedious  war.  in  conjunction  with  her  children,  against  her 
enemies  the  French,  and  that  we  have  been  as  a  strong  wall  for 
their  security,  even  to  the  loss  of  our  best  men.'  Since  then,  so 
often  has  this  strong  wall  been  interposed  between  the  British 
and  their  enemies,  that  it  is  now  utterly  demolished,  and  its 
fragments  scattered  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven. 

"But,  at  an  earlier  period,  the  unsettled  state  of  their  Indian 
relations  must  have  satisfied  the  British  government,  that,  in 
succeeding  to  the  power  of  the  French,  they  had  not  succeeded 
to  their  influence  and  interest  with  the  Indians.  Pontiac's  war, 
and  the  contemporaneous  attack  upon  most  of  the  posts  on  the 
north-western  frontier,  and  the  capture  of  many  of  them;  the 
expeditions  of  Broaclstreet  and  Bouquet  in  that  quarter,  and  of 
Grant  in  the  south,  together  with  many  other  military  expeditions 
of  subordinate  interest,  mark  the  excited  feelings  which  prevailed 
among  the  Indians,  from  Michilimackinac  to  Florida.  There  is 
peculiar  elasticity  in  the  French  character,  and  we  stop  not  to 
inquire  whether  it  be  feeling  or  philosophy,  by  which  a  French 
man  accommodates  himself  to  any  situation  in  which  he  may 
be  placed.  Upon  the  Seine,  and  upon  the  St.  Lawrence,  if  not 
equally  pleased,  he  is  equally  pleasant;  and,  during  two  centu 
ries,  in  the  depths  of  the  American  forests,  he  has  associated 
with  their  rude  tenants,  and.  as  he  could  not  elevate  them  to  his 
own  standard,  he  has  descended  to  theirs.  A  mutual  and  perma 
nent  attachment  has  been  the  result  of  this  intercourse,  and,  to 
this  day,  the  period  of  French  domination  is  the  era  of  all  that  is 
happy  in  Indian  reminiscence. 

"When  we  look  back  upon  the  long  interval  of  Indian  inter- 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  195 

course  winch  elapsed  between  the  first  settlements  on  the  shores 
of  the  Atlantic  and  the  final  consolidation  of  the  British  power, 
nothing  but  a  dreary  waste  meets  the  eye.  ISTot  a  verdant  spot 
cheers  the  sight,  nor  a  single  oasis  in  this  worse  than  Lybian 
desert.  Remote  and  feeble  colonies  had  become  important  and 
flourishing  provinces,  and  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  had  disap 
peared  or  receded  before  the  mighty  tide  of  population,  wrhich 
already,  from  the  summit  of  the  Alleghany,  was  spreading  with 
exterminating  force  over  the  forests  and  prairies  of  the  west.  We 
hold  no  fellowship  with  those  to  whom  the  sound  of  the  Indian's 
rifle  is  more  attractive  than  that  of  the  woodman's  ax,  nor  are  we 
believers  in  that  system  of  legal  metaphysics  which  would  give 
to  a  few  naked  and  wandering  savages  a  perpetual  title  to  an 
immense  continent.  But  it  will  not,  at  this  day.  be  disputed  that 
when,  in  the  progress  of  improvement,  the  hunting-grounds  of 
the  Indians  give  place  to  cultivated  fields,  it  is  our  duty  to  render 
them  a  full  equivalent.  The  British  government  is  responsible 
for  the  whole  course  of  measures  in  relation  to  the  Indians  in  this 
country,  until  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Their  orders  were 
executed  by  their  own  officers;  and,  during  a  part  of  this  period, 
a  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  for  the  northern  and  another 
for  the  southern  department,  were  appointed  by  the  Crown. 

"Not  a  vestige  remains  of  any  permanent  advantage  derived 
by  the  Indians  from  the  cessions  or  sacrifices  they  made.  Their 
actual  relations  with  the  British  government  may  be  emphatically 
stated  in  few  words.  They  were  useful,  and  were  used, — in  war, 
to  fight,  and  in  peace,  to  trade.  Queen  Anne,  indeed,  presented 
sacramental  vessels  to  the  Mohawks,  and  other  furniture  for  a 
chapel;  and  this  is  about  the  extent,  as  far  as  we  have  been  able 
to  discover,  of  the  direct  interference  of  the  British  government 
in  any  plan  to  improve  the  moral  condition  of  the  Indians.  Pious 
and  benevolent  men  were  engaged  then,  as  they  are  now,  in  this 
interesting  task;  and  the  names  of  Eliot  and  Brainerd  have  come 
down  to  us  with  apostolic  sanctity.  The  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  attempted  something:  but  they  discovered,  as  they 
said,  'that  the  Indians  obstinately  rejected  their  care;'  and  aban 
doned  the  effort,  without  suspecting  that  the  fault  was  in  the  plan 
of  the  teacher,  and  not  in  the  docility  of  the  scholar.  Generally, 
however,  great  indifference  prevailed;  and  it  is  said,  that  Lord 
Granville  reproved  the  converting  of  the  Indians,  'because  a 


196  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

knowledge  of  the  arts,  and  such  a  consummation,  would  make 
them  dangerous  to  our  plantations.5  In  the  few  Indian  treaties 
which  have  escaped  from  the  official  bureaus,  a  piece  or  two  of 
'strouding,'  some  'duffils,'  'kettles,'  'flints,'  &c.,  constitute  the 
whole  value  paid  for  important  cessions.  These  presents  were 
too  inconsiderable  for  general  distribution,  and  they  disappeared 
almost  as  speedily  as  the  council  which  produced  them.  A  per 
manent  arrangement,  by  which  an  annual  consideration  should 
always  be  given,  and  a  supply  thus  provided  for  never-ending 
wants,  was  neither  adopted  nor  proposed.  This  plan  of  perma 
nent  annuities,  which  constitutes  an  era  in  the  relations  existing 
between  the  white  and  the  red  man  upon  the  continent,  was 
introduced  under  the  American  government,  and  was  first  exten 
sively  embodied  in  Wayne's  treaty  of  1795  —  a  treaty,  to  which 
no  parallel  can  be  found  in  history.  The  Indians  had  waged  a 
bloody  and  causeless  war  against  our  settlements  for  many  years. 
They  had  finally  been  overthrown  in  a  signal  battle,  and  their 
confidence  in  themselves  and  their  cause  utterly  destroyed.  They 
were  invited  to  a  general  council  at  Greenville,  where  the  same 
terms  were  granted  which  had  been  granted  to  them  long  before. 
Many  important  advantages  were  secured  to  them,  and  perpetual 
annuities  were  guarantied  to  each  tribe. 

"  If  any  restraints  were  imposed  by  the  British  authorities,  be 
fore  our  Revolution,  upon  the  Indian  traders,  either  in  relation  to 
their  general  conduct  or  the  price  of  their  goods,  such  restraints 
have  escaped  our  investigation.  We  speak  advisedly  when  we 
say,  that  none  such  now  exist.  Nor  is  there  any  prohibition 
against  the  introduction  of  spirituous  liquors  into  any  part  of  their 
Indian  country.  We  may  close  this  branch  of  the  subject  in  a 
few  words.  There  was  no  attempt  to  provide  a  permanent  resi 
dence  for  the  Indians.  There  were  no  schools,  and  no  efforts  to 
introduce  agriculture  or  the  mechanic  arts.  There  were  no  annu 
ities,  no  regulations  to  direct  the  conduct  of  the  traders,  and  no 
law  to  prevent  the  sale  of  ardent  spirits.  A  century  and  a  half 
had  passed  away  since  the  first  settlement  of  the  country.  The 
rulers  who  governed  it,  heedless  of  the  condition  and  sufferings 
of  its  aboriginal  inhabitants,  abandoned  them  to  that  current  of 
events  which  is  yet  harrying  them  onward  to  their  doom.  The 
records  of  history  can  not  furnish  a  more  cold-blooded,  heartless 
document  than  the  official  report  of  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst,  the  British 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  197 

commander-in-chief,  dated  Albany,  thirteenth  of  August,  1763, 
and  communicating  the  result  of  Colonel  Grant's  expedition 
against  the  Cherokees.  He  states  that  '  Colonel  Grant  had  burnt 
fifteen  towns  and  all  the  plantations  of  the  country ;  destroyed 
fourteen  hundred  acres  of  corn ;  and  driven  about  five  thousand 
men,  women  and  children  into  the  woods  and  mountains,  where, 
having  nothing  to  subsist  upon,  they  must  either  starve  or  sue 
for  peace.' 

"  But  that  great  revolution  had  now  approached,  wrhich  has 
already  produced,  and  is  yet  destined  to  produce,  important 
changes  in  the  social  and  political  systems  of  the  world.  The 
American  government,  at  the  commencement  of  its  operations, 
used  every  effort  to  prevent  the  Indians  from  taking  part  in  the 
contest,  and  the  desperate  struggle  in  which  the  early  patriots 
were  engaged  still  left  them  time  to  devise  plans  for  the  moral 
and  physical  melioration  of  their  unhappy  neighbors.  In  the 
Congress  of  1776,  that  body  passed  the  following  resolutions  : 

"  ^  Resolved^  That  all  traders  shall  dispose  of  their  goods  at  such 
stated  prices  as  shall  be  fixed  and  ascertained  by  the  commission 
ers,  or  a  majority  of  such  as  can  conveniently  assemble  for  that 
purpose  in  each  respective  department,  and  shall  allow  the  Indians 
a  reasonable  price  for  their  furs  and  skins,  and  take  no  unjust  ad 
vantage  of  their  distress  and  intemperance  ;  and  to  this  end,  they 
shall  respectively,  upon  receiving  their  licenses,  enter  into  bond 
to  the  commissioners,  for  the  use  of  the  United  Colonies,  in  such 
penalty  as  the  acting  commissioner  or  commissioners  shall  think 
proper,  conditioned  for  the  performance  of  the  terms  and  regula 
tions  above  prescribed. 

"  ^  Resolved,  That. a  friendly  commerce  between  the  people  of 
the  United  Colonies  and  the  Indians,  and  the  propagation  of  the 
gospel  and  the  cultivation  of  the  civil  arts  among  the  latter,  may 
produce  many  and  inestimable  advantages  to  both,  and  that  the 
Commissioners  for  Indian  Affairs  be  desired  to  consider  the  proper 
places  in  their  respective  departments  for  the  residence  of  minis 
ters  and  schoolmasters,  and  report  the  same  to  Congress.' 

"  With  what  little  effect  attempts  were  thus  made  to  counteract 
the  efforts  of  the  British  authorities,  and  to  restrain  the  habitual 
disposition  of  the  Indians  for  war  and  plunder,  was  soon  demon 
strated  by  courts,  and  impartial  history  has  recorded. 

u  The  employment  of  the  savages  by  the  French  and  the  British 


198  LIFE  AXD  TIMES 

to  destroy  their  enemies,  is  among  the  most  atrocious  acts  which 
Christendom  has  been  called  to  witness.  We  shall  not  here  tax 
our  own  recollection,  nor  the  feelings  of  our  readers,  by  any 
recital  of  the  enormities  we  have  seen.  The  imagination  can  fur 
nish  no  aid  towards  a  just  conception  of  these  scenes.  There  is 
nothing  more  appalling  than  the  reality.  The  Indians  are  im 
pelled  to  war  by  passions  which  acknowledge  no  control,  and 
death  and  desolation  are  the  objects  of  their  military  expeditions. 
He  is  the  most  renowned  warrior  whose  tomahawk  flies  swiftest 
and  sinks  deepest.  There  is  a  horrible  institution  among  some 
of  the  tribes,  which  furnishes  a  powerful  illustration  of  this  never- 
tiring  love  of  vengeance.  It  is  called  the  Man-eating  Society, 
and  it  is  the  duty  of  its  associates  to  devour  such  prison  era  as  are 
preserved  and  delivered  to  them  for  that  purpose.  The  members 
of  this  society  belong  to  a  particular  family,  and  the  dreadful  in 
heritance  descends  to  all  the  children,  male  and  female.  Its 
duties  can  not  be  dispensed  with,  and  the  sanctions  of  religion 
are  added  to  the  obligations  of  immemorial  usage.  The  feast  is 
considered  a  solemn  ceremony,  at  which  the  whole  tribe  is  col 
lected,  as  actors  or  spectators.  The  miserable  victim  is  fastened 
to  a  stake,  and  burned  at  a  slow  fire,  with  all  the  refinements  of 
cruelty  which  savage  ingenuity  can  invent.  There  is  a  tradition 
ary  ritual  which  regulates,  with  revolting  precision,  the  whole 
course  of  procedure  at  these  ceremonies.  The  chief  of  the  family, 
and  principal  member  of  the  society  among  the  Miamis,  whose 
name  was  White  Skin,  we  have  seen,  and  with  feelings  of  loath 
ing,  excited  by  a  narration  of  his  atrocities  amid  the  scenes  where 
they  occurred. 

"  There  are  but  two  serious  occupations  connected  with  the  ordi 
nary  business  of  life  to  which  an  Indian  willingly  devotes  himself. 
These  are  war  and  hunting.  Labor  is  performed  exclusively  by 
the  women.  The  passion  for  war  is  fostered  and  encouraged  by 
institutions  which  are  admirably  adapted  to  make  the  warrior 
brave  and  enterprising.  Nothing  in  the  systems  of  the  ancient 
republics  was  better  devised  to  stimulate  the  ardor  of  their  citi 
zens.  And  when  assembled  Greece  proclaimed  the  victor  at  the 
Olympic  games,  and  crowned  him  with  the  olive  wreath,  she  fur 
nished  no  more  powerful  motive  for  exertion  and  distinction  than 
is  provided  in  the  institutions  of  our  aborigines.  It  is  the  same 
love  of  distinction  which  impels  the  warrior  to  tear  from  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  199 

head  of  the  writhing  and  reeking  victim  the  bloody  trophy  of 
savage  victory,  and,  at  the  next  war-dance  in  his  distant  village, 
to  strike  the  post  and  to  recount  the  atrocities  which,  by  the  aid 
of  the  Sag-a-nosh,  (Englishman,)  he  has  been  enabled  to  commit 
upon  the  Tshe-mo-ke-maun,  (Big  Knife,  American.) 

"  An  Indian  war-dance  is  an  important  incident  in  the  passing 
events  of  a  village.  The  whole  population  is  assembled,  and  a 
feast  provided  for  all.  The  warriors  are  painted  and  prepared  as 
for  battle.  A  post  is  firmly  planted  in  the  ground,  and  the  sing 
ers,  the  drummers,  and  the  other  instrumental  musicians,  are 
seated  within  the  circle,  formed  by  the  dancers  and  the  spectators. 
The  music  and  the  dance  begin.  The  warriors  exert  themselves 
with  great  energy.  Every  muscle  is  in  action,  and  there  is  the 
most  perfect  concord  between  the  music  and  their  movements. 
They  brandish  their  weapons,  and  with  such  apparent  fury  that 
fatal  accidents  seem  unavoidable.  Presently  a  warrior  leaves  the 
circle,  and  with  his  tomahawk,  or  cassetete,  strikes  the  post.  The 
music  and  dancing  cease,  and  profound  silence  ensues.  lie  then 
recounts,  with  a  loud  voice,  his  military  achievements.  lie  de 
scribes  the  battles  he  has  fought,  the  prisoners  he  has  captured, 
the  scalps  he  has  taken.  He  points  to  his  wounds,  and  produces 
his  trophies.  lie  accompanies  his  narrative  with  the  actual  rep 
resentation  of  his  exploits,  and  the  mimic  engagement,  the  advance 
and  the  retreat,  are  exhibited  to  his  nation  as  they  really  occurred. 
There  is  no  exaggeration,  and  no  misrepresentation.  It  would  be 
infamous  for  a  warrior  to  boast  of  deeds  he  never  performed.  If 
the  attempt  was  made,  some  one  would  approach,  and  throw  dirt 
in  his  face,  saying:  'I  do  this  to  cover  your  shame,  for  the  first 
time  you  see  an  enemy  you  will  tremble.'  But  such  an  indignity 
is  rarely  necessary,  and  as  the  war  parties  generally  contain  many 
individuals,  the  character  and  conduct  of  any  warrior  are  well 
known.  Shouts  of  applause  accompany  the  narration,  propor 
tioned,  in  duration  and  intensity,  to  the  interest  it  excites.  His 
station  in  the  circle  is  then  resumed  by  the  actor,  and  the  dance 
proceeds  till  it  is  interrupted  in  a  similar  manner. 

"  Xo  terms  of  reprehension  can  be  too  strong  for  the  employ 
ment  of  such  a  force.  The  nation  which  authorizes  it  should  be 
arraigned  at  the  tribunal  of  Christendom.  It  is  a  force  which  will 
not  be  controlled.  Human  power  can  not  stay  the  tide  of  slaugh 
ter  ;  and  '  allies?  as  the  Indians  may  be,  it  is  an  alliance  to  which 


200  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

posterity  will  look  back  with  grief  and  indignation,  and  which 
will  tarnish  the  brightest  pearl  in  the  crown  of  the  Defender  of 
the  Faith.  It  needs  no  casuistry  to  prove  that  the  government 
which  employs  a  force,  of  whose  direct  tendency  they  are  aware, 
is  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  that  force.  Mr.  Madison  has 
justly  said,  that  '  for  these  enormities  they  are  equally  responsi 
ble,  whether,  with  the  power  to  prevent  them,  they  want  the  will, 
or,  with  the  knowledge  of  a  want  of  power,  they  still  avail  them 
selves  of  such  instruments.'  ' 

General  Cass,  in  this  celebrated  article,  proceeds  to  specify 
irrefragable  facts  demonstrative  of  the  British  relations  with  the 
Indians,  and,  particularly,  the  deception  practiced  upon  them 
during  the  war  commenced  in  1812.  The  utter  abuses  of  good 
faith  are  graphically  described,  and  the  uniform  policy  of  the 
American  and  British  governments  truly  and  forcibly  contrasted. 

"But  no  event,  since  the  discovery  of  the  continent,"  he  adds, 
u  produced  greater  changes  in  the  character,  feelings,  and  situation, 
of  the  Indians,  than  this  war.  During  the  latter  part  of  1812.  and 
the  whole  of  1813,  the  north  and  the  west  were  almost  depopulated. 
Their  ordinary  occupations  were  abandoned,  and  men,  women,  and 
children  assembled  around  the  British  head-quarters,  upon  the 
Detroit  river,  the  warriors  for  blood,  pay,  and  plunder,  and  their 
families  for  food  and  clothing.  It  is  said  that  twelve  thousand 
rations  were  daily  issued  to  this  subsidized  host.  And  where  are 
they  now?  Gone;  the  victims  of  war,  want,  and  disease.  They 
perished  by  thousands,  and  however  their  watch-fires,  and  the 
other  incidents  of  savage  life  may  furnish  materials  for  romantic 
delineation,  their  recollection  now  excites  a  deeper  sympathy  for 
the  fate  of  those  who  gave  life  and  animation  to  the  scene.  Their 
numbers  pressed  heavily  upon  the  resources  of  the  British  com 
manding  officer.  Supplies  were  obtained  with  difficulty,  and 
doled  out  with  parsimony.  Their  usual  habits  and  employments 
were  abandoned.  These  were  succeeded  by  the  listlessness  of  a 
sedentary  camp,  without  the  recurrence  of  those  duties  which  give 
some  variety  to  that  most  irksome  situation.  A  warrior  has  no 
system  of  tactics  to  learn,  and  no  labor  to  perform ;  and,  when 
associated  with  civilized  troops,  he  must  abandon  the  chase,  be 
cause  the  animals  he  pursues  retire  from  the  vicinity  of  large 
bodies  of  men.  'No  resource,  therefore,  was  left  for  physical  exer 
tion  or  mental  excitement  except  the  war  parties  which  were 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  201 

occasionally  detached  upon  scalping  expeditions.  Such  was  the 
disposition  of  General  Harrison's  force  that  these  were  '  few  and 
far  between,'  and  the  time  of  the  warriors  was  generally  passed 
in  a  state  of  morbid  inactivity.  They  were  collected  in  unusual 
numbers,  and  many  of  them  were  as  unaccustomed  to  the  climate 
as  to  the  mode  of  life  and  the  absence  of  employment.  Under 
these  circumstances,  disease  was  necessarily  generated,  and  it  was 
exacerbated  by  all  the  symptoms  of  a  disastrous  campaign.  The 
hopeless  prospect  before  them  was  rendered  still  more  gloomy  by 
the  presence  of  their  families,  remote  from  home,  and  depending 
for  food  and  clothing  upon  their  '  allies,'  whose  capture  or  retreat 
appeared  but  too  probable.  These  causes  produced  their  full 
effect.  A  grievous  mortality  prevailed  among  them,  and  when 
the  American  army  made  its  descent  upon  the  Canadian  shore  in 
1813,  there  was  no  foe  to  oppose  it.  Proctor  had  fled,  with  the 
warriors  who  adhered  to  his  cause.  But  much  of  his  savage  force 

o 

had  previously  disappeared,  either  in  the  recesses  of  the  forest 
whose  shelter  was  nearest,  or  in  the  grave.  Horrible  stories  are 
told  of  the  miseries  they  endured.  We  had  no  pleasure  in  hearing 
them,  and  we  should  now  have  none  in  relating  them.  Whatever, 
in  the  extremity  of  human  suffering,  man  has  done  or  endured, 
these  wretched  outcasts  were  doomed  to  do  and  bear.  But  this 
physical  wretchedness  was  not  the  only  evil  entailed  upon  them 
by  their  participation  in  the  war.  Their  spirits  were  broken. 
This  feeling  was  well  expressed  by  Wabesha,  the  principal  Sioux 
chief,  to  the  British  commanding  officer,  at  Drummond's  Island, 
in  1815.  Wabesha  is  venerable  for  his  age,  and  has  always 
maintained  a  decided  influence  over  his  people.  He  was  treated 
with  marked  attention,  and  valuable  presents  were  spread  before 
him.  '  My  father,'  said  he  to  Colonel  McDowell,  then  command 
ing  the  post,  '  what  is  this  I  see  before  me  ?  A  few  knives  and 
blankets.  Is  this  all  you  promised  us  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  ?  Where  are  those  promises  you  made  us  at  Michilimacki- 
nac,  and  sent  to  our  villages  on  the  Mississippi  ?  You  told  us  you 
would  never  let  fall  the  hatchet  until  the  Americans  were  driven 
beyond  the  mountains  ;  that  our  British  father  would  never  make 
peace  without  consulting  his  red  children.  Has  that  come  to  pass  ? 
We  never  knew  of  this  peace.  We  are  now  told  it  was  made  by 
our  great  father  beyond  the  water,  without  the  knowledge  of  his 
war  chiefs  ;  that  it  is  your  duty  to  obey  his  orders.  What  is  this 


202  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

to  us  ?  Will  these  paltry  presents  pay  for  the  men  we  have  lost, 
both  in  battle  and  on  the  road  ?  Will  they  soothe  the  feelings  of 
our  friends?  Will  they  make  good  your  promises  to  us?  For 
myself,  I  am  an  old  man.  I  have  lived  long,  and  always  found 
the  means  of  supporting  myself,  and  I  can  do  so  still.' 

"The  tenure  by  which  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  this  continent 
held  their  land,  is  a  question  of  metaphysical  speculation,  rather 
than  one  of  practical  right.  All  will  agree  that  they  were  entitled 
to  as  much  as  would  supply  them  with  subsistence,  in  the  mode  to 
which  they  were  accustomed.  And  there  will  probably  be  an 
assent,  little  less  general,  to  the  proposition,  that  whatever  was  not 
thus  wanted,  and  unemployed,  might  be  appropriated  by  others 
to  their  own  use.  The  new  race  of  men  who  landed  upon  these 
shores,  found  that  their  predecessors  had  affixed  few  distinctive 
marks  of  property  in  the  forests  where  they  roamed.  There  were 
none  of  those  permanent  improvements  which  elsewhere,  by  uni 
versal  assent,  become  the  evidence  and  security  of  individual 
appropriation.  From  Hudson's  Bay  to  Cape  Horn,  the  various 
nations  of  Europe  have  formed  settlements,  and  have  gradually, 
by  force  or  purchase,  reduced  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  to  a 
state  of  vassalage,  or  driven  them  into  the  interior.  European 
sovereigns  have  divided  this  immense  country,  by  their  charters 
or  treaties,  into  many  colonies  and  provinces,  and  have  assumed 
a  general  jurisdiction  over  them,  without  the  slightest  regard  to 
the  primitive  occupants.  And  the  hoisting  of  the  first  flag,  and 
the  burying  of  the  first  bottle,  are  important  incidents, which  have 
occasioned  many  a  perplexing  discussion  to  grave  diplomatists. 
Almost  all  the  country  now  composing  the  Atlantic  portion  of  the 
United  States,  was  thus  acquired  by  England.  Our  colonial 
records  contain  the  history  of  many  of  these  negotiations  and  pur 
chases,  but  time  has  swept  away  almost  every  vestige  of  the 
consideration  paid  to  the  Indians.  Since  the  establishment  of 
their  independence,  the  United  States  have  adopted  the  system  of 
acquiring  the  aboriginal  title  by  peaceable  purchase ;  but  they 
have  adopted  it  with  an  important  change,  consolatory  to  all  who 
look  with  sympathy  upon  this  falling  race.  The  plan  of  perma 
nent  annuities  guaranties  to  the  Indians  a  never  failing  resource 
against  want,  and  its  beneficial  effects  are  apparent  in  the  im 
proved  condition  of  the  Wy  an  dots,  the  Shawnese,  and  the  Miamis. 
But  one  instance,  in  the  history  of  the  United  States,  can  be 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  203 

found  where  they  have  acquired  any  title  to  the  unappropriated 
country  by  force,  and  that  was  at  the  termination  of  the  wanton, 
and  unprovoked  hostilities  of  the  Creeks ;  originating,  probably, 
in  foreign  influence,  but  prosecuted  in  a  spirit  of  atrocious  cruelty 
not  often  displayed,  even  in  Indian  warfare.  Peace,  without 
exemplary  chastisement,  would  have  been  but  an  invitation  to 
new  aggressions. 

u  The  condition  of  our  primitive  people  is  a  moral  phenomenon, 
perhaps  without  a  parallel  in  the  whole  history  of  man.  During 
two  centuries  they  have  been  in  contact  with  a  civilized  people. 
They  have  seen  our  improvements  and  felt  our  superiority.  They 
have  relinquished  their  bows  and  arrows,  and  skins,  and  flint 
knives,  and  stone  tomahawks,  and  have  adopted  our  arms  and 
ammunition,  our  clothes,  and  many  of  our  instruments  of  iron 
and  steel.  But  in  their  own  moral  qualities,  if  they  have  not  re 
ceded,  they  certainly  have  not  advanced.  A  principle  of  pro 
gressive  improvement  seems  almost  inherent  in  human  nature. 
Communities  of  men,  as  well  as  individuals,  are  stimulated  by  a 
desire  to  meliorate  their  condition.  There  is  nothing  stationary 
around  us.  We  are  all  striving  in  the  career  of  life  to  acquire 
riches,  or  honor,  or  power,  or  some  other  object,  whose  possession 
is  to  realize  the  day-dreams  of  our  imaginations  ;  and  the  aggre 
gate  of  these  efforts  constitutes  the  advance  of  society.  But  there 
is  little  of  all  this  in  the  constitution  of  our  savages.  Like  the 
bear,  and  deer,  and  buffalo  of  his  own  forests,  an  Indian  lives  as 
his  father  lived,  and  dies  as  his  father  died.  He  never  attempts 
to  imitate  the  arts  of  his  civilized  neighbors.  His  life  passes 
away  in  a  succession  of  listless  indolence  and  of  vigorous  exertion 
to  provide  for  his  animal  wants  or  to  gratify  his  baleful  passions. 
He  never  looks  around  him,  with  a  spirit  of  emulation,  to  com 
pare  his  situation  with  that  of  others,  and  to  resolve  on  improving 
it.  In  a  season  of  abundance  he  never  provides  for  a  season  of 
scarcity.  Want  never  teaches  him  to  be  provident,  nor  misery  to 
be  industrious.  This  fatuity  is  not  the  result  of  ignorance.  Efforts, 
however  ill-directed,  have  not  been  wanting  to  teach  and  reclaim 
him.  But  he  is,  perhaps,  destined  to  disappear  with  the  forests 
which  have  afforded  him  food  and  clothing,  and  whose  existence 
seems  essential  to  his  own. 

"  Under  such  circumstances,  what  ignorance,  or  folly,  or  mor 
bid  jealousy  of  our  national  progress,  does  it  not  argue,  to  expect 


204  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

that  our  civilized  border  would  become  stationary,  and  some  of 
the  fairest  portions  of  the  globe  be  abandoned  to  hopeless  sterility, 
that  a  few  naked,  wandering  barbarians  should  stay  the  march  of 
cultivation  and  improvement,  and  hold  in  a  state  of  perpetual  un 
productiveness  immense  regions  formed  by  Providence  to  support 
millions  of  human  beings?  And  has  England  furnished  us  with 
any  examples  of  such  a  system  of  self-denial,  or,  rather,  of  canting 
weakness  ?  We  will  not  inquire  in  India,  for  there  no  barbarians, 
strictly  speaking,  are  found.  But  the  Australasian  continent  is 
now  a  British  province,  acquired  and  settled  within  the  memory 
of  the  present  generation.  And  where  are  its  aboriginal  inhabi 
tants  ?  Let  the  following  extract  from  the  Sydney  Gazette  of  De 
cember  16th,  1821,  answer  this  question : 

"  c  The  overseer,  finding  that  they  had  nearly  expended  their 
arms,  he  and  his  men  dismounted,  tied  their  horses  together,  and 
faced  about,  commencing  a  fire  of  musketry  on  the  natives,  then 
charged  them  with  the  bayonet  until  they  were  completely  routed 
and  dispersed.  The  natives  left  sixteen  men  dead  on  the  field,  and 
their  weapons  were  completely  destroyed. 

"  '  After  the  fight  the  party  returned  in  safety  to  Mudgee.' 

"  That  nothing  short  of  that  whole  continent,  exceeding  Europe 
in  extent,  will  satisfy  the  forbearance  of  the  British  government, 
we  have  full  evidence  in  the  measures  which  are  in  progress.  And 
what  permanent  advantages,  either  physical  or  moral,  have  the 
Australasians  derived  from  their  civilized  neighbors  ?  WQ  hear 
of  no  treaties  of  cession,  no  '  purchases  compulsory]  or  voluntary, 
no  mutual  concessions,  no  annuities  for  future  relief.  The  land  is 
wanted,  and  it  is  taken. 

"  There  is  one  consideration  connected  with  the  cession  of  land 
by  the  Indians,  too  important,  in  a  fair  examination  of  the  sub 
ject,  to  be  overlooked.  The  advance  of  the  white  settlements  is 
the  signal  for  the  recession  of  the  game.  There  is  always  an  ex 
tensive  interval  of  border  country  between  our  cultivated  frontier 
and  the  permanent  possessions  of  the  Indians.  Their  urn-emitted 
efforts  to  procure  food  and  clothing  cause  a  rapid  diminution  of 
wild  animals  in  this  district ;  and  as  these  animals  flee  from  de 
struction,  they  are  followed  by  those  who  look  to  them  for  suste 
nance.  The  district  thus  abandoned  becomes  useless  to  the 
natives,  and  this  is  the  land  which  is  generally  acquired  by  our 
treaties.  Iii  many  instances,  and  we  speak  from  personal 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  205 

observation,  the  amount  paid  for  these  cessions  has  been  more 
valuable  to  the  Indians  than  all  the  animals  existing  there  whose 
flesh  and  furs  are  sought  by  them. 

"  We  come  now  to  other  topics.  '  It  is  not  necessary  to  prove 
in  this  place,  for  the  fiftieth  time,'  says  the  reviewer,  '  that  our 
cause  was  common  with  that  of  the  Indian  nations.  Against 
them,  as  against  iis,  the  Americans  Jiad  been  the  real  aggressors.'' 
With  what  truth  these  assertions  are  advanced,  will  be  best  deter 
mined  by  a  brief  examination  of  the  various  acts  of  the  American 
government  towards  the  Indians,  and  by  a  comparison  of  these 
with  the  course  which  has  been  pursued  by  the  British  govern 
ment.  Our  attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  unremitting 
exertions  of  the  republican  government  to  restrain  the  Indians 
from  hostilities  ;  to  induce  them,  whenever  a  contest  between  their 
white  neighbors  appeared  unavoidable,  to  remain  in  their  own 
country  and  suffer  the  storm  to  pass  away  without  exposing  them 
selves  to  its  violence.  In  the  same  spirit  hostile  tribes  have  been 
brought  together,  and  the  tomahawk  buried  beneath  the  ashes  of 
the  council  fire" 

He  then  proceeded  to  point  out  the  various  measures  of  the 
British  government,  and  he  clearly  demonstrated  that,  in  all 
instances,  the  mere  love  of  worldly  gain  was  the  incentive ;  that 
the  well-being  of  the  poor  Indian  never  was  taken  into  considera 
tion.  And  to  satisfy  the  inhabitants  of  other  portions  of  our 
country,  that  the  American  government  not  only  acted  from  mo 
tives  of  humanity,  but  fully  comprehended  the  labor,  he  posted 
the  reading  public  with  the  locality  and  disposition  of  all  the 
many  tribes  west  of  the  lakes,  and  their  attitude  with  the  whites  ; 
and  then,  with  the  confidence  of  truth,  commended  to  the  final 
judgment  of  the  world  the  conduct  of  his  government.  By  this 
verdict  he  was  content  to  abide. 

The  councils  held  by  General  Cass  with  the  Indians  were  for 
the  purpose  of  removing  difficulties  with  them  and  of  securing 
their  attachment  to  the  United  States,  and  eventually  for  the 
purchase  of  land.  The  progress  of  our  settlements  rendered 
necessary  the  acquisition  of  new  districts,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  the  diminution  of  game  and  the  reduction  of  the  number  of 
Indians,  made  the  district  adjoining  our  improved  frontier  of  little 
value  to  the  aborigines ;  for,  in  those  days,  they  had  no  perma 
nent  occupation  of  land,  and  subsisted  principally  by  the  chase, 


206  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

living  upon  tlie  meat  and  selling  the  furs  to  the  traders,  and  thus 
procuring  the  indispensable  supplies  of  guns,  powder,  lead,  and 
blankets,  and  some  other  articles. 

The  mode  of  life  of  the  Indians  has  undergone  little  change 
since  they  became  known  to  us,  unless  in  those  cases,  (and  till 
recently  there  have  been  but  few  of  them,)  where  they  have 
abandoned  their  primitive  habits  and  become  stationary  agricul 
turists.  According  to  their  primitive  habits,  in  the  spring  the 
families  of  the  Saint  Totem, — the  subdivision  of  a  tribe  marked 
by  the  figure  of  some  tutelar  animal, — seek  a  pleasant  spot  of  fer 
tile  ground  upon  some  stream,  and  there  they  erect  rough  cabins, 
forming  a  little  village,  marked  by  its  council  house  and  its  sur 
rounding  green  for  amusements,  and  in  its  vicinity  they  plant  a 
little  corn,  which  is  scratched  around,  rather  than  cultivated,  by 
the  women.  There  are  but  two  occupations  an  Indian  warrior 
can  honorably  pursue.  One  is  to  hunt  and  the  other  is  to  go  to 
war.  All  other  labor  devolves  upon  the  women  ;  and  this  point 
of  honor,  made  such  by  early  training  which  fosters  their  natural 
indolence,  is  one  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  the  improve 
ment  of  the  Indians.  As  soon  as  their  corn  is  fit  for  roastinrr- 

D 

ears, — before,  indeed,  they  begin  to  eat  it,  and  to  waste  it  with 
true  Indian  improvidence,  for  they  have  less  foresight  than  many 
of  the  animals  around  them,  and  by  the  time  their  little  crop  is 
ripe,  it  is  all  consumed.  A  few  pumpkins  and  beo,ns,  plants  in 
digenous  to  the  country,  were  also,  and  yet  are,  raised.  During 
the  summer  the  game  is  poor  and  the  furs  bad,  and  they  are  able 
to  kill  but  little,  for  the  assemblages  in  the  villages  drive  away 
the  animals.  They  kill  what  they  can,  and  when  there  are  no 
war  parties,  the  season  is  passed  in  indolence  and  amusements, 
• — in  eating,  (gorging,  rather,  when  they  have  the  means,) 
dancing,  singing,  smoking,  and  telling  stories.  In  the  fall  they 
repair  to  the  hunting  grounds.  Each  family  has  its  own,  which 
is  not  encroached  on  by  others,  or,  if  so  encroached  on,  a  deadly 
feud  is  the  consequence.  There  they  encamp,  and  spend  the 
winter  in  hunting  and  in  the  collection  of  furs,  to  enable  them  to 
satisfy  their  traders.  In  the  spring  they  return  to  their  traders  ; 
and  thus  passed  the  life  of  an  Indian  when  the  race  first  became 
known  to  us,  except  that  bows  and  arrows  were  used  for  weapons, 
and  furs  and  skins  for  clothing', — and  thus  it  passes  yet,  where 
they  have  not  followed  our  example. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  207 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

Effect  of  the  Article  in  the  Review— The  Lake  Communication— General  Cass'  Literary  Efforts— Treaty 
of  G  reen  Bay — His  Labors — Historical  Society  of  Detroit — His  Address — Hamilton  College — Oration 
before  the  Alumni— Degree  of  LL.D. 

The  article  extracted  from,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  electrified 
the  public  mind.  In  addition  to  the  many  stubborn  facts  brought 
out,  showing  clearly  and  concisely  what  policy  had  been  pursued 
and  what  measures  imitated  by  the  several  Christian  nations,  in 
their  intercourse  with  the  wild  aborigines  of  America,  General 
Cass,  for  the  first  writer,  had  had  the  manliness  to  speak  plainly 
to  Europe,  and  to  proud  England  in  particular.  The  effect  was, 
that  the  latter  nation  became  more  chary  of  their  baseless  charges 
against  the  philanthropy  of  the  United  States,  and  began  to  look 
about  and  see  how  well  they  might  get  off  from  the  inroads  of 
"benevolence^  and  best  preserve  the  residue  of  their  North  Ameri 
can  Indian  possessions.  Their  traders  saw  that  it  would  be  a 
profitless  task  further  to  prosecute  annoyance,  and  that  the  only 
alternative  was  now  to  be  at  peace  with  the  American  authorities. 
A  new  era  in  British  diplomacy  dates  from  this  time.  Directing 
their  attention  to  the  innumerable  tribes  of  Indians  scattered  far 
and  wide,  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  Nootka  Sound,  they 
withdrew  their  busy  agents  from  lands  farther  south,  and  allowed 
the  banner  of  "the  brave  and  the  free"  to  go  on  in  the  fulfillment 
of  its  high  mission. 

Nor  was  this  all.  The  example  set  by  General  Cass  encouraged 
other  writers,  and  gave  them  confidence  to  speak  out,  and,  on  all 
proper  occasions,  defend  the  dignity  and  character  of  republican 
ism  from  the  assaults  of  pampered  royalty.  It  also  restored 
confidence  to  the  young  farmers  and  mechanics  of  New  England 
whose  thoughts  were  upon  lands  to  the  westward,  and  hastened 
their  vigorous  footsteps.  This  elucidated  argument  familiarized 
their  minds  with  the  dreaded  natives,  neutralized  fear,  and  re 
animated  them  with  high  and  exhilarating  hope.  More  than 


208  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

ever  did  the  broad  prairies  and  dense  and  lofty  forests,  stretching 
from  the  chain  of  inland  seas  that  washed  the  northern  frontier 
away  to  the  majestic  rivers  that  emptied  the  surplus  waters  of 
millions  of  acres  into  the  southern  ocean,  seem  to  be  the  land 
of  promise.  And  hitherward  did  they  now  begin  to  go.  Not 
singly,  and  as  exiles  banished  from  their  native  land,  but  in 
caravans  and  of  their  own  volition,  there  to  take  their  parts  in 
the  unending  drama  of  life.  Noble  resolution!  And  their  steady 
efforts  to  subdue  the  wilderness,  beyond  the  language  of  praise. 

The  Walk-in-the-water  was  too  slow,  and  of  insufficient  capacity, 
to  accommodate  the  travelers  and  their  luggage  over  the  rough 
waves  of  Erie,  and  enterprise  built  the  Henry  Clay  and  other 
steam  vessels,  to  supply  the  wants  of  emigration.  To  meet  the 
demand  for  land,  increasing  with  every  arrival  of  the  boats  in 
the  Straits,  other  and  larger  tracts  were  surveyed  and  brought 
into  market,  and  quickly  taken  up  by  the  settlers.  The  capitalist, 
too,  came,  and  made  investments.  Improvements,  local  and  gene 
ral,  were  made ;  the  small  settlements  began  to  swell  into  villages ; 
edifices,  public  and  private,  were  projected  and  built;  the  echo  of 
the  woods  was  supplanted  by  the  hum  of  commerce;  rich  fields 
of  grain  and  other  products  of  agriculture  met  the  eye  in  every 
direction,  and  were  shipped  to  the  seaboard.  To  this  complexion 
had  Michigan  come  at  last,  under  the  judicious  piloting  of  her 
faithful  and  far-seeing  Chief  Magistrate.  Her  people  saw  and 
appreciated  it,  and  their  confidence  in  his  wisdom  and  action  was 
greater  than  ever.  Not  vainglorious  or  overweening  of  his  own 
efforts,  he  was  deeply  sensible  of  how  much  of  their  almost 
unprecedented  prosperity  was  due  to  the  favor  of  an  all-wise 
and  beneficent  Providence;  and  to  him,  in  meekness,  did  the 
Governor  invite  the  people  to  set  apart  a  day  of  public  thanks 
giving  and  praise. 

The  mines,  both  copper  and  lead,  began  to  pour  forth  their 
wealth;  and  the  excavators  and  smelters  reported  large  quanti 
ties  for  market.  In  this  season  of  prosperity,  and  the  wheels 
of  government,  over  which  he  presided,  moving  with  harmony 
and  regularity  within  their  appointed  orbits,  General  Cass  found 
leisure  to  add  to  the  literary  wealth  of  our  common  country,  and 
enrich  its  stores  with  his  views  on  the  important  topics  of  the 
day.  He  wrote  several  essays  and  reviews  for  the  magazines,  ex 
hibiting  as  well  great  research  as  beautiful  thoughts,  and  clothed 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  209 

in  elegant  and  apt  language.  His  contributions  hold  high  rank 
in  the  world  of  letters,  for  their  clearness,  comprehensiveness, 
and  felicity  of  expression. 

He  was  again  called  upon,  however,  in  the  summer  of  1S2S,  to 
visit  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  Winnebagoes,  Pottawatomies,  Ottawas, 
and  Chippewas,  in  grand  council  at  Green  Bay.  lie  concluded 
a  treaty  with  these  tribes  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  August,  acquiring 
for  the  United  States  many  millions  of  acres  of  land ;  and  on  the 
twentieth  of  September  in  the  same  year,  he  negotiated  a  treaty 
with  the  Pottawatomies  at  St.  Joseph's,  by  which  a  large  cession 
was  procured  for  the  State  of  Indiana.  Regardless  of  personal 
comfort,  he  was  always  ready  to  execute  the  wishes  of  the  govern 
ment.  The  imminent  perils  which  he  often  encountered,  and  his 
hair-breadth  escapes  from  danger  and  death,  would  fill  volumes  to 
relate.  Incident  upon  incident,  in  his  travels  upon  the  lakes  and 
rivers,  and  through  the  solitary  forests,  it  would  afford  pleasure 
to  imre,  and  instruction  to  hear.  "No  man  living  has  seen  and 

O  /  O 

experienced  more  of  border  life,  with  all  its  excitement  and 
danger,  than  he.  There  is  scarcely  a  river  in  all  the  country 
north-west  of  the  Ohio,  of  any  magnitude,  that  he  has  not  seen; 
and  he  is  familiar  with  all  the  bays,  inlets,  and  promontories,  that 
line  the  lake  coast  from  Buffalo  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Father 
of  Rivers,  away  in  the  far-off,  northern  wilderness.  And  in  all 
his  multiplicity  of  business  with  the  Indians,  he  has,  in  every 
instance,  so  acted  as  not  to  leave  the  slightest  consciousness  on 
his  mind,  that  he  has  aggravated  the  lot  of  a  single  tribe,  or  in 
any  other  manner  than  to  the  promotion  of  their  own  good  and 
happiness. 

In  July  of  this  year,  a  Historical  Society  was  organized  at 
Detroit,  under  the  advice  of  General  Cass,  for  the  purpose  of 
collecting  and  preserving  such  materials,  both  traditionary  and 
authentic,  as  might  enable  its  members  to  trace  the  history  of 
that  portion  of  the  United  States,  and  mark  the  changes  it  had 
undergone.  By  judicious  exertions,  they  hoped  to  rescue  from 
oblivion  many  important  documents;  to  disclose  many  facts  and 
transactions,  either  wholly  unknown  or  imperfectly  remembered ; 
and  elucidate  what  was  confused  and  contradictory  in  the  earlier 
annals  of  those  regions.  The  field  of  labor  was  sufficiently  interest 
ing  and  extensive  for  all  their  industry  and  zeal.  Experience  has 
shown  that,  however  ardently  individuals  may  devote  their  energies 
14 


210  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

to  such  pursuits,  little,  after  all,  is  accomplished  by  solitary 
efforts;  whilst  unity  of  action,  a  generous  spirit  of  emulation, 
the  co-operation  of  the  community,  and  a  central  point  of  union, 
where  plans  may  be  proposed  and  adopted,  opinions  discussed, 
and  collections  and  recollections  embodied  and  preserved,  are 
secured  by  these  institutions.  The  history  of  Michigan  com 
mences  with  1701,  when,  in  June  of  that  year,  Mons.  De  la  Motte 
Cadillac,  with  one  hundred  men  and  a  Jesuit,  left  Montreal,  carry 
ing  with  them  everything  necessary  for  the  commencement  and 
support  of  an  establishment,  and  ascending  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
Lakes  Ontario  and  Erie,  reached  the  City  of  the  Straits  in  the 
following  month  of  July.  It  is  not  invidious  to  say,  that  no  place 
in  the  United  States  presents  such  a  series  of  events,  interesting 
in  themselves,  and  permanently  affecting,  as  they  occurred,  its 
progress  and  prosperity.  Five  times  has  its  flag  changed  between 
that  day  and  this ;  three  different  sovereignties  have  claimed  its 
allegiance,  —  France,  England  and  the  United  States;  and,  since 
it  has  been  held  by  the  latter,  its  government  has  been  thrice 
transferred ;  -twice  has  Detroit  been  besieged  by  the  Indians,  once 
captured  in  war,  and  once  burned  to  the  ground.  Still,  there  was 
nowhere  to  be  found  a  connected  account  of  the  progress  of  the 
people:  occasional  notices  were  interspersed  through  the  French 
historians,  and  detailed  descriptions  given  of  the  more  important 
events;  but  the  whole  subject  was  involved  in  much  obscurity, 
and  the  statistical  facts  had  altogether  been  neglected.  There 
were  no  comparative  estimates  of  plantation  and  production — • 
none  of  those  severe  investigations  into  the  character  and  condi 
tion  of  the  country  which  render  modern  history  so  valuable  and 
satisfactory. 

It  was  under  such  circumstances,  and  impelled  by  such  motives, 
that  a  movement  was  now  made  lay  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft,  who 
had  traveled  much  in  the  western  country,  and  was  highly  gifted 
with  observation  and  reflection,  and  others,  to  institute  a  society, 
which,  in  its  efficient  and  harmonious  action,  would  remedy  the 
remissness  of  the  past,  gratify  the  present,  and  benefit  the  future. 

The  celebration  of  the  first  anniversary  wTas  deferred  until  the 
session  of  the  legislative  council ;  when,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
September,  1829,  at  the  council  chamber,  in  Detroit,  General 
Cass,  by  invitation,  delivered  an  appropriate,  interesting,  and 
instructive  discourse.  It  embodied  the  early  history  of  Michigan, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  211 

bringing  it  down  to  a  period  when  the  United  States  came  into 
possession.  It  was  published  by  the  society,  and  excited  a  spirit 
of  research  and  inquiry,  producing  the  most  beneficial  results. 

"  There  are  no  proud  recollections  associated  with  the  early  his 
tory  of  this  region  of  forests,  and  lakes,  and  prairies.  No  monu 
ments  have  survived  the  lapse  of  ages,  to  attest,  at  once,  the 
existence  of  heroic  achievements,  and  a  nation's  gratitude.  Xo 
names  of  renown  have  come  down  to  us,  rescued  from  oblivion  by 
their  virtues  or  their  vices.  Xo  place  is  found,  in  all  our  borders, 
where  the  traveler  can  meditate  upon  the  instability  of  human 
power,  amid  the  evidence  of  its  existence  and  decay ;  nor  where 
the  memory  of  brilliant  exploits  can  be  recalled  among  the  scenes 
of  their  occurrence.  Our  country  is  yet  fresh  and  green.  Cen 
turies  must  roll  on  before  our  arches  are  broken,  our  columns 
dilapidated,  our  monuments  destroyed ;  before  the  hand  of  time 
shall  have  impressed  upon  our  high  deeds  and  high  places  that 
sanctity  which  enables  the  inhabitants  of  the  eternal  city,  even  in 
this  day  of  Roman  degeneracy,  to  look  back  with  pride  to  the 
deeds  and  days  of  the  republic.  Our  only  monuments  are  the 
primitive  people  around  us.  Broken  and  fallen  as  they  are,  they 
yet  survive  in  ruins,  connecting  the  present  with  the  past,  and 
exciting  emotions  like  those  which  are  felt  in  the  contemplation 
of  other  testimonials  of  human  instability.  The  early  European 
adventurers  found  these  regions  in  the  possession  of  numerous 
tribes  of  savages,  divided  into  separate  communities,  and  speak 
ing  various  languages,  but  having  a  general  resemblance  in  their 
physical  relations,  their  manners  and  customs,  their  religion, 
government,  and  institutions.  Much  labor  and  research  have  been 
devoted  to  an  inquiry  into  their  origin  and  migrations.  Many 
idle  notions  have  prevailed  respecting  these  topics,  unworthy  now 
of  serious  examination,  except  as  they  furnish  evidence  of  the 
waywardness  of  the  human  intellect.  That  they  are  branches  of 
the  great  Tartar  stock,  is  generally  believed  at  the  present  day. 
Many  points  of  resemblance,  both  physical  and  moral,  leave  little 
doubt  upon  the  subject.  But  why,  or  when,  or  where  the  sepa 
ration  occurred,  or  by  what  route,  or  in  what  manner  they  were 
conducted  from  the  plains  of  Asia  to  those  of  America,  it  were 
vain  to  inquire,  and  impossible  to  tell. 

"  Cartier  was  the  pioneer,  but  Champlain  was  the  founder  of  the 
French  power  on  this  continent.  For  twenty  years  succeeding  the 


212  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

commencement  of  the  seventeenth  century,  he  was  zealously  em 
ployed  in  planting  and  rearing,  upon  the  banks  of  the  St.  Law 
rence,  that  infant  colony  which  was  destined  to  extend  its  branches 
to  these  shores,  and,  finally,  to  contest,  with  its  great  rival,  the 
sovereignty  of  North  America.  Champlain  displayed,  in  his  ad 
venturous  life,  traits  of  heroism,  self-devotion,  and  perseverance, 
which,  under  more  favorable  circumstances,  would  have  placed 
him  in  the  rank  of  those  whose  deeds  are  the  landmarks  of  history. 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  trace  the  progress  of  these  remote  settle 
ments,  nor  to  mark  their  alternations  of  prosperity  and  adversity. 
They  are  peculiarly  interesting  to  us  only  as  they  exhibit  the 
gradual  and  successive  steps  by  which  a  knowledge  of  these  inter 
nal  seas,  and  of  the  countries  around  them,  was  acquired,  and  the 
settlements  formed  and  extended.  As  the  tide  of  French  power 
flows  towards  this  peninsula,  we  become  more  anxious  to  trace 
its  principles  and  progress,  and  to  inquire  into  the  motives  and 
means  of  the  hardy  adventurers  who  were  every  year  ascending 
still  further  and  further  the  boundless  waters  before  them.  It 
was  early  discovered  that  a  profitable  traffic  in  furs  could  be 
carried  on  with  the  Indians,  and  the  excitement  of  gain  prompted 
those  engaged  in  it  to  explore  every  avenue  by  which  the  camps 
and  hunting  grounds  of  the  Indians  could  be  approached.  A 
better  and  nobler  feeling,  too,  brought  to  this  work  a  body  of 
learned  and  pious  men,  who  left  behind  them  their  own  world, 
with  all  its  pleasures  and  attachments,  and  sought,  in  the  depths 
of  remote  and  unknown  regions,  objects  for  the  exercise  of  their 
zeal  and  piety.  The  whole  history  of  human  character  furnishes  no 
more  illustrious  examples  of  self-devotion  than  are  to  be  found  in 
the  records  of  the  establishments  of  the  Roman  Catholic  mission 
aries,  whose  faith  and  fervor  enabled  them  to  combat  the  difficul 
ties  around  them  in  life,  or  to  triumph  over  them  in  death. 

"  It  is  now  difficult  to  conceive,  what,  however,  is  well  authenti 
cated,  that,  a  century  and  a  half  ago,  the  great  central  point  of 
Indian  influence  and  intelligence  was  upon  the  southern  shore  of 
Lake  Superior,  and  far  towards  its  western  extremity.  This  was 
the  seat  of  the  Chippewa  power,  and  here  was  burning  that  eternal 
fire  whose  extinction  foretold,  if  it  did  not  occasion,  some  great 
national  calamity.  No  fact  is  better  established,  in  the  whole 
range  of  Indian  history,  than  the  devotion  of  some,  if  not  all  the 
tribes,  to  this  characteristic  feature  of  the  ancient  superstition  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  213 

the  Magi ;  and  it  proves  their  separation  from  the  primitive  stock 
at  an  early  day,  when  this  belief  was  prevalent  among  the  eastern 
nations.  All  the  ceremonies  attending  the  preservation  of  this 
fire,  yet  live  in  Indian  tradition,  and  it  was  still  burning  when  the 
French  first  appeared  among  them.  There  were  male  and  female 
guardians,  to  whose  care  it  was  committed  ;  and  when  we  recol 
lect  the  solemn  ritual  and  dreadful  imprecations  with  which  the 
same  pledge  of  Koman  safety  was  guarded  and  preserved,  it  ought 
not  to  surprise  us  that  such  importance  was  attached  by  the  In 
dians  to  the  ceaseless  endurance  of  this  visible  emblem  of  power, 
whose  duration  was  to  be  coeval  with  their  national  existence. 
The  augury  has  proved  but  too  true.  The  fire  is  extinct,  and  the 
power  has  departed  from  them.  We  have  trampled  on  the  one, 
and  overthrown  the  other. 

"  The  circumstances  of  another  custom  have  survived  the  general 
wreck,  in  which  so  much  of  their  tradition  has  perished.  Upon 
the  Sandusky  river,  and  near  where  the  town  of  Lower  Sandusky 
now  stands,  lived  a  band  of  the  Wyandots,  called  the  Neutral 
Nation.  They  occupied  two  villages,  which  were  cities  of  refuge, 
where  those  who  sought  safety  never  failed  to  find  it.  During  the 
long  and  disastrous  contests  which  preceded  and  followed  the 
arrival  of  the  Europeans,  and  in  which  the  Iroquois  contended  for 
victory,  and  their  enemies  for  existence,  this  little  band  preserved 
the  integrity  of  their  territories,  and  the  sacred  character  of  peace 
makers.  More  fortunate  than  the  English  monarch,  who,  seated 
upon  the  shore  of  the  ocean,  commanded  its  waves  to  come  no 
further,  they  stayed  the  troubled  waters  which  flowed  around  but 
not  over  them.  All  who  met  upon  their  threshold,  met  as  friends, 
for  the  ground  on  which  they  stood  was  holy.  It  was  a  beautiful 
institution  ;  a  calm  and  peaceful  island,  looking  out  upon  a  world 
of  waves  and  tempests. 

"  It  is  difficult,  at  this  day,  to  trace  the  causes  of  the  attachment 
and  aversion  which  were  respectively  manifested  by  the  various 
tribes  for  the  French  and  English.  The  interest  of  the  former 

o 

generally  predominated,  and  they  seem  to  have  had  a  peculiar 
facility  in  identifying  themselves  with  the  feelings  of  the  Indians, 
and  in  gaining  their  affections.  But,  even  in  this  quarter,  the 
seeds  of  disaffection  were  early  sown,  and  ripened  into  an  abund 
ant  harvest.  The  Fox  or  Outaganic  Indians,  who  then  occupied  this 
strait,  evinced  a  restless  disposition,  from  their  first  acquaintance 


214:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

with  the  French,  and  a  determined  predilection  for  the  English. 
This  was  cultivated  by  the  usual  interchange  of  messages  and 
presents,  and  an  English  trading  expedition  actually  reached  Mich- 
ilimackinac  in  1686. 

"  During  such  a  contest  for  supremacy,  both  in  power  and  com 
merce,  the  great  advantages  offered  by  an  establishment  upon 
this  river  could  not  escape  the  observation  of  the  contending  par 
ties.  In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  why  it  was  so  long  post 
poned,  and  we  can  only  account  for  it  by  the  recollection,  that 
the  French  had  another  and  safer  way  by  which  they  could  com 
municate  with  the  north-western  regions.  If  the  English  entered 
the  country  at  all,  they  must  enter  it  by  this  route,  and  a  position 
here  was  in  fact  the  key  of  the  whole  region  above  us.  Influ 
enced  by  these  motives,  the  English  government  seriously  con 
templated  its  occupation,  but  they  were  anticipated  by  the  decisive 
movement  of  their  rivals.  A  great  council  was  convened  at 
Montreal,  at  which  were  present  all  the  distinguished  chiefs  of 
the  various  tribes  occupying  the  country  from  Quebec  to  the  Mis 
sissippi.  It  is  described  by  the  French  historians  as  the  most 
numerous  and  imposing  assemblage  ever  collected  around  one 
council  fire,  and  it  was  attended  by  the  Governor  General  and 
all  that  was  noble  and  powerful  in  New  France.  Its  discussions, 
and  proceedings,  and  result,  were  fully  recorded,  and  have  come 
down  to  us  unimpaired.  The  whole  policy  of  the  French  inter 
course  with  the  Indians  was  considered,  and  the  wants  and  com 
plaints  of  the  various  parties  made  known.  The  Iroquois  stated 
that  they  had  understood  the  French  general  was  about  to  estab 
lish  a  post  on  the  Detroit  river,  and  objected  strenuously  to  the 
measure,  because  the  country  was  theirs,  and  they  had  already 
prevented  the  English  from  adopting  the  same  step.  The  Gov 
ernor  General,  in  answer,  informed  them  that  neither  the  Iroquois 
nor  the  English  could  claim  the  country,  but  that  it  belonged  to 
the  King  of  France  ;  and  that  an  expedition,  destined  for  this  ser 
vice,  had  already  commenced  its  march. 

"  The  continued  wars  between  France  and  England,  which  filled 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  eighteenth  century,  extended  their  influ 
ence  to  this  quarter,  and  a  company  of  militia,  detailed  from  the 
inhabitants,  and  commanded  by  an  ancestor  of  one  of  our  most 
respectable  families,  that  of  Campan,  fought  in  the  great  battle 
where  Braddock  was  defeated  and  killed.  But  it  was  under  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  215 

walls  of  Quebec  that  the  fate  of  this  country  was  decided.  Upon 
the  plains  of  Abraham  the  victor  and  the  vanquished  poured  out 
their  lives  together,  displaying  in  death,  as  they  had  displayed  in 
life,  traits  of  magnanimity  and  heroism  worthy  of  the  best  days 
of  chivalry.  '  Who  flies  ?'  said  the  expiring  Wolfe,  to  an  excla 
mation  of  one  of  the  mourning  group  around  him.  lie  was  an 
swered,  '  The  enemy  ! '  c  Then,'  said  he,  '  I  die  happy ;'— and 
he  died.  His  fate,  so  picturesque  and  glorious,  recalls  the  mem 
ory  of  Epaminondas  and  Gustavus,  upon  the  plains  of  Mantinea 
and  Lutzen.  Yictory  crowned  their  standards,  and  death  sealed 
their  career.  His  rival  in  fame,  and  in  all  but  fortune,  Montcalm, 
nobly  supported  the  honor  of  France,  and  fell  too  soon  for  his 
country,  though  too  late  for  himself.  But  a  few  brief  years  after 
wards,  and  another  noble  and  gallant  leader  attempted  to  plant 
the  standard  of  freedom  upon  the  rocky  battlements  of  Quebec. 
He  fell  where  Wolfe  and  Montcalm  had  fallen  before  him,  but 
the  memory  of  Montgomery  will  be  cherished  as  long  as  the 
sacred  cause  for  which  he  fought  and  died. 

"'In  1760,  the  British,  under  the  capitulation  of  Montreal,  took 
possession  of  Detroit  and  the  upper  ports,  and  in  1763  these  were 
finally  ceded  by  France.  No  sooner  had  the  English  obtained 
possession  of  the  country,  than  a  spirit  of  disaffection  became  vis 
ible,  which  extended  to  all  the  tribes  in  this  region,  and  finally 
led  to  the  conception  and  execution  of  a  plan,  equally  able  and 
daring,  for  their  overthrow. 

u  There  was  then  upon  the  stage  of  action  one  of  those  high  and 
heroic  men  who  stamp  their  own  characters  upon  the  age  in 
which  they  live,  and  who  appear  destined  to  survive  the  lapse  of 
time,  like  some  proud  and  lofty  column,  which  sees  crumbling 
around  it  the  temples  of  God  and  the  dwellings  of  man,  and  yet 
rests  upon  its  pedestal,  time-worn,  but  time-honored.  This  man 
was  at  the  head  of  the  Indian  confederacy,  and  had  acquired  an 
influence  over  his  countrymen,  such  as  had  never  before  been 
seen,  and  such  as  we  may  not  expect  to  see  again.  To  form  a, 
just  estimate  of  his  character,  we  must  judge  him  by  the  circum 
stances  in  which  he  was  placed ;  by  the  profound  ignorance  and 
barbarism  of  his  people  ;  by  his  own  destitution  of  all  education 
and  information  ;  and  by  the  jealous,  fierce  and  intractable  spirit 
of  his  compeers.  When  measured  by  this  standard,  we  shall 
find  few  of  the  men  whose  names  are  familiar  to  us  more 


216  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

remarkable  for  all  they  purposed  and  achieved  than  Pontiae. 
Were  his  race  destined  to  endure  until  the  mists  of  antiquity 
could  gather  round  his  days  and  deeds,  tradition  would  dwell 
upon  his  feats  as  it  has  done  in  the  Old  World  upon  all  who,  in 
the  infancy  of  nations,  have  been  prominent  actors  for  evil  or  for 
good.  Pontiae  was  an  Ottawa,  and  had  been  a  celebrated  and 
successful  warrior.  His  virtues  seem  to  have  been  his  own,  and 
his  vices  those  of  his  age  and  nation.  Major  Rogers,  who  con 
ducted  to  Detroit  the  first  British  detachment,  was  met  upon 
his  route  by  Pontiae  and  his  warriors.  He  states  that  the  chief 
sent  to  demand  why  he  entered  his  country,  and  informed  him 
that  he  stood  in  the  path,  and  that  the  troops  could  not  proceed 
until  their  object  was  satisfactorily  explained.  At  an  interview 
between  them,  the  British  commander  assured  him  his  object 
was  not  to  claim  the  country,  but  to  remove  from  it  the  French 
troops,  who  had  prevented  a  friendly  intercourse  between  the 
English  and  the  Indians.  Proper  belts  were  interchanged,  and 
the  desired  permission  was  given.  Pontiae  issued  a  currency 
which  was  received  by  the  French  settlers  and  faithfully  re 
deemed  by  him.  These  bills  of  credit  were  drawn  upon  bark, 
and  represented  the  article  which  had  been  delivered  to  him, 
and  were  authenticated  by  the  figure  of  an  otter — the  totem  of 
his  family. 

"  Pontiae  meditated  a  sudden  and  cotemporaneous  attack  upon 
all  the  British  posts  on  these  lakes,  and  upon  the  forts  at  Niagara, 
Presque  Isle,  La  Boeuf,  Yenango,  and  Pittsburgh.  His  design 
was  to  carry  them  by  treachery,  and  to  massacre  their  garrisons. 
He  then  intended  to  take  possession  of  the  country,  and  to  op 
pose  the  introduction  of  British  force.  He  calculated  that  these 
successes  would  give  confidence  to  all  the  tribes  and  unite  them 
in  a  general  confederacy.  His  first  object  was  to  gain  his  own 
tribe  and  the  warriors  who  generally  attended  him.  Topics  to 
engage  their  attention  and  inflame  their  passions  could  not  be 
wanting.  A  belt  was  exhibited,  which  he  pretended  to  have  re 
ceived  from  the  King  of  France,  urging  him  to  drive  the  British 
from  the  country,  and  to  open  the  paths  for  the  return  of  the 
French.  The  British  troops  had  not  endeavored  to  conciliate  the 
Indians,  and  mutual  causes  of  complaint  existed.  Some  of  the 
Ottawas  had  been  disgraced  by  blows.  But,  above  all,  the  Brit 
ish  were  intruders  in  the  country,  and  would  ere  long  conquer 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  217 

the  Indians  as  they  had  conquered  the  French,  and  wrest  from 
them  their  lands. 

"  After  these  topics  had  been  skillfully  managed,  a  great  council 
was  convened  at  the  River  Aux  Ecorces,  where  Pontiac  addressed 
the  Indians  with  equal  eloquence  and  effect.  lie  called  to  his 
aid  their  prevalent  superstition,  and  related  a  dream,  in  which 
the  Great  Spirit  had  recently  disclosed  to  a  Delaware  Indian 
the  conduct  he  expected  his  red  children  to  pursue.  I  shall  not 
occupy  your  time  by  a  recital  of  the  various  circumstances  attend 
ing  the  translation  of  this  seer  from  earth  to  heaven.  They  were 
distinctly  narrated  by  Pontiac,  and  such  is  the  effect  of  supersti 
tion  upon  the  human  mind,  that  they  W7ere  perhaps  related  with 
as  much.good  faith  as  they  were  received.  In  the  interview  be 
tween  the  Great  Spirit  and  his  chosen  minister  to  the  Indians, 
minute  instructions  were  given  for  their  conduct  in  this,  the  pe 
culiar  crisis  of  their  fate.  They  were  directed  to  abstain  from 
ardent  eplrito,  and  ooct  from  tlipm  the  manufactures  of  the  W7hite 
man  ;  to  resume  their  bows  and  arrows,  and  the  skins  of  the  ani 
mals  fur  clothing.  '  And  why,'  said  the  Great  Spirit,  indignantly, 
to  the  Delaware,  '  why  do  you  suffer  these  dogs  in  red  clothing 
to  enter  your  country  and  take  the  land  I  gave  you  ?  Drive 
them  from  it,  and  when  you  are  in  distress,  I  will  help  you.' 

"  The  speech  of  Pontiac,  and  the  dream  of  the  Delaware,  pro 
duced  a  powerful  effect  upon  the  wild  and  reckless  multitude,  who 
listened  eagerly  to  the  tale  of  their  wrongs,  and  the  offer  of  revenge. 
A  plan  of  operation  was  concerted,  and  belts  and  speeches  were 
sent  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  the  Indians  along  the  whole  line 
of  the  frontier." 

Thus  discoursed  General  Cass  to  the  Historical  Society  of  Mich 
igan.  Of  a  capacious  mind,  and  unusual  retentive  memory,  he 
has  made  it  a  rule  of  his  life,  when  not  otherwise  engaged,  to  busy 
himself  in  acquiring  information  and  knowledge  from  reading, 
observation,  and  mingling  with  his  neighbors  and  friends.  The 
history  of  the  western  country  he  had  garnered  in  his  mind. 
"Whatever  there  was  of  tradition,  to  the  minutest  detail,  was  his ; 
whatever  of  value  had  been  written  by  the  early  travelers,  he  had 
attentively  perused,  and  reflected  upon.  As  with  the  imperfect 
history  of  other  countries,  so  with  this ;  the  searcher  after  truth 
finds  much  chaff,  and  much  judgment  was  requisite  to  separate  the 
truth  from  imposition.  He  had  improved  the  many  opportunities 


218  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

that  came  in  his  way,  to  unriddle  many  a  curious  story;  and,  on 
the  occasion  of  this  anniversary,  the  society  had  the  full  benefit 
of  all  this.  His  discourse  was,  of  itself,  a  concise  and  beautiful 
history  of  the  great  region  in  which  its  members  dwelt ;  and,  as 
such,  was  most  sacredly  treasured  up  in  the  archives  of  the  society. 
General  Cass  was  now  frequently  invited  to  deliver  addresses 
in  the  Territory  where  he  resided,  and  in  the  adjoining  States, 
and  very  frequently  gratified  his  admirers  by  an  acceptance.  In 
the  following  year  of  1830,  the  Alumni  of  Hamilton  College,  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  gave  him  a  very  urgent  invitation  to  de 
liver  an  address  at  their  anniversary  meeting,  on  the  twenty-fifth 
of  August.  This,  in  those  days,  was  some  distance  for  him  to  go 
for  such  a  purpose.  The  invitation,  however,  was  warmly  urged 
by  the  graduates  of  that  institution,  and  he  accepted  it.  lie  ful 
filled  the  appointment  on  the  designated  day;  and  in  the  address 
which  he  delivered  on  that  occasion,  displayed  an  affluence  of 

TPftding  find    reflection,  whioK  ovinood    an    olovatcd    literary  tnsto, 

and  proved  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  most  of  the  depart 
ments  of  human  "knowledge.  A  stranger  to  his  earlier  history 
would  have  supposed  it  to  have  been  a  difficult  task  for  him  to 
perform,  with  any  degree  of  credit  to  himself  or  the'm,  employed 
as  he  had  been  then,  for  upwards  of  twenty  years,  in  the  life  and 
cares  of  the  wilderness,  and  its  savage  tenants.  But  wrhen  the 
reader  is  informed  that  he  had  been  previously  admitted  an  hon 
orary  member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  in  Phila 
delphia  ;  of  the  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and  Indiana  His 
torical  Societies  ;  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  and  the 
Columbian  Institute,  the  only  surprise  will,  probably,  be  that  the 
children  of  this  Alma  Mater  were  so  fortunate  in  their  selection 
of  an  orator. 

"Your  favorable  regard,'5  said  he,  "has  called  me  from  the 
land  of  Pontiac  and  Tecumseh,  to  this  ancient  seat  of  Iroquois 
power  and  ambition.  The  generation  has  not  wholly  passed  away 
which  beheld  that  fierce  confederacy  in  possession  of  your  fair  and 
fertile  regions  ;  which  saw  the  war-flag  upon  your  hills,  and  heard 
the  war-song  in  your  valleys.  And  there  are  many,  yet  in  the 
vigor  of  manhood,  who  recollect,  at  a  much  later  period,  that,  in 
the  country  beyond  you  ;  in  that  great  plain  which  still  stretches 
onward  as  we  follow  it,  and  which  now  teems  with  industry  and 
enterprise  and  civilization,  the  wandering  Indian  held  undisputed 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  219 

dominion,  and  made  his  home  and  his  grave  where  there  was  no 
pale  man  to  claim  the  one,  nor  to  disturb  the  other.  But  now  the 
feeble  remnants  of  this  primitive  race  are  strangers  in  the  land 
of  their  fathers.  In  their  own  language,  they  are  traveling  to  the 
setting  sun,  leaving  their  inheritance  to  us  and  our  children.  The 
fall  of  a  high  spirited  people  always  presents  a  subject  of  melan 
choly  reflection.  But  the  causes  which,  for  generations,  have  been 
exerting  their  influence  upon  our  aboriginal  population,  are  yet  in 
active  operation  ;  and  regret  them  as  we  may  and  must,  they  will 
go  onward  to  their  work.  Our  solitary  rivers  will  yet  be  ascended, 
our  forests  subdued,  our  prairies  reclaimed,  and  civilization  and 
improvement  will  assert  their  empire,  until  they  are  checked,  as 
in  other  times  and  countries  they  have  been  checked,  by  great 
social  or  political  revolutions." 

Speaking  of  the  power  of  education — • 

"  But  as  the  great  mass  of  mankind  is  instructed,  and  public 
opinion  enlightened,  a  moral  force  is  exerted,  which  governments 
dare  not  resist.  The  schoolmaster  is  a  more  powerful  antagonist 
than  the  soldier,  and  the  alphabet  a  more  efiicient  weapon  than 
the  bayonet.  The  nations  of  Christendom  are  members  of  one 
great  family.  Such  is  the  intercourse  of  commerce  and  science, 
that  the  proceedings  of  every  government  are  obtained,  discussed, 
and  judged  throughout  the  civilized  world.  If  a  hostile  gun  is 
fired  upon  the  Ganges,  the  echo  is  heard  upon  the  Mississippi. 
If  the  Egyptian,  reversing  the  tide  of  ancient  conquest,  plants  the 
crescent  upon  the  Parthenon,  sweeping  over  the  land  of  Miltiades 
and  Aristides  with  a  spirit  of  ruthless  barbarism,  which  leaves  to 
Greece  neither  the  evidence  of  her  past  civilization  nor  the  hopes 
of  her  future,  neither  her  monuments  nor  her  children,  her  suf 
ferings  are  felt  and  deplored,  wherever  our  countrymen  have  sub 
dued  the  forest  or  reclaimed  the  prairie. 

"  Where  is  the  man  so  elevated  as  not  to  quail  before  this  uni 
versal  gaze  ?  Even  the  wayward  child  of  fortune,  who  was  insu 
lated  in  his  career  and  fate,  no  less  than  in  the  scenes  of  his  birth 
and  death,  fell  before  the  public  opinion  of  Europe,  which  he  had 
despised  and  provoked.  The  banners  of  the  continental  princes 
would  never  have  crossed  the  Ehine  had  not  the  spirit  of  their 
people  been  roused ;  and  among  the  remarkable  events  of  that 
portentous  era,  when  Europe  arrayed  itself  against  France,  there 
was  nothing  which  marked  the  aspect  of  the  times  more  strongly 


220  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

than  the  zeal  everywhere  displayed  by  the  people.  They  marched 
in  the  van  of  their  governments,  and  actually  forced  their  way  to 
war." 

Of  the  periodical  press,  he  remarked: 

"  The  wish  of  Archimedes  is  realized,  and  a  place  is  found 
where  the  world  can  be  moved.  Only  a  century  and  a  half  has 
passed  away  since  the  introduction  of  newspapers,  and,  during 
many  years,  their  progress  was  slow  and  doubtful.  In  their  in 
fancy  there  was  little  to  commend  them  to  public  regard.  They 
were  mere  chronicles  of  passing  events,  recording  everything  with 
equal  gravity,  whether  trifling  or  important.  There  were  no  en 
larged  views,  no  interesting  speculations,  no  elaborate  discussions, 
political  or  statistical.  But  as  they  attained  maturity,  their  char 
acter  gradually  changed,  and  they  became  what  they  now  are — 
the  repositories  of  all  that  is  important  in  the  progress  of  human 
affairs,  and  of  much  that  is  valuable  in  science  and  literature. 
Their  duration  is  now  beyond  the  reach  of  fraud  or  force.  In 
India,  in  Iceland,  in  Australia,  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in 
regions  first  known  to  history,  and  in  those  which  history  has  yet 
to  visit,  these  periodical  messengers  are  sent  abroad  to  instruct,  to 
restrain,  and  to  punish.  Knowledge  is  diffused  with  certainty, 
promptness,  and  accuracy.  The  conduct  of  rulers  is  scrutinized ; 
the  course  of  their  policy  is  investigated ;  a  moving  map  of  the 
world  is  spread  before  the  community ;  and  literature,  science, 
and  the  arts,  are  carried  to  the  remotest  verge  of  civilization.  In 
republics  they  are  the  safeguards  of  freedom  ;  in  monarchies  they 
are  jealous  sentinels,  prompt  to  discern  and  fearless  to  announce 
approaching  danger;  and,  in  all  governments,  they  are  the  nerves 
which  convey  sensation  through  the  political  body.  Benefits,  when 
common,  are  rarely  appreciated,  and  the  natural  elements  around 
us  are  among  the  choicest  blessings  of  life,  which  we  enjoy  without 
reflection,  but  which  we  could  not  lose  without  destruction.  If 
the  periodical  press,  with  its  rich  treasures  of  intelligence  and 
science,  were  struck  from  existence,  we  should  then  know  how 
much  we  had  possessed  by  feeling  how  much  we  had  lost. 

"Had  this  great  source  of  public  instruction  and  information 
existed  in  the  old  world,  how  different  might  have  been  its  des 
tiny,  and  how  rich  the  lessons  of  experience  transmitted  to  us ! 
How  precious  would  be  a  newspaper,  printed  at  the  epoch  of 
some  of  the  memorable  events  which  have  come  down  to  us  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  221 

'thoughts  that  breathe  and  words  that  burn.'  A  gazette  of 
Sparta  or  Athens,  when  Xerxes  was  upon  the  Hellespont,  or 
Leonidas  at  Thermopylae,  would  be  a  treasure  far  beyond  the 
marble  monuments  which  yet  look  out  upon  the  ruins  around 
them.  The  hopes,  the  fears,  the  efforts,  the  sacrifices  of  Greece, 
would  be  before-  us,  not  disguised  in  the  impassioned  strains  of 
her  poets,  nor  in  the  eloquent  but  partial  narrations  of  her  histo 
rians,  but  as  they  marked  the  approaching  danger  and  the  alter 
ations  of  popular  feeling.  And  with  equal  interest  should  we 
gaze  upon  a  similar  monument  of  the  literature  and  fortunes  of 
Home,  when  domestic  discord  or  foreign  armies  shook  her  power 
but  not  her  resolution  ;  when  her  citizens  retreated  to  the  sacred 
mount,  or  her  great  Carthagenian  enemy  swept  her  eagles  from 
the  field  of  Cannse.  It  is  impossible  to  look  upon  those  great 
events,  familiar  to  us  from  infancy,  but  seen  through  a  mirage 
which  distorts  while  it  magnifies,  without  being  sensible  of  the 
absence  of  many  of  those  peculiar  traits  which  give  life  to  the 
picture  of  modern  times.  The  orators,  statesmen,  and  philoso 
phers,  are  actors  upon  a  stage,  dressed  in  theatrical  costume,  and 
performing  the  parts  assigned  them.  But  of  their  private  lives, 
of  their  peculiar  opinions  and  feelings,  and  of  the  moving  inci 
dents  which  appealed  to  all  and  swayed  all,  little  has  been 
recorded,  and  little  can  be  known.  Of  general  facts,  we  have 
enough,  and  more  than  enough.  Armies,  and  battles,  and  victo 
ries,  are  forever  before  us,  as  though  we  had  nothing  to  learn  but 
the  splendor  of  conquest  and  the  utter  disregard  in  which  human 
life  was  held.  All  that  is  wanting  to  complete  our  knowledge  of 
antiquity,  these  publications  would  have  furnished.  We  should 
have  entered  the  private  dwellings  of  those  who,  twenty  centuries 
a£0,  were  as  anxious  about  the  cares  of  this  life  as  we  are.  Their 

O      ' 

domestic  circles  would  have  been  open  to  us,  their  conjugal  and 
parental  and  filial  relations  disclosed,  and  the  whole  constitution 
of  their  society  revealed.  The  meagre  details  of  manners  and 
customs,  now  gleaned  from  the  comic  writers,  would  be  dis 
regarded  in  the  general  view  presented  to  us.  Time  would 
be  annihilated,  as  the  steam  engine  is  annihilating  space,  and 
nations,  as  remote  in  age  as  in  position,  would  be  brought 
together. 

"But  these  are  advantages  peculiar  to  the  age  in  which  we 
live.     The  invention  of  Cadmus  still  retains  all  its  value,  but  it  is 


222  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

almost  the  only  debt  which  the  diffusion  of  modern  knowledge 
owes  to  the  genius  of  antiquity.  And  when  we  recall  the  circum 
stances  which  formerly  retarded  the  progress  of  letters,  we  may 
well  be  surprised  that  so  much  was  done  for  the  great  cause  of 
literature ;  and  that  in  history,  in  poetry,  in  elocution,  the  works 
which  have  descended  to  us  yet  excite  the  admiration  of  man 
kind.  They  are  models  for  imitation,  rather  than  efforts  to  be 
equaled.  The  slow  and  expensive  process  by  which  alone  manu 
scripts  could  be  multiplied,  necessarily  limited  the  circulation  of 
works  to  the  wealthier  portion  of  society ;  and  it  is  recorded,  that, 
for  three  small  treatises,  Plato  paid  a  sum  equal  to  sixteen  hundred 
dollars  of  our  money.  When  the  field  of  fame  was  thus  limited, 
only  an  ardent  devotion  to  literature  could  stimulate  to  exertion. 
Greece  indeed  affords,  in  one  of  her  institutions,  a  noble  theater 
for  display :  and  when  all  that  wras  wise,  and  learned,  and  vene 
rable,  through  her  confederated  states,  assembled  at  the  Olympic 
games,  and  listened  to  the  poets  and  historians  who  recited  their 
admirable  productions,  life  could  afford  no  reward  more  grateful 
or  enduring. 

"In  our  own  country,  we  may  attribute  the  general  progress 
of  political  information  to  the  introduction  of  periodical  publica 
tions,  and  to  the  admirable  system  of  posts  by  which  they  are 
distributed  to  every  portion  of  the  republic.  Our  country  is 
intersected  in  all  directions  by  routes,  along  which  the  deposit 
ories  of  intelligence  are  conveyed.  From  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  and  from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Missouri,  these  avenues 
of  knowledge  are  pouring  out  their  rich  treasures  before  the  com 
munity.  The  tenant  of  the  remotest  log  cabin,  upon  the  very 
verge  of  civilization,  is  within  the  reach  of  newspapers  recording 
the  passing  history  of  the  world.  The  able  debate  which,  at  the 
last  session  of  Congress,  fixed  the  eyes  of  the  nation  upon  the 
Senate,  was  watched  with  equal  anxiety  in  every  part  of  the  land. 
The  talents  and  opinions  of  those  who  mingled  in  the  controversy, 
were  as  well  known  upon  the  frontier  as  at  the  capital.  The 
grave  questions  of  constitutional  law,  so  elaborately  discussed, 
furnished  topics  of  conversation  and  argument  throughout  the 
confederacy.  The  general  spirit  of  inquiry,  co-operating  with 
the  facility  afforded  for  its  indulgence,  renders  the  whole  body 
of  our  citizens  spectators  of  the  proceedings  of  the  government. 
The  walls  of  the  capitol  are,  in  effect,  broken  down,  and  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  223 

national  representatives  perform  their  duties  upon  a  vast  arena, 
where  their  measures  are  all  visible  to  those  who  gave,  and  can 
take  from  them,  their  political  life.  It  is  difficult  to  estimate 
too  highly  the  effect  of  this  surveillance  upon  the  character  and 
duration  of  our  country." 

Turning  his  attention  to  the  power  of  knowledge  and  education 
upon  the  political  institutions  of  the  various  nations  of  the  world, 
he  proceeds  to  say : 

"Representative  bodies  are  gaining  strength  where  they  exist, 
and  they  are  coming  into  existence  where  they  have  heretofore 
been  unknown.  With  the  knowledge  of  their  rights,  comes  the 
feeling  of  their  strength.  The  uses  and  abuses  of  governments 
are  now  freely  investigated,  and  men  begin  to  wonder  that  they 
have  so  long  submitted  to  unjust  pretensions,  founded  neither  in 
reason  nor  utility,  neither  in  the  good  they  promise  nor  in  that 
which  they  perform.  Time  and  opinion  sanctify  many  errors; 
and  the  'pomp  and  circumstance'  of  a  throne  have  often  pre 
served  the  authority,  if  not  the  life,  of  the  occupant.  But  he 
who  raised  thrones  and  demolished  them  as  easily  as  he  fought 
battles  and  gained  them,  said  (and  the  lesson  is  now  spreading 
through  the  world)  that  'they  were  wooden  seats  covered  with 
velvet.'  Their  splendid  drapery  can  not  much  longer  conceal 
the  truth.  It  would  be  arrogant  for  us  to  judge  what  forms  of 
government  are  best  suited  to  the  condition  of  the  European 
States;  and  we  should  contradict  many  of  the  lessons  which 
history  has  furnished,  were  we  to  affirm  that  monarchies,  pro 
perly  administered,  can  not  protect  the  rights  and  promote  the 
happiness  of  their  people.  But  we  may  well  look  forward  to 
the  time  when  such  governments,  restrained  by  limitations  they 
can  not  pass,  and  acknowledging  the  influence  of  public  opinion, 
shall  exercise  their  powers  in  a  spirit  of  justice  and  forbearance. 
And  that  time  must  come,  and  come  speedily.  It  has  been  said, 
and  with  some  truth,  that  the  affairs  of  no  nation  can  be  very 
badly  administered,  where  a  body  of  men,  no  matter  how  consti 
tuted,  or  by  whom  elected,  have  the  right  to  assemble,  and  freely 
and  publicly  investigate  the  proceedings  of  the  government.  But 
how  much  more  efficacious  are  the  general  extension  of  education 
and  the  productions  of  the  press?  Instead  of  receiving  impres 
sions  from  those  who  are  too  often  interested  in  the  prevalence  of 
erroneous  ones,  an  enlightened  community  forms  impressions  for 


224:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

itself.  For  a  time,  the  ramparts  erected  in  many  countries  against 
this  great  enemy  of  arbitrary  power,  may  prevent  the  approach 
of  instruction  and  information.  But  these  defenses  must  give 
way.  They  will  fall  as  many  prouder  monuments  have  fallen ; 
and  knowledge,  freedom,  and  science  will  march  over  them,  not 
as  northern  nations  entered  the  capital  of  the  world,  to  enslave 
and  destroy,  but  to  redeem,  to  enlighten,  and  to  protect.  Even 
the  great  Russian  Iceberg,  which  is  already  the  terror  of  Europe, 
has  felt  the  genial  influence  of  knowledge  and  science;  and  let 
us  hope  that  it  will  dissolve  beneath  their  power,  before  it  reaches 
the  plains  of  France  and  Italy.  Signs  of  approaching  change 
begin  to  be  visible  among  the  votaries  of  Islamism :  and  happy 
will  it  be  for  the  nations  possessing  that  faith,  if  they  can  be 
brought  to  perceive  their  moral  and  political  degradation;  to 
exchange  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  for  excursions  into  the  regions 
of  knowledge  and  science.  We  might  then  hope  that  the  stern 
character  of  Mahomet  would  regenerate  the  descendants  of  those 
mighty  warriors  who  subdued  the  empire  of  the  east,  and  carried 
the  horse  tails  to  the  capital  of  the  west.  Nor  can  we  be  indif 
ferent  to  the  progress  of  the  fortunate  soldier  who  sits  upon  the 
throne  of  the  Pharaohs.  Centuries  of  darkness  and  servitude 
have  rested  upon  the  land  of  the  Nile;  the  cradle  of  the  arts  and 
sciences,  it  has  long  been  their  tomb.  Its  history,  like  the  source 
of  the  mighty  river  which  gives  it  fertility,  eludes  our  research, 
and  its  monuments  have  survived  the  memory  of  their  founders 
and  the  objects  of  their  construction.  Even  here,  the  light  of 
knowledge  is  penetrating ;  and  its  pyramids  may  yet  be  gilded  by 
the  setting  rays  of  the  sun  of  science,  as  in  the  infancy  of  the 
world  they  were  gilded  by  its  rising  beams. 

"  And  Greece,  too,  is  awakening  from  the  slumber  of  ages.  She 
has  cast  from  her  the  incubus  of  Turkish  despotism,  and  is  again 
displaying  that  standard  which  triumphed  at  Marathon  and  Sala- 
mis.  And  who  has  not  deplored  her  sufferings,  and  rejoiced  at 
her  emancipation?  And  what  prouder  triumph  have  knowledge 
and  science  ever  gained,  than  the  imperishable  fame  which  the 
deeds  of  her  statesmen  and  warriors,  the  works  of  her  artists,  and 
the  productions  of  her  poets,  and  historians,  and  philosophers, 
have  conferred  upon  the  land  of  Homer,  of  Aristides,  and  of  Epam- 
inondas  ?  A  region  of  country  not  larger  than  some  of  our  coun 
ties,  has  riveted  the  attention  of  the  world  for  twenty  centuries. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  225 

To  this  day  our  earliest  recollections  are  given  to  her  history,  our 
earliest  associations  to  her  fame  and  fortune.  In  boyhood  we 
study  the  story  of  her  rise  and  fall ;  in  manhood  we  deduce  from 
it  lessons  of  practical  wisdom ;  and  in  age  we  revert  to  it  as  an 
interesting  chapter  in  the  general  history  of  the  human  family." 

He  pays  a  passing  tribute  to  enterprise  and  commerce : 

"  Stimulating  all  to  exertion,  and  every  portion  of  the  habitable 
globe  has  been  explored.  The  causes  of  war  are  decreasing,  and 
the  desire  to  engage  in  it,  by  princes  and  people,  diminishing. 
Ambition,  indeed,  is  as  reckless  as  ever,  but  no  future  warrior 
will  reach  an  Indus,  beyond  which  there  are  no  worlds  to  conquer. 
And  national  glory  is  a  meteor,  yet  mistaken  by  many  for  the 
fountain  of  light.  National  glory !  The  glory  of  destruction,  and 
not  of  preservation ;  of  want,  of  suffering,  of  misery,  and  not  of 
abundance,  of  enjoyment,  of  prosperity ;  of  death,  and  not  of  life. 
"We  may  hope  that  this  splendid  pageant  is  passing  from  before 
the  eyes  of  mankind.  It  will  leave  impressions  not  less  sad  than 
salutary.  Of  the  productive  industry  of  the  ancients  we  have 
very  imperfect  notions.  Their  historians  seem  unwilling  to  leave 
the  great  highways  of  war,  and  battles,  and  splendid  national 
affairs,  and  explore  the  by-ways  which  led  to  private  life,  and 
manners,  and  employments.  Statistical  researches  were  almost 
unknown,  and  exactness  in  political  science  unheeded." 

In  commenting  upon  the  various  improvements  and  discoveries 
in  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  contrasting  the  present  with  former 
ages,  he  finally  reaches  astronomy;  and  of  this  he  says: 

"There  is  nothing  within  the  whole  range  of  the  human  imagi 
nation  which  so  forcibly  impresses  upon  us  just  conceptions  of  the 
infinite  power  of  Him  who  made,  and  preserves,  and  may  destroy 
these  works  of  his  hands ;  perhaps  for  purposes  unknown  to  us,  and 
to  be  replaced  by  others,  as  these  may  have  succeeded  a  more 
ancient  creation.  The  telescope  has  drawn  these  worlds  towards 
us.  It  has  shown  that  points  of  matter,  many  of  them  scarcely 
visible  to  the  naked  eye,  are  among  the  most  stupendous  works 
of  Providence ;  while  a  kindred  instrument  has  revealed  to  us  a 
world  of  animated  beings,  near  us,  indeed,  and  around  us,  but 
utterly  unknown  till  the  invention  of  the  microscope.  Where 
these  discoveries  are  to  end  no  man  can  tell.  Already  have  we 
passed  the  boundaries  prescribed  to  unassisted  nature,  and  brought 
the  Greatest  and  the  smallest,  the  nearest  and  the  most  remote  of 
15 


226  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

God's  works  within  our  view.  We  may  yet  ascertain  that  many 
portions  of  matter,  apparently  inanimate,  are  congeries  of  living 
beings,  performing  the  functions  assigned  to  them,  and  each  en 
joying  his  allotted  share  of  happiness.  But  the  mind  withdraws 
from  these  speculations,  overpowered  by  their  immensity  and 
infinitude,  and  seeks  relief  in  the  contemplation  of  other  objects." 

But  of  these  arts  and  sciences  he  observes  : 

"  They  do  not  constitute  the  only  melioration  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  condition  of  human  life.  Pestilence,  famine,  and 
conflagration  were  vials  of  wrath  which  were  poured  out  upon  the 
ancient  world,  but  which  have  been  rendered  almost  innoxious  by 
the  progress  of  useful  knowledge.  I  will  not  hold  up  to  your 
view  such  facts,  scattered  over  the  records  of  history,  as  show  the 
sufferings  formerly  inflicted  upon  mankind,  by  the  frequency  and 
extent  of  these  terrible  calamities,  through  the  successive  eras  of 
human  woe  ;  from  the  famine  i  which  was  over  all  the  face  of  the 
earth,'  when  the  sons  of  the  patriarch  went  down  to  Egypt  to  buy 
corn,  that  they  '  might  live  and  not  die ; '  and  the  contagion  which 
carried  death  into  every  family  of  Israel,  while  the  messenger  of 
divine  wrath  punished  the  pride  of  the  ruler  and  the  people,  down 
to  the  memorable  conflagration  of  Rome,  kindled  by  the  imperial 
monster  who  then  filled  the  throne,  that  he  might  sing  upon  his 
lyre  the  destruction  of  Troy,  while  a  greater  than  Troy  was  burn 
ing  around  him.  These  visitations  mark  every  chapter  of  the 
history  of  nations,  and  their  baleful  effects  have  been  felt  in  mod 
ern  times.  But  science  and  the  arts  have  interposed  themselves 
between  these  destructive  agents  and  their  victims ;  they  stand 
between  the  living  and  the  dead,  mighty  to  protect,  if  not  to 
overcome." 

He  unrolls  the  historical  canvas  of  the  middle  ages,  and  geo 
graphically  describes  the  low  condition  of  man  and  mind  in  that 
benighted  period  of  human  existence.  He  speaks  of  the  dawn  of 
another  sun  in  the  intellectual  firmament,  and  the  fresh  impulse 
given  to  mutual  improvement ;  but  adds : 

"  Let  us  indignantly  discard  the  utilitarian  doctrine  which  would 
teach  us  to  estimate  the  value  of  all  improvement  by  its  power  of 
application  to  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  or  to  the  business  pursuits 
of  life.  There  is  already  enough  of  selfishness  in  human  nature, 
without  making  this  principle  of  action  the  foundation  of  our 
knowledge,  and  the  object  and  reward  of  moral  and  intellectual 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  227 

cultivation.  To  eradicate  this  great  motive  of  exertion  would  be 
impossible  were  it  attempted,  and  injurious  were  it  possible.  But 
it  is  the  part  of  true  wisdom  to  circumscribe  the  sphere  of  its 
operation,  and  to  guide  and  control  its  application,  that  it  may 
furnish  a  moral  stimulus  in  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  life, 
and  not  an  intoxicating  draught,  paralyzing  the  faculties,  or  pre 
senting  but  one  object  for  their  contemplation. 

"  The  powers  which  Providence  has  given  have  been  wisely 
given  for  action  and  enjoyment.  Judgment,  taste,  genius,  imagi 
nation,  these  endowments  were  bestowed  that  they  might  be 
employed,  cultivated,  and  improved.  They  are  among  the  purest 
elements  of  human  happiness,  and  the  pleasures  they  bring  are 
rational,  innocent,  and  enduring.  They  quicken  and  invigorate 
that  sensibility  which  is  one  of  the  best  safeguards  of  virtue ;  which 
adds  to  the  power  of  conscience  and  the  fear  of  responsibility,  the 
restraining  dread  of  self-abasement." 

Omitting  no  topic  which  naturally  came  within  the  proposed 
scope  of  this  intellectual  effort,  he  expresses  the  opinion  that  this 
country  has  little  to  fear  from  overgrown  fortunes  and  general 
luxury ;  and  that  we  may  look,  without  apprehension,  to  the 
progress  and  cultivation  of  every  branch  of  literature  and  all  the 
departments  of  the  arts.  His  own  language  is  preferable. 

"  The  state  of  society  in  our  own  country,  as  well  as  some  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  our  political  institutions,  is  happily 
opposed  to  this,  the  last  and  worst  calamity  of  decrepit  nations. 
Distinctions  of  rank  are  unknown  among  us,  and  the  distinctions 
of  wealth,  where  wealth  confers  them,  are  soon  scattered  to  the 
winds  by  that  tendency  to  distribution  which  is  one  of  the  origi 
nal  laws  impressed  upon  our  system.  No  legal  barriers  are 
erected,  behind  which  imbecility  and  profligacy  can  secure  them 
selves  from  the  just  consequences  of  their  improvidence.  Estates 
are  left  to  be  preserved  or  lost,  as  those  who  possess  them  may 
be  prudent  or  profligate.  Our  statutes  of  conveyance,  and  of 
inheritance,  and  distribution,  are  some  of  the  peculiar  character 
istics  of  our  condition,  which  promise  permanence  and  stability 
to  our  government  and  institutions.  They  are  not  indeed  among 
the  declarations  of  natural  rights  and  political  principles  which 
our  fathers,  in  the  hour  of  trial  and  danger,  committed,  with 
their  own  lives  and  fortunes,  to  the  course  of  events,  and  which 
have  since  been  engrafted  into  our  own  written  constitutions  ;  but 


228  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

among  all  these  splendid  truths,  there  is,  perhaps,  not  one  des 
tined  to  produce  a  more  permanent  effect  upon  the  character  and 
prospects  of  our  country  and  countrymen,  than  the  regulations 
which  govern  the  conveyance  and  descent  of  property.  Wise  in 
their  principles,  and  more  salutary  in  their  operation,  than  the 
septennial  reversion  of  the  Jews,  or  the  agrarian  law  of  Home, 
they  leave  to  individuals  proper  motives  for  exertion,  and  the  just 
rewards  of  their  industry  and  enterprise  in  the  accumulation  of 
wealth ;  while,  in  the  freedom  from  all  restraint,  except  the  will 
of  the  owner,  they  ensure  its  distribution  among  the  community 
in  good  time  and  without  violence.  The  innumerable  streams  of 
private  wealth,  as  they  pass  along  to  fertilize  the  land,  succes 
sively  increase,  and  diminish,  and  disappear,  leaving  new  foun 
tains  to  spring  up  and  new  channels  to  be  opened." 

And  as  he  draws  this  profound  and  beautifully  written  address 
to  its  close,  he  proceeds  to  say : 

"  The  works  of  genius,  the  noble  inheritance  which  antiquity 
has  bequeathed  to  us,  furnish  objects  of  study  and  models  of 
thought  for  our  youth.  Long  may  they  continue  to  appreciate 
their  value ;  to  draw  intellectual  wealth  from  these  rich  treasures 
of  taste  and  learning.  There  is  a  period  in  human  life  when  the 
memory  is  plastic  and  the  judgment  weak;  when  facts  can  be 
collected  and  deposited  in  the  great  mental  store-house,  to  be  ex 
amined,  and  selected,  and  combined,  after  the  other  faculties 
have  gained  strength  and  maturity.  This  is  the  time  for  the 
acquisition  of  the  ancient  languages — time  which  may  be  profit 
ably  devoted  to  these  and  kindred  pursuits,  without  any  sacrifice 
of  those  other  great  objects  of  education  which  require  the  co 
operation  of  the  higher  powers  of  the  understanding. 

"  The  philosophy  of  speech  is  itself  one  of  the  most  interesting 
objects  of  human  contemplation,  and  the  structure  of  languages 
is  intimately  connected  with  the  character  and  condition  of  the 
people  by  whom  they  are  spoken.  Greece  and  Rome  have  left 
in  the  modern  tongues  many  witnesses  of  their  own,  and  it  will 
not  be  denied,  that  a  full  knowledge  of  the  English  language  can 
not  be  obtained  without  a  general  acquaintance  with  these  ancient 
languages.  Their  artificial  and  transpositive  arrangement,  render 
ing  many  inflections  necessary  to  their  comprehension,  and  sacri 
ficing  simplicity  to  euphony,  is  a  curious  subject  of  speculation, 
and  exhibits  one  of  the  most  striking  characteristic  differences 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  229 

between  ancient  and  modern  nations.  These  views  are  sufficient 
to  redeem  our  schools  from  the  imputation  of  an  unprofitable  ap 
plication  of  their  time  to  barren  and  useless  pursuits.  But  their 
justification,  if  justification  be  necessary,  rests  upon  other  and 
higher  considerations.  The  learning  of  the  ancient  world,  its  sen 
timents,  experience,  and  feelings,  are  embodied  in  those  imperish 
able  productions  of  Grecian  arid  Italian  genius  which  have  come 
down  to  us  as  fresh  and  green  as  when  they  first  excited  the  ad 
miration  of  mankind.  Those  fortunate  and  favored  regions,  kin- 

O  5 

dred  indeed  in  the  bounties  which  nature  has  given  them,  but 
rivals  in  arts,  in  arms,  and  in  fame,  were  the  repositories  of 
much  that  was  valuable  in  human  life,  and  the  theater  of  almost 
all  that  was  splendid  in  human  action.  They  are  yet  the  high 
places  of  the  earth,  where  pilgrims  from  every  land  go  up  to  sur 
vey  the  dilapidated  memorials  of  taste  and  genius  which  adorn 
their  solitary  spots,  and  to  meditate  upon  the  instability  of  hu 
man  power  where  the  foundations  of  power  were  the  deepest  and 
strongest. 

"  But  there  are  monuments  of  Grecian  and  Roman  power 
which  no  barbarism  can  overthrow,  and  where  no  tainted  breeze 
can  carry  desolation.  These  are  the  trophies  of  peace  and  not  of 
war :  the  triumphs  of  opinion  and  not  of  force.  To  us  and  to  our 
youth,  who  inhabit  a  land  beyond  the  world  of  Strabo  and 
Ptolemy,  these  memorials  of  departed  greatness  and  knowledge 
are  the  more  precious  because  they  furnish  the  only  bond  of  con 
nection  between  this  western  hemisphere  and  the  early  abodes  of 
science  and  freedom.  "We  can  not  survey  the  plains  of  Marathon, 
and  strengthen  our  patriotism  by  its  glorious  recollections.  Nor 
can  we  view  the  scenes  of  ancient  martyrdom,  and  there  find  our 
piety  elevated  by  the  contemplation  of  the  faith  and  courage 
which  sent  many  of  the  early  Christians  through  tortures  to 
death,  and  through  death  to  their  reward.  These  associations  are 
wisely  given,  and  where  they  may,  let  them  be  profitably  em 
ployed.  But  we  can  recall  the  events  which  laid  those  lovely 
regions  desolate,  and  can  bless  God  the  more  fervently  for  the 
country,  and  government,  and  religion  He  has  given  us.  We 
can  draw  lessons  of  wisdom  from  the  past,  and  if  the  future  is 
beyond  our  view,  we  may  still  learn  to  indulge  in  useful 
anticipations. 

"  As  time  passes  over  us,  it  will  consecrate  the  scenes  of  our 


230  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

own  memorable  events,  where  courage,  and  constancy,  and  pa 
triotism  devoted  themselves  nobly  and  generously  to  the  cause 
of  their  country,  in  the  days  of  her  trial  and  danger.  Your  State 
contains  its  full  share  of  these  sacred  spots,  and  not  the  least  in 
teresting  is  in  your  own  vicinity.  The  stream  which  gives 
beauty  to  the  landscape  around,  and  which  now  flows  through  a 
peaceful  and  prosperous  region,  once  saw  the  advance  of  a  Chris 
tian  banner,  surrounded  by  civilized  and  savage  forces,  prepared 
to  do  those  deeds  of  horror  which,  we  may  trust,  will  never  again 
desolate  our  frontiers.  The  great  lakes  which  stretch  along  your 
borders  have  been  the  scenes  of  desperate  conflicts  ;  and  even 
now,  as  the  traveler  proceeds  up  Lake  Erie,  he  points  to  its  west 
ern  islands  as  the  Greek  patriot  points  to  the  Gulf  of  Salamis ;  to 
the  place  where  the  lamented  Perry  gained  his  victory  with  Spar 
tan  courage  and  made  his  report  with  Spartan  brevity.  There 
no  monument  can  be  erected,  in  its  freshness  to  gratify  our  pride, 
nor  in  its  decay  to  hallow  our  recollections.  The  waves  roll,  and 
will  roll,  over  it ;  but  whoever  passes  by  with  no  kindling  emo 
tion,  no  desire  to  recall  the  glorious  story,  nor  to  associate  its  inci 
dents  with  the  islands  and  shores  around  him,  no  determination 
to  follow  the  bright  example  of  those  who  there  triumphed  in 
life  and  death,  let  him  distrust  his  own  heart,  and  let  his  country 
distrust  him." 

The  attendance  of  the  Alumni  of  Hamilton  College  on  this  oc 
casion  was  numerous ;  and  in  the  evening,  Gerrit  Smith,  presi 
dent,  in  the  chair,  they  unanimously  passed  the  following 
resolutions : 

"Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Association  be  presented  to 
His  Excellency  Governor  Cass,  for  the  able  and  eloquent  address 
this  day  delivered  by  him. 

"Resolved,  That  Governor  Cass  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy 
of  the  address  for  publication. 

"Resolved,  That  Theodore  S.  Gold,  Charles  P.  Kirkland,  and 
Samuel  D.  Darkin,  be  a  committee  to  communicate  the  preceding 
resolutions  to  Governor  Cass." 

As  a  further  token  of  respect,  he  subsequently  received  from 
Hamilton  College  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  231 


CHAPTEK  XY. 

General  Cass  resigns  the  Office  of  Governor — President  Jackson  invites  General  Cass  to  the  Head 
of  the  War  Department — His  Acceptance — Public  Demonstration  at  Detroit — Address  of  Major 
Biddle  in  behalf  of  People  of  Michigan— The  Reply— The  Congratulations. 

In  July,  1831,  General  Cass  resigned  his  office  as  Governor 
of  Michigan.  He  bad  administered  the  government  for  a  period 
of  nearly  eighteen  years,  with  signal  ability.  He  had  been 
appointed  six  times,  —  running  through  the  presidency  of  Mr. 
Madison,  Mr.  Monroe,  and  John  Quincy  Adams,' — without  a 
single  representation  against  him  from  the  people  in  all  that 
time,  or  a  single  vote  against  him  in  the  Senate.  Our  terri 
torial  history  contains  no  similar  mark  of  confidence.  As  his 
first  appointment  in  1813  was  wholly  unexpected,  so  was  each 
renewal  entirely  unsolicited.  In  fact,  his  administration  was  con 
ducted  with  so  much  wisdom,  and  gave  such  universal  satisfaction 
to  the  people,  that  they  regarded  his  continuance  as  a  matter  of 
course.  He  had  faithfully  discharged  the  duties  of  his  Indian 
Superintendency,  of  a  wider  circuit  of  country  than  any  man 
before  or  since  has  had  under  his  direction,  commencing  with 

'  O 

over  forty  thousand  Indians,  and  quite  nine  thousand  warriors. 
He  had  concluded  nineteen  treaties  with  the  Indians,  and  acquired 
large  cessions  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin, 
to  an  amount  equal,  perhaps,  to  one-fourth  part  of  the  area  of  those 
States,  and  each  productive  of  important  results  to  the  government. 
In  all  their  villages,  his  name  was  familiar;  and,  in  all  his  trans 
actions  with  this  wandering,  peculiar  race  of  people,  he  acted  with 
a  just  and  enlightened  regard  for  their  interests,  and  took  good 
care  that  they  should  not  suffer  wrong.  No  treaty  negotiated  by 
him  was  ever  rejected  by  the  Senate,  nor  was  a  representation 
ever  made  against  one  of  them  by  the  Indians  —  a  rare  occur- 
.rence,  and  one  which  is  no  doubt  owing  to  the  great  fairness  and 
justice  of  the  proceeding.  He  was  often  pained  to  listen  to  their 
tales  of  suffering,  resulting  from  the  avarice  of  the  trader,  and 
frequently  interposed  the  executive  arm,  to  shield  them  from 


232  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

imposition.  He  had  been  to  them,  indeed,  what  he  professed, 
as  the  representative  of  the  government,  namely,  their  father.  So 
they  regarded  him,  and  so  they  meant,  when,  in  addressing  him, 
they  gave  him  that  title.  Consequently,  his  influence  was  un 
bounded  ;  and,  by  not  using  that  influence  for  personal  purposes, 
he  retained  their  confidence  and  friendship.  Had  not  this  been 
the  case,  he  would  have  fallen  far  short  of  accomplishing  so 
much  good  for  the  benefit  of  his  country.  He  has  had  more 
official  business  with  the  Indians  than  any  other  man.  Soon  an 
adept  in  his  knowledge  of  their  character,  he  knew  how  to  com 
port  himself,  as  we  have  seen,  on  any  occasion  and  emergency. 
Prompt  and  punctual  in  all  his  engagements  with  them,  it  all 
resulted  to  the  good  of  the  people.  When  he  began  his  adminis 
tration,  he  found  the  country  small  in  white  population,  without 
resources,  and  in  a  deplorable  state ;  the  devastations  of  war 
were  felt  and  seen  in  all  directions  :  he  left  it  with  a  wide 
spread  population,  and  thriving  with  unrivaled  prosperity. 

One  other  illustrative  fact  may  be  worth  narrating,  as  it  shows 
the  difficulties  which  beset  his  intercourse  with  the  Indians,  arising 
out  of  their  peculiar  opinions.  To  deceive  the  whites  is  a  most 
justifiable  action,  in  the  estimation  of  the  Indians;  very  little 
dependence  can  be  placed  upon  their  statements  when  they  have 
the  least  temptation  to  deceive.  In  the  Lake  Superior  country, 
in  1820,  General  Cass  was  traveling  with  an  interpreter  and  one 
or  two  other  white  men  and  some  Indians.  Ascending  a  hill, 
they  suddenly  came  upon  a  large  bear,  which  had  been  caught 
in  a  trap,  —  a  heavy  log,  slightly  held  up,  and  with  a  bait,  by 
touching  which  it  falls.  The  bear  was  held  by  his  hind  legs,  but 
was  very  strong  and  ferocious.  One  of  the  Indians  immediately 
shot  him  in  the  head ;  and  as  soon  as  he  had  done  so,  and  ascer 
tained  that  he  was  dead,  he  walked  up  to  him,  and  taking  him 
by  the  paw,  he  shook  it,  exclaiming, — "It  was  not  me  that  killed 
you ;  it  was  those  white  men."  The  Indians  have  some  supersti 
tious  notion  attached  to  the  killing  of  a  bear,  fearing  that  under 
some  circumstances,  when  he  knows  who  occasioned  his  death,  he 
will  disturb  his  hunting-grounds  in  those  regions  where  they  think 
bears  and  Indians  must  all  finally  go.  The  fearlessness  of  asser 
tion,  which  belongs  to  Indian  character,  was  strongly  manifested 
in  this  contradiction  of  the  truth,  made  at  the  very  moment  of  his 
own  action. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  233 

Andrew  Jackson  bad  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  Presi 
dency  of  the  United  States  on  the  fourth  of  March,  1829.  As 
his  measures  —  especially  upon  the  subject  of  the  tariff,  internal 
improvements  and  finance  —  would  differ  from  those  of  his  im 
mediate  predecessor,  he  called  around  him  a  new  list  of  cabinet 
counsellors,  and  the  former  heads  of  Departments  retired  from 
office  with  Mr.  Adams.  This  new  cabinet  was  selected  from 
among  the  many  distinguished  men  who  had  supported  the 
claims  of  General  Jackson  in  the  presidential  contest  of  1828, 
and  all  were  members  of  that  political  party  which,  by  common 
consent,  was  called  the  Democratic,  having,  for  its  immutable 
base,  the  governmental  doctrines  enunciated  by  Mr.  Jefferson 
thirty  years  before.  It  had  been  reported  in  many  of  the  news 
papers,  that  the  cabinet  of  his  predecessor  had  not  harmonized 
upon  all  questions;  and  to  avoid  collisions  of  sentiment,  as  well 
as  to  give  his  country  the  benefit  of  measures  emanating  from 
many  minds,  but  united  in  one,  General  Jackson  resolved,  at  the 
outset,  that  his  cabinet  must  be  a  unit.  With  this  view,  the 
States  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  and  Kentucky,  furnished  his  counsellors.  Martin  Van 
Buren,  who  had  been  inaugurated  Governor  on  the  first  of  Janu 
ary  previous,  came  from  New  York,  and  took  charge  of  the  State 
Department.  The  foreign  relations  of  our  country  were  in  an 
unsettled  condition  ;  and  to  be  managed  with  national  pro 
priety  and  honor,  great  address  and  unremitting  labor  were 
requisite.  There  were  many  complicated  questions  with  the 
British  government  to  be  adjusted ;  and  the  new  Secretary  of 
State  diligently  endeavored  to  execute  the  task.  After  the  lapse 
of  several  months,  as  well  for  the  purpose  of  closing  these  open 
questions  more  speedily  as  to  dissipate  the  mist  which,  quite  un 
necessarily,  seemed  to  shroud  the  domestic  relations  of  many  of 
the  officers  of  government,  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  in  the  winter  of  1831, 
resigned  the  port-folio  of  State,  and  was  appointed  Minister  to 
London.  This  vacancy  disturbed  the  equilibrium  of  the  cabinet 
as  originally  cast,  and  the  other  members,  with  the  exception  of 
Mr.  Barry,  resigned.  It,  therefore,  became  necessary  for  the 
President  to  form  a  new  cabinet,  but  its  re-construction  was  not 
completed  until  the  August  following. 

General  Jackson  was  aware  that  much  was  expected  from  him 
by  a  large  majority  of  the  American  people ;   and  that  it  was  an 


234  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

imperative  duty  to  call  around  him  the  ablest  talent,  united  to 
long  tried  experience.  He  had  favorably  known  General  Casa 
since  1806.  He  had  aided  Mr.  Jefferson  in  the  south-west,  the 
same  as  General  Cass  had  done  in  the  north-west.  He  had  de 
fended  New  Orleans,  when  General  Cass  was  defending  Detroit. 
The  former  had  fought  in  the  war  of  1812  in  the  south-west,  while 
the  latter  sustained  the  flag  of  the  nation  in  the  region  of  the 
lakes.  And  although  since  then,  General  Cass  had  been  with 
drawn  from  the  arena  of  party  politics  outside  of  his  Territory, 
yet  his  political  sentiments  were  well  known. 

The  President  was  pre-eminent  over  his  cotemporaries  in  his 
ready  perception  of  the  character  and  capacity  of  others  ;  and 
believing,  undoubtedly,  that  General  Cass'  mind  and  experience 
would  be  of  paramount  service,  he  called  him  to  the  head  of  the 
"War  Department.  The  invitation  was  accepted,  and  General 
Cass  entered  upon  his  new  duties  in  August,  1831.  "With  him 
was  associated  in  this  new  cabinet,  Edward  Livingston,  of  Louis 
iana,  in  the  State  Department;  Louis  McLane,  of  Maryland,  in 
the  Treasury ;  Levi  Woodbury,  of  New  Hampshire,  in  the  Navy ; 
Mr.  Barry,  of  Kentucky,  as  Postmaster-General ;  and  Eoger  B. 
Taney,  of  Maryland,  as  Attorney-General.  All  these  gentlemen 
had  been  in  public  life,  and  were  eminent  for  their  business  capa 
cities,  integrity,  and  devotion  to  the  Union. 

But  the  people  of  Michigan,  over  whom  he  had  presided  for 
so  many  years,  regretted  the  separation:  they  preferred,  for  them 
selves,  that  he  should  continue  with  them.  He  commenced  his 
official  career  with  them,  when  gloom  covered  the  land :  among 
them  he  had  lived  and  associated  through  many  a  trying  year, 
and  had  served  them  in  the  triple  capacity  of  ruler,  adviser,  and 
friend ;  and  they  were  adverse  to  the  severance  of  this  personal 
and  political  connexion.  The  invitation  to  join  the  venerable 
patriot  at  Washington  was  equally  unexpected  to  them  and  him; 
and  General  Cass,  it  is  almost  needless  to  add,  fully  appreciated 
the  responsibilities  of  this  new  position.  Yet,  the  same  sense  of 
duty  which  induced  him,  in  1813,  to  exchange  the  comforts  of  a 
civilized  home  in  Ohio,  for  the  hazards  and  privations  of  frontier 
life  in  Michigan,  now  prompted  him  to  obey  the  voice  of  his 
country,  through  her  Chief  Magistrate,  summoning  him  to  a 
more  elevated  and  extended  sphere  of  action. 

His  fellow-citizens,  however,  were  unwilling  that  he  should  go 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  235 

out  from  among  them,  unaccompanied  by  some  token  of  their 
approbation  and  friendship,  and  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  from 
Detroit,  they  tendered  him  the  compliment  of  a  public  dinner. 
And  the  proceedings  on  this  memorable  occasion  are  evidence  so 
unmistakable  of  their  attachment  to  him,  that  a  perusal  will  afford 
a  more  correct  view  of  the  relations  existing  between  the  distin 
guished  guest  and  his  many  friends,  than  any  other  mode  of 
narration. 

The  address  of  Major  John  Biddle,  who  presided  on  the  occa 
sion,  was  as  follows : 

"  YOUK  EXCELLENCY  : — Our  fellow-citizens  have  assigned  to  me 
the  office  of  expressing  the  sentiments  which  your  intended  depart 
ure  from  among  them  has  universally  called  forth.  To  be  the 
organ  of  conveying  to  you  these  sentiments  is  a  most  grateful 
duty,  sympathizing,  as  I  do,  very  sincerely  in  the  general  feeling. 

"  Many  of  us  have  witnessed  your  administration  of  the  affairs 
of  this  Territory  for  a  series  of  years,  which  embrace  a  large  por 
tion  of  the  active  period  of  life.  The  situation  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  to  which  an  American  citizen  can  be  called.  The  public 
officer  who  is  delegated,  without  the  sanction  of  their  suffrages, 
over  the  affairs  of  a  people  elsewhere  accustomed  to  exercise,  in 
its  fullest  extent,  the  right  of  self-government,  is  regarded  with 
no  indulgent  feelings.  The  relation  is  truly  colonial,  and  the  his 
tory  of  territories,  like  other  colonial  history,  has  been  too  often  a 
mere  chronicle  of  the  feuds  of  the  governing  and  the  governed, 
exhibiting  a  domineering  and  arbitrary  temper  on  the  one  side, 
met  by  a  blind  and  intemperate  opposition  on  the  other. 

"  From  the  evils  of  such  a  state  of  things  we  have  been  happily 
exempted.  You  have  preserved  harmony  by  wisely  conceding  to 
public  opinion  that  weight  to  which  it  is  entitled  under  every 
government,  whatever  may  be  its  forms  ;  thus  giving  to  your 
measures  the  support  of  the  only  authority  to  which  the  habits 
of  American  citizens  will  allow  them  cheerfully  to  submit.  The 
executive  powers  of  the  Territory  have  been  administered  in  the 
spirit  of  republican  habits  and  principles,  too  firmly  fixed  to  yield 
to  temporary  circumstances,  leaving  the  people  nothing  to  desire 
but  an  occasion  to  manifest  their  approbation,  by  bestowing  them 
selves  an  authority  so  satisfactorily  exercised. 

"  Of  the  manner  in  which  yourself  and  most  estimable  family 
have  performed  the  courtesies,  as  well  as  the  graver  duties  of 


236  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

private  life,  I  will  permit  myself  to  say  no  more  than  that  it  has 
been  duly  appreciated,  and  has  left  an  impression  not  easily  to 
be  effaced. 

"  The  people  of  Michigan  will  long  remember  your  zealous  and 
successful  exertions  to  promote  their  welfare,  and,  if  the  present 
separation  should  prove  a  final  one,  be  assured  that  they  will  look, 
with  affectionate  interest,  to  your  future  career,  hoping  that  in  a 
more  extended  field  of  usefulness  it  may  be  as  honorable  to  your 
self,  and  as  beneficial  to  your  fellow-citizens,  as  that  has  been 
which  you  are  now  about  to  terminate.  Allow  me  to  propose  : 

u  Lewis  Cass—  Health  and  happiness  attend  his  future  course. 
May  the  people  of  the  United  States  duly  appreciate  the  talents 
and  integrity  which  Michigan  has  contributed  to  the  public  ser 
vice  of  the  Union." 

This  sentiment,  so  felicitously  given,  was  received  with  vocifer 
ous  and  prolonged  cheers  by  the  audience,  which  now  crowded 
the  large  dining-room  of  the  hotel,  and  filled  the  doors  and  win 
dows  and  the  adjoining  halls.  Mr.  Bidclle  struck  a  chord  which 
thrilled  the  heart  of  that  large  and  intelligent  assembly.  The 
leading  citizens  of  the  Territory,  without  distinction  of  party,  had 
come  to  bid  their  Governor,  of  eighteen  years'  continuance,  an 
affectionate  farewell.  It  was  not  a  mere  feast,  or  passing  compli 
ment;  and  their  speaker,  in  the  most  simple  and  unadorned 
language,  had  given  utterance  to  feelings  and  sensations  which 
alike  animated  all. 

When  the  applause  had  partially  subsided,  their  honorable 
guest,  most  naturally  affected  by  these  evidences  of  warm  attach 
ment  and  earnest  regard,  falteringly  rose  from  his  seat,  almost 
wishing  that  his  sense  of  public  duty  would  permit  him  to  remain 
continually  with  his  neighbors  and  friends,  and  responded  as 
follows  : 

"  FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  return  my  sincere  thanks  for  this  dis 
tinguished  mark  of  your  regard,  as  well  as  for  the  very  kind  man 
ner  in  which  your  sentiments  have  been  conveyed  to  me  by  the 
gentleman  who  has  been  called  to  preside  at  this  festive  board. 
This  numerous  and  respectable  assemblage  furnishes  but  another 
manifestation  of  that  kindness  which  has  never  deserted  me, 
during  the  period  of  eighteen  years  in  which  I  have  administered 
the  executive  department  of  the  territorial  government,  and  under 
many  trying  circumstances,  both  in  peace  and  war.  At  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  237 

commencement  of  that  period,  the  Territory  had  just  been  rescued 
from  the  grasp  of  an  enemy.  Its  population  was  small,  its 
resources  exhausted,  its  prospects  cheerless.  The  operations  of 
the  war  had  pressed  heavily  upon  it,  and  scenes  of  suffering  and 
oppression  had  been  exhibited,  to  which,  in  the  annals  of  modern 
warfare,  we  may  vainly  seek  a  parallel.  We  have  only  to  look 
around  us  to  be  sensible  how  great  is  the  change  which  has  since 
taken  place  in  our  condition.  The  Peninsula  has  been  explored 
in  every  direction,  and  its  advantages  ascertained  and  developed. 

"  The  current  of  emigration  has  reached  us,  and  is  spreading 
over  our  forests  and  prairies.  Settlements  have  been  formed,  vil 
lages  founded,  and  roads  opened  in  every  direction.  All  the 
elements  of  social  order  and  prosperity  have  been  called  into 
action,  and  are  combining  to  form  another  republic,  almost  pre 
pared  to  ask  admission  into  that  confederacy  which,  protecting  all 
in  its  hour  of  security,  may  appeal  to  all  in  its  hour  of  danger, 
should  danger  ever  approach  it.  This  great  advantage  is  due  to 
the  intelligence,  industry,  and  enterprise  of  our  countrymen. 
These  causes  will  continue  to  operate,  until  the  vast  plain  extend 
ing  from  Lake  Erie  to  Lake  Michigan,  shall  furnish  through  its 
whole  extent,  another  example  of  the  powerful  effects  of  free 
institutions  upon  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  a  country. 

"  I  have  been  called,  fellow-citizens,  to  another  sphere  of  action. 
To  one  where  your  generous  confidence  can  not  alone  support  me, 
and  where,  I  am  apprehensive,  I  shall  find  the  duties  as  far  beyond 
my  abilities,  as  the  appointment  itself  was  beyond  my  expecta 
tion.  But  wherever  I  may  go,  or  whatever  may  await  me,  I  shall 
cherish  with  unfading  recollection  the  events  of  this  clay,  and  the 
sentiments  you  have  expressed  towards  myself  and  towards  those 
whom  nature  and  affection  have  made  the  nearest  and  dearest 
to  me.  In  severing  the  connection  which  has  heretofore  united 
me  to  the  Territory,  permit  me  to  thank  you  for  all  the  kindness  I 
have  received  from  you.  I  can  claim  only  the  merit  of  having 
endeavored  faithfully  to  execute  the  trust  reposed  in  me,  and  if, 
at  the  termination  of  my  long  period  of  service,  I  leave  you  without 
a  party  for  or  against  the  executive,  to  your  partiality,  far  more 
than  to  my  services,  must  this  result  be  attributed.  For  that 
forbearance,  as  well  as  for  all  other  marks  of  your  favor,  and 
especially  for  this,  the  latest  and  the  last,  I  beg  leave  to  express 
my  feelings  in  a  sentiment : 


238  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  The  citizens  of  Michigan — May  they  be  as  prosperous  as  they 
have  been  to  me  kind  and  generous." 

The  great  regret  manifested  by  the  inhabitants,  on  this  occasion 
of  parting,  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  and  is,  in  itself,  one  of  the 
most  convincing  proofs  how  eminently  fit  their  friend  was  for 
discharging  the  duty  of  a  chief  magistrate. 

Seldom  has  it  been  the  good  fortune  of  a  territorial  governor, 
clothed  with  the  extraordinary  powers  conferred  by  the  ordinance 
of  1787,  to  retire  from  the  station  without  some  murmur  of  disap 
probation  reaching  his  ears,  or  without  having  afforded  opportu 
nities  for  the  indulgence  of  unpleasant  feelings.  In  this  instance, 
neither  existed,  and  with  that  generosity  of  heart  common  to  the 
people  of  the  west,  which  prompts  them  to  render  justice,  did  the 
people  of  Michigan  unhesitatingly  proclaim  their  approbation  of 
the  administration  just  closed. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  239 


CHAPTER  XYI. 

General  Cass  assumes  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  "War — The  Cabinet — Reforms  Introduced — His  Family 
— His  Indian  Policy — His  first  Report — Indian  Difficulties  in  Georgia — General  Cass  reviews  tho 
Decision  of  tho  Supreme  Court. 

General  Cass  reached  "Washington  with  his  family  early  in 
August,  1831,  and  entered  upon  his  duties  of  Secretary  of  War. 
The  successor  of  John  H.  Eaton,  by  resignation,  his  appointment 
was  unanimously  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  on  the  thirtieth  of 
December  following. 

This  post  of  duty  under  the  general  government,  was  full  of 
responsibility  and  labor  on  all  occasions  ;  but,  as  we  shall  soon 
see,  it  was  destined  to  be  much  more  so  for  a  few  years  to  come. 
Party  spirit  had  reached  an  alarming  hight,  far  exceeding  any 
that  had  hitherto  occurred  in  the  political  annals  of  our  country. 
Men  of  solid  intellect,  far-reaching  sagacity,  and  commanding 
popular  influence,  were  arraying  themselves  in  formidable  strength 
against  that  man  of  single  purpose  and  incorruptible  integrity, 
whom  the  sovereigns  of  the  Republic  had  called  from  his  lowly 
home  in  Tennessee  to  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of  the  presi 
dential  mansion.  Unfortunately,  all  will  admit,  as  he  was  fairly 
putting  the  ship  of  state  on  the  democratic  tack,  it  became  neces 
sary  to  exchange  his  crew,  and  that,  too,  in  the  midst  of  his  voyage. 
With  what  firmness  and  philosophy  he  met  such  an  unexpected 
crisis,  is  already  embalmed  in  the  eternal  remembrance  of  the 
civilized  world. 

Mr.  Livingston  had  been  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  efficient 
advocates  of  the  views  of  the  democratic  party,  and  the  zealous 
co-laborer  of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  its  formation.  General  Jackson 
was  much  attached  to  him,  as  well  from  early  political  association 
as  from  later  intercourse  growing  out  of  the  campaign  of  ISTew 
Orleans,  when  Mr.  Livingston  was  his  volunteer  aid-de-camp, 
but  in  fact  his  trusted  adviser  in  the  difficult  questions,  legal  and 
others,  growing  out  of  the  events  of  that  stirring  period.  He  was 
a  man  of  extensive  information,  of  great  powers  of  application, 
of  much  simplicity  of  character,  with  acknowledged  probity  of 


240  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

purpose,  and  was,  withal,  a  learned  jurist.  He  had  much  to  do 
in  the  preparation  of  the  celebrated  proclamation  of  General 
Jackson  against  nullification,  and  it  is  probable  that  that  memo 
rable  state  paper  owes  much  of  its  arrangement  to  his  cultivated 
taste  and  vigorous  style.  But  the  views  it  embodies,  and  the 
train  of  reasoning  it  pursues,  are  those  of  General  Jackson, 
marked  with  that  power  and  clearness  which  were  prominent 
traits  in  his  character,  and  many  of  its  expressions  betoken  him 
to  be  their  author.  His  master-spirit  pervaded  the  whole  doc 
ument. 

Mr.  McLane  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  General  Jackson,  and 
merited  it.     He  belongs  to  the  great  statesmen  of  our  country. 
A  prompt  and  fearless  debater,  a  close  reason er  and  a  sagacious 
observer,  joined  to  high  intelligence,  he  had  attracted  public  atten 
tion  by  his  efforts  in  Congress,  and  by  his  diplomatic  services 
abroad,  and  he  carried  to  the  two  executive  departments,  over 
which  he  presided  in  succession,  the  fruits  of  much  experience, 
and   one  of  the  clearest  heads,   and  soundest  hearts,  that  ever 
entered  the  public  service,  and  he  well  fulfilled  the  expectations 
formed  of  him.     He  had  great  firmness  of  purpose,  as  well  as 
independence  of  character,  and  these  were  precisely  the  mental 
traits  to  attract  the  attention,  and  to  ensure  the  esteem,  of  General 
Jackson.     When  the  question  of  the  removal  of  the  deposits  was 
under  consideration,  Mr.  McLane  and  General  Cass  opposed  the 
measure   in   the   cabinet  deliberations,  and  upon  all  occasions, 
when  the  subject  came  up,  expressed  to  the  President  their  disap 
probation  of  the  proposition.     The  argument  prepared  by  Mr. 
McLane,  at  General  Jackson's  request,  was   marked  by  strong 
reasoning  and  extensive  information  ;  but,  as  it  found,  so  it  left  his 
resolution,  unshaken;  and  it  is  a  proof  of  his  magnanimity,  that 
he  never  manifested  the  slightest  disapprobation  at  the  course  of 
Mr.  McLane  and  General  Cass  in  opposition  to  a  favorite  measure, 
to  the  accomplishment  of  which  he  devoted  all  the  energies  of  a 
powerful  will,  and  of  a  mighty  understanding.     Both  of  these 
gentlemen  requested  him  to  permit  them  to  leave  his  cabinet,  lest 
their  known  opposition  to  the  project  might  weaken  the  strength 
of  the  administration.     Their  position  is  well  known  ;  for  all  the 
circumstances  were  fully  developed  by  Mr.  Duane,  then  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  in  a  publication  made  by  him,  and  the  coun 
try  was   therefore  fully  aware  of  the   diversity  of  views  which 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  24:1 

prevailed  among  the  official  advisers  of  the  President  upon  this 
subject,  and  of  the  discussions,  not  to  say  differences,  to  which 
they  gave  rise.  But  General  Jackson  would  not  listen  to  a  prop 
osition  for  their  retirement.  He  met  the  application  with  the 
sternest  refusal.  He  expressed  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  dis 
sentients,  and  said  that  in  calling  for  their  opinions  he  did  so  in 
good  faith,  and  because  he  wanted  their  views  upon  so  important 
an  occasion.  These  he  had  obtained,  though  he  should  follow  his 
own  opinions  and  carry  out  the  measure ;  he  wished  from  them 
neither  the  sacrifice  of  place  nor  opinion,  but  only  when  the 
project  was  determined  upon,  its  execution  should  be  no  longer 
opposed. 

The  deposits  were  removed,  and  time  has  pronounced  its  judg 
ment  of  approval  upon  the  course  of  General  Jackson.  Few  can 
now  be  found  who  will  deny  the  wisdom  of  the  measure,  and 
among  the  converts  whom  experience  has  made  are  the  two  mem 
bers  of  General  Jackson's  cabinet  who  took  ground  against  it. 
General  Cass,  after  his  return  from  France,  in  conversation  with 
Mr.  McLane,  found  that  the  conduct  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  had  satisfied  them  both  that  it  had  become  an  improper 
depository  of  the  public  revenue,  and  that  the  separation  of  the 
government  from  all  connection  with  it,  was  dictated  by  a  just 
concern  for  the  interests  of  the  country.  Not  long  after,  General 
Cass  visited  the  Hermitage,  where  he  had  much  conversation  with 
its  venerable  possessor,  whom  he  found,  though  frail  and  in 
feeble  health,  unimpaired  in  his  faculties,  and  retaining  that 
ardent  temperament  which  had  marked  his  earlier  years.  Among 
other  topics,  the  removal  of  the  deposits  was  adverted  to,  and 
General  Jackson  expressed  much  gratification  when  he  learned 
that  Mr.  McLane  and  General  Cass  had  become  satisfied  that  the 
measure  was  a  wise  one.  And  especially  was  he  gratified  at  the 
change  of  views  in  Mr.  McLane,  of  whom  he  pronounced  this 
high  eulogium,  that  he  had  never  known  a  man  for  whom  he  had 
more  personal  respect. 

The  present  universally  esteemed  Chief  Justice,  and  his  late 
associate  upon  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Judge  Wood- 
bury,  added  much  by  their  characters  and  services  to  the  confi 
dence  of  the  country  in  the  second  cabinet  of  General  Jackson. 

As  for  the  President,  the  judgment  upon  himself  and  his  ad 
ministration  has  been  already  pronounced  beyond  the  power  of 
16 


242  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

appeal.  History  will  confirm  the  favorable  opinion  of  his  con 
temporaries.  He  carried  to  his  high  station  some  of  the  Lest 
qualities  of  our  nature.  Promptitude  of  action,  vigor  of  intellect, 
honesty  of  purpose,  fearlessness  of  purpose  in  a  just  cause,  and  an 
intuitive  sagacity  which  led  to  correct  conclusions  by  a  process 
almost  unknown  to  himself, — these  were  the  elements  of  power 
which  gave  him  a  hold  upon  his  countrymen  second  only  to  that 
possessed  by  Washington.  He  was  often  charged' with  rashness, 
with  action  without  due  deliberation.  But  this  was  a  false  view 
of  his  characteristic  habits.  Few  men  surveyed  the  ground 
around  him  more  carefully  than  he  did.  No  important  ques 
tion  was  presented  to  him  for  decision  which  he  did  not  maturely 
examine,  looking  at  its  bearing  and  its  consequences.  During 
the  process  of  forming  an  opinion,  he  often  passed  whole  nights 
revolving  the  subject  in  his  mind.  He  told  General  Cass,  while 
conversing  upon  this  subject,  that  his  state  of  feeling  was  some 
times  painful  when  the  matter  was  surrounded  with  difficulties 
and  involved  important  consequences.  But  all  this  anxiety 
ceased  the  moment  he  decided  upon  his  course ;  he  never  went 
back  in  his  purposes,  but  pressed  forward  to  their  execution 
when  once  resolved  upon.  Inquiry  then  gave  way  to  action, 
and  deliberation  to  execution. 

The  War  Department  at  that  day  embraced  a  wider  range  of 
duties  than  any  other  department.  The  business  of  the  army 
proper,  with  its  multiplicity  of  relations,  in  its  entire  circuit  of 
distance  and  service,  was  large,  even  in  time  of  peace,  and  de 
manded  the  constant  care  and  attention  of  the  head  of  the  depart 
ment.  But,  in  addition  to  this,  his  time  was  necessarily  much 
occupied  in  the  adjudication  of  constantly  occurring  and  never 
ending  private  claims.  Contracts,  without  number  or  limit,  in 
the  management  of  Indian  affairs — the  clearing  out  of  river  and 
harbor  obstructions — the  erection  of  breakwaters  and  other  pub 
lic  works,  it  was  his  province  to  make,  and  he  was  responsible 
to  the  people  for  their  execution  in  conformity  to  law.  The  pen 
sion  list  it  was  his  duty  to  supervise  ;  claims  for  extra  labor  and 
materials,  outside  of  contracts,  fell  under  his  notice  to  look  after 
and  settle.  These  duties — in  addition  to  those  of  a  more  delicate 
and  responsible  character,  as  the  confidential  adviser  of  the 
President — were  herculean,  and  calculated  to  try  most  thoroughly 
the  strength  of  the  Secretary.  The  disposition  of  the  many 


OF  LEWIS  CAS3.  243 

claims,  so  as  to  do  justice  to  all  concerned,  was  frequently 
attended  with  embarrassment  and  procrastination — insomuch, 
that  it  would  have  been  strange  if  the  individuals  interested,  to 
whom,  of  course,  the  case  was  always  clear,  did  not  sometimes 
complain  and  express  wonder  at  delays,  and,  perhaps,  sometimes 
talk  of  indecision  and  want  of  firmness.  And  to  this  he  might 

O 

have  frequently  interposed,  in  reply,  the  memorable  remark  of 
Lord  Chancellor  Eldon,  when  some  of  the  London  journals  said 
he  was  too  slow  in  coming  to  his  decisions — one  of  them  remark- 

C1 

ing,  that  it  was  as  easy  to  decide  most  of  his  cases  as  to  tell  the 
difference  between  black  and  white.  "Yes,"  said  the  old  Chan 
cellor,  "  if  they  were  black  or  white  ;  but  I  find  most  of  them 
gray  /"  So  it  was  with  the  Secretary.  He  found  many  cases 
no  easier  to  decide  off-hand,  and  all  calling  for  careful  investi 
gation,  in  order  to  do  justice  between  the  government  and  the 
parties.  This  to  the  impatience  of  the  latter  may  sometimes  have 
indicated  indecision  ;  but  to  the  disinterested,  the  only  wonder  is, 
that,  unlike  many  of  his  predecessors,  amid  the  performance  of 
duties  more  primary,  because  more  national,  he  left  so  few  for 
the  consideration  of  his  successors. 

General  Cass  appreciated  the  responsibilities  thus  so  unexpect 
edly  thrown  upon  him,  and  with  a  fixed  determination  to  perform 
his  whole  duty,  he  brought  to  the  work  all  his  energies  and  the 
experience  of  an  active  and  practical  mind.  Accustomed,  for 
thirty  years,  to  rise  early  for  the  labors  of  the  day,  and  to  retire 
early  for  the  repose  of  the  night,  he  resolved  to  continue  so  to  do, 
despite  the  calls  of  gayety  and  festivity.  This  was  accomplished  ; 
and,  with  a  clear  head  and  fresh  energies,  he  was  enabled  to  per 
form  more  official  labor  and  transact  more  official  business  than 
most  persons  in  official  station.  The  reader,  however,  should  not 
suppose  that  either  himself  or  family  were  unmindful  of  what  be 
longed  to  their  position.  None  were  more  scrupulous  in  their 
observance  of  all  the  politeness  which  a  sense  of  common  pro 
priety  may  have  introduced  from  time  to  time  among  the  visitors 
and  sojourners  at  the  capital  of  their  country.  None  were  more 
hospitable,  none  were  more  strenuous  in  their  efforts  to  make 
the  society  of  Washington  pleasant  and  agreeable. 

Familiar  with  the  general  affairs  of  the  nation,  and  intimately 
acquainted  with  all  that  appertained  to  the  army  and  the  In 
dians, —  the  two  leading  points  of  attention, —  General  Cass 


244  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

comprehended  his  duty  ;  and  when  the  time  arrived  for  Con 
gress  to  convene,  lie  was  ready  to  submit  the  condition  of  his 
department  to  the  President,  and  through  him  to  the  National 
Legislature. 

In  his  report  of  December,  1831,  he  called  the  attention  of  the 
President  and  Congress  to  the  necessity  of  certain  reforms,  calcu 
lated,  in  his  judgment,  to  facilitate  the  transaction  of  business,  and 
give  more  efficiency  to  the  arm  of  national  defense  committed  to 
his  care.  The  great  question  of  Indian  policy  was  more  directly 
under  his  control  than  when  acting  as  Governor  of  Michigan.  To 
the  examination  of  this  subject  lie  brought  the  knowledge  acquired 
by  the  experience  of  many  years  of  personal  intercourse  with  the 
Indians.  He  was,  therefore,  fully  prepared  to  give  an  extended 
view  of  their  condition  and  the  duty  of  the  government  towards 
them.  His  sentiments  on  the  policy  of  removal  were  well  known, 
and  the  observation  of  a  series  of  years  had  confirmed  his  early 
formed  opinion,  that  the  removal  of  the  great  body  of  Indians  to 
u  the  sunset  side"  of  the  Mississippi,  must  ultimately  be  consum 
mated.  This  question  was  of  momentous  consequence  to  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States,  arid  not  unfrequently  was  the  subject  of 
angry  discussion.  Misrepresentation  and  recrimination  against 
the  justice  and  honor  of  the  government  were  sometimes  indulged 
in,  in  high  quarters.  No  man  was  more  qualified  to  explain  the 
difficulties  and  perplexities,  or  to  devise  means  to  avoid  them,  than 
the  Secretary.  He  was,  accordingly,  invited  by  the  President  to 
make  that  subject  a  feature  of  his  annual  report;  and  he 
remarks : 

"The  condition  and  prospects  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  within  the 
limits  of  the  United  States  are  yet  the  subjects  of  anxious  solici 
tude  to  the  government.  In  some  of  the  States  they  have  been 
"brought  within  the  operation  of  the  ordinary  municipal  laws,  and 
these  regulations  have  been  abrogated  by  legislative  enactments. 
This  procedure  renders  most  of  the  provisions  of  the  various 
enactments  of  Congress  upon  this  subject  inoperative;  and  a 
crisis  in  our  Indian  affairs  has  evidently  arrived,  which  calls  for 
the  establishment  of  a  system  of  policy  adapted  to  the  existing 
state  of  things,  and  calculated  to  fix  upon  a  permanent  basis  the 
future  destiny  of  the  Indians.  Whatever  change  may  be  con 
templated  in  their  situation  or  condition,  no  one  will  advocate 
the  employment  of  force  or  improper  influence  in  effecting  it.  It 


OF  LEWIS  CASS,  245 

is  due  to  the  character  of  the  government  and  the  feelings  of  the 
country,  not  less  than  to  the  moral  and  physical  imbecility  of  this 
unhappy  race,  that  a  spirit  of  kindness  and  forbearance  should 
mark  the  whole  course  of  our  intercommunication  with  them. 
The  great  object,  after  satisfying  ourselves  what  would  best  ensure 
their  permanent  welfare,  should  be  to  satisfy  them  of  the  integrity 
of  our  views  and  of  the  wisdom  of  the  course  recommended  to 
them. 

"  The  Indians  who  are  placed  in  immediate  contact  with  our 
settlements,  have  now  the  alternative  of  remaining  in  their  pres 
ent  positions  or  of  migrating  to  the  country  west  of  the  Missis 
sippi." 

The  Secretary  then,  in  an  able  and  ample  manner,  considers  the 
question,  whether  the  Indians  could  maintain  their  existence  as  a 
nation  so  long  as  they  remained  in  contiguity  with  the  settled 
portions  of  the  country ;  and  reaches  the  conclusion,  that  removal 
from  the  contact  of  civilization  is  their  only  alternative  to  ensure 
perpetuity. 

"  A  change  of  residence,  therefore,  from  their  present  positions 
to  the  regions  west  of  the  Mississippi,  presents  the  only  hope  of 
permanent  establishment  and  improvement.  That  it  will  be 
attended  with  inconvenience  and  sacrifices,  no  one  can  doubt.  The 
associations  which  bind  the  Indians  to  the  land  of  their  forefathers 
are  strong  and  enduring,  and  these  must  be  broken  by  their  mi 
gration.  But  they  are  also  broken  by  our  citizens,  who  every  clay 
encounter  all  the  difficulties  of  similar  changes,  in  pursuit  of  the 
means  of  support.  And  the  experiments  that  have  been  made 
satisfactorily  show  that,  by  proper  precautions  and  liberal  appro 
priations,  the  removal  and  establishment  of  the  Indians  can  be 
effected  with  little  comparative  trouble  to  them  or  us.  Why  then 
should  the  policy  of  the  measure  be  disputed  or  opposed  ?  The 
whole  subject  has  materially  changed,  even  within  a  few  years, 
and  the  imposing  consideration  it  now  presents,  and  which  is 
every  day  gaining  new  force,  calls  upon  the  government  and  the 
country  to  determine  what  is  required  on  our  part,  and  what 
course  shall  be  recommended  to  the  Indians.  If  they  remain, 
they  must  decline,  and  eventually  disappear.  Such  is  the  result 
of  all  experience.  If  they  remove,  they  may  be  comfortably  es 
tablished,  and  their  moral  and  physical  condition  ameliorated. 
It  is  certainly  better  for  them  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  removal 


246  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

with  the  probability  of  an  adequate  and  final  reward,  than,  yield 
ing  to  their  constitutional  apathy,  to  sit  still  and  perish. 

"  The  great  moral  debt  wre  owe  to  this  unhappy  race  is  univer 
sally  felt  and  acknowledged.  Diversities  of  opinion  exist  respect 
ing  the  proper  mode  of  discharging  this  obligation,  but  its  validity 
is  not  denied.  And  there  certainly  are  difficulties  which  may  well 
call  for  discussion  and  consideration. 

"  For  more  than  two  centuries  we  have  been  placed  in  contact 
with  the  Indians,  arid  if  this  long  period  has  been  fruitless  in  useful 
results,  it  has  not  been  so  in  experiments,  having  in  view  their 
improvement.  Able  men  have  been  investigating  their  condition, 
and  good  men  in  improving  it.  But  all  these  labors  have  been 
as  unsuccessful  in  their  issue  as  many  of  them  were  laborious  and 
expensive  in  their  progress. 

"The  work  has  been  aided  by  governments  and  communities, 
by  public  opinion,  by  the  obligation  of  the  law,  and  the  sanction 
of  religion.  But  its  history  furnishes  abundant  evidence  of  entire 
failure,  and  everything  around  us  upon  the  frontiers  confirms  its 
truth.  The  Indians  have  either  receded  as  our  settlements  ad 
vanced,  and  united  their  fragments  with  some  kindred  tribe,  or 
they  have  attempted  to  establish  themselves  upon  reservations,  in 
the  vain  hope  of  resisting  the  pressure  upon  them,  and  of  preserv 
ing  their  peculiar  institutions.  Those  who  are  nearest  to  us  have 
generally  suffered  most  severely  by  the  debasing  effects  of  ardent 
spirits,  and  by  the  loss  of  their  own  principles  of  restraint,  few  as 
these  are,  without  the  acquisition  of  ours  ;  and  almost  all  of  them 
have  disappeared,  crushed  by  the  onward  course  of  events,  driven 
before  them.  ISTot  one  instance  can  be  produced,  in  the  whole 
history  of  the  intercourse  between  the  Indians  and  the  white  men, 
where  the  former  have  been  able,  in  districts  surrounded  by  the 
latter,  to  withstand,  successfully,  the  progress  of  those  causes  which 
have  elevated  one  of  these  races  and  depressed  the  other.  Such  a 
monument  of  former  successful  exertion  does  not  exist. 

"  Indolent  in  his  habits,  the  Indian  is  opposed  to  labor;  improv 
ident  in  his  mode  of  life,  he  has  little  foresight  in  providing,  or 
care  in  preserving.  Taught,  from  infancy,  to  reverence  his  own 
traditions  and  institutions,  he  is  satisfied  of  their  value,  and  dreads 
the  anger  of  the  Great  Spirit  if  he  should  depart  from  the  customs 
of  his  fathers.  Devoted  to  the  use  of  ardent  spirits,  he  abandons 
himself  to  its  indulgence  without  restraint.  War  and  hunting  are 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  217 

his  only  occupations.  He  can  endure,  without  complaining,  the 
extremity  of  human  suffering ;  and  if  he  can  not  overcome  the 
evils  of  his  situation,  he  submits  to  them  without  repining.  lie 
attributes  all  the  misfortunes  of  his  race  to  the  white  man,  and 
looks  with  suspicion  upon  the  offers  of  assistance  that  are  made 
him.  These  traits  of  character,  though  not  universal,  are  yet  gen 
eral,  and  the  practical  difficulty  they  present,  in  changing  the 
condition  of  such  a  people,  is  to  satisfy  them  of  our  sincerity,  and 
the  value  of  the  aid  we  offer ;  to  hold  out  to  them  motives  for 
exertion  ;  to  call  into  action  some  powerful  feeling,  which  shall 
counteract  the  tendency  of  previous  impressions.  It  is  under  such 
circumstances,  and  with  these  difficulties  in  view,  that  the  govern 
ment  has  been  called  upon  to  determine  what  arrangements  shall 
be  made  for  the  permanent  establishment  of  the  Indians.  Shall 
they  be  advised  to  remain  or  remove?  If  the  former,  their  fate  is 
written  in  the  annals  of  their  race ;  if  the  latter,  we  may  yet  hope 
to  see  them  renovated  in  character  and  condition  by  our  example 
and  instruction  and  their  exertions." 

The  Secretary  then  proposed  the  basis  of  a  plan  for  the  removal 
and  establishment  of  the  Indians  in  their  future  home  : 

FIRST. — That  the  country  assigned  to  them  should  be  guaran 
teed  to  them  and  their  descendants,  so  long  as  they  should  con 
tinue  to  occupy  it,  and  that  it  should  be  protected  from  the 
encroachment  of  the  settlements  of  the  whites. 

SECOND. — That  ardent  spirits  should  be  excluded  from  the  new 
country. 

THIRD. — That  the  United  States  should  be  at  all  times  prepared 
with  sufficient  force  to  suppress  hostilities  which  might  occur 
among  the  different  tribes. 

FOURTH. — Encouragement  to  severally  of  property,  and  such 
provision  for  its  security  as  might  be  necessary  for  its  enjoyment, 
not  afforded  by  their  own  regulations. 

FIFTH. — Assistance  and  instruction  in  the  prosecution  of  agri 
cultural  pursuits. 

SIXTH. — The  enjoyment  of  their  peculiar  institutions  not  incom 
patible  with  their  own  safety  and  that  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  near  them,  and  with  the  objects  of  their  prosperity  and 
improvement. 

SEVENTH. — The  eventual  employment  of  persons  to  instruct 
them  in  the  acquirement  of  civilization. 


24:8  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Tliis  plan  was  approved  of  by  the  President,  and  received  the 
assent  of  every  member  of  the  cabinet.  Congress,  however,  divi 
ded  upon  it.  In  the  end  there  were  but  few  of  those  who  devoted 
attention  to  the  subject,  that  were  not  satisfied  with  the  arguments 
of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  believed  that  his  views  should  be 
adopted.  It  was  evident  that,  as  a  people,  the  Indians  could  not 
be  civilized,  and  that  they  could  not  be  permitted  to  live  as  an 
independent  community,  governed  by  their  own  regulations, 
within  the  limits  of  a  sovereign  State.  If  permitted,  a  conflict 
would  finally  occur  between  them  and  the  State  authorities,  and, 
worse  than  that,  between  the  States  and  the  general  government. 
To  avoid  all  this,  removal  was  the  sole  alternative,  and  to  General 
Cass  belonged  the  accomplishment  of  this  great  and  humane 


o 

measure. 


The  Indians  were  made  fully  acquainted  with  the  wishes  and 
intentions  of  the  government.  No  unfair  dealing  was  permitted, 
and  no  coercive  measures  were  adopted.  Their  agreement  to 
remove  was  voluntary,  and  obtained  by  negotiation  with  them  as 
beings  capable  of  understanding  their  own  interests. 

The  Indian  question  was  assuming  a  most  alarming  aspect  at 
the  commencement  of  the  administration  of  the  War  Department 
by  General  Cass.  It  was,  to  a  considerable  degree,  involved  in 
party  politics,  and  the  political  difficulties  attending  it  were 
increased  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
in  the  controversy  between  the  Cherokees  and  the  State  of  Geor 
gia.  This  decision  was  adverse  to  the  State,  and  confirmed  the 
Indians  in  the  opinion  they  had  formed  of  their  entire  independ 
ence  of  the  authorities  of  that  State.  The  Secretary  of  Wai- 
believed  that  the  principles  upon  which  it  was  based  were  erro 
neous,  and,  if  practically  carried  out,  would  lead  to  the  most  dan 
gerous  consequences.  He,  therefore,  in  accordance  with  the 
request  of  the  President,  prepared  a  temperate  review  of  the 
whole  subject,  as  well  to  enlighten  the  people  at  large,  as  to  pro 
duce  a  favorable  effect  upon  Congress.  If  the  principles  of  the 
decision  were  to  prevail  in  the  final  judgment  of  the  Court,  when 
ever  the  naked  question  should  be  presented,  whether  State  sov 
ereignty  was  paramount  as  against  the  Indians,  it  was  folly  to 
expect  a  removal  of  the  Indians  in  any  section  of  the  country, 
during  the  present  century,  at  least,  and  this  apprehension  was 
to  be  felt  ainonff  the  members  of  the  two  Houses. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  249 

The  review  was  prepared  with  great  care,  and  was  read,  in 
manuscript,  to  the  cabinet.  Every  member  coincided  with  the 
sentiments  therein  expressed,  and  it  was  published  in  the  Wash 
ington  Globe,  on  the  thirty-first  of  March,  1832,  and  filled  one 
half  of  that  paper.  The  Secretary  was  understood  by  the  people, 
generally,  to  be  the  author,  and  it  immediately  attracted  univer 
sal  attention  all  over  the  country.  It  was  highly  approved  by 
those  who  took  similar  views  of  the  question,  and  all  admitted  it 
to  be  unexceptionable  in  the  manner  in  which  the  investigation 
was  pursued.  It  was  then  supposed,  and  the  reader  is  now 
informed,  that  this  review  was  an  authoritative  exposition  of  the 
views  of  the  Administration  upon  the  subject  involved  in  the 
general  inquiry. 

This  remarkable  paper  thus  commenced  : 

"It  must  be  consolatory  to  every  American,  and  in  fact  to  all, 
wherever  they  may  be,  who  regard  with  anxiety  the  progress  and 
prospects  of  free  principles  through  the  world,  that  there  is  a  san 
itary  influence  in  our  institutions,  which,  if  it  can  not  prevent, 
can  heal  without  difficulty  or  danger,  those  maladies  to  which  all 
public  bodies  are  from  time  to  time  liable.  In  looking  back  upon 
the  history  of  our  career  and  prosperity,  and  the  generation  has 
not  yet  disappeared  which  laid  the  foundation  of  both,  many 
questioncs  vexat  appear,  each  of  which  agitated  the  community 
in  its  own  brief  day,  and  some  of  which,  either  from  the  magni 
tude  of  the  interests  involved,  or  from  the  excitement  that  pre 
vailed,  threatened  the  most  serious  consequences  to  the  stability 
of  the  government,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  But  by 
the  favor  of  Providence,  one  after  another  these  have  passed  away, 
leaving  our  Union  and  our  institutions  unscathed.  The  present 
day  is  not  without  its  own  share  of  doubtful  and  difficult  ques 
tions.  Let  us  hope  that  they  will  be  discussed  in  a  spirit  of  mu 
tual  forbearance,  and  arranged  in  a  spirit  of  mutual  accommoda 
tion.  Our  national  motto  should  remind  us  that  we  have  become 
one  from  many,  and  if  the  example  and  the  blessings  which  this 
Union  has  produced  are  to  be  perpetuated,  we  must  seek,  in  a  sense 
of  interest  and  safety,  and  in  a  feeling  of  patriotism,  the  true 
power  of  cohesion.  Upon  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  the  peo 
ple  we  must  rely  in  our  seasons  of  danger.  They  have  thus  far 
been  the  ark  of  safety.  It  were  presumptuous  to  doubt  that  they 
will  be  most  efficacious  when  they  may  be  most  wanted. 


250  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  The  '  Cherokee  Question,1  as  it  has  been  familiarly  called,  is 
one  of  those  which  has  divided  public  opinion.'  It  may  be  exam 
ined  without  offense  to  any  one,  either  to  the  State  which  claims 
jurisdiction,  to  the  executive  of  the  general  government,  which 
has  submitted  its  sentiments  to  Congress  and  the  people,  or  to  the 
judicial  tribunals,  which  have  been  called  upon  to  investigate  it, 
and  to  adjudicate  cases  arising  under  it.  We  propose,  with  that 
freedom  which  is  the  privilege  of  an  American  citizen,  but  at  the 
same  time  with  that  respect  which  is  due  to  these  high  authori 
ties,  to  review  and  discuss  this  subject.  Truth  is  always  valua 
ble,  and  it  is  best  attained  by  diligent  inquiry.  The  public  mind 
will  eventually  decide  this  matter,  as  it  has  decided  so  many 
others,  wisely  and  safely,  and  in  the  meantime,  every  contribu 
tion,  however  humble,  to  the  general  stock  of  information,  may 
be  useful,  and,  at  any  rate,  will  be  harmless.  With  this  convic 
tion,  we  proceed  to  the  task  before  us." 

The  question  is  then  stated  : 

"  Without  narrowing  the  controversy  to  a  single  point,  we  un 
derstand  it,  in  general  terms,  to  be  this  :  Has  the  State  of  Georgia 
a  right  to  extend  her  laws  over  the  Cherokee  lands  within  her 
boundaries?  The  consideration  of  this  subject  will  lead  to  the 
investigation  of  those  principles  of  intercourse  which  have  been 
established  between  civilized  and  barbarous  men,  and  to  a  retro 
spect  of  the  practice  and  professions  of  the  different  nations  who 
have  planted  colonies  in  America." 

An  historical  and  political  examination  of  the  whole  subject 
then  followed,  which  concluded  with  this  summary  : 

"  From  this  general  review  of  the  doctrine,  the  commentaries 
and  the  practice,  these  conclusions  may  be  deduced : 

ul.  That  civilized  communities  have  a  right  to  take  possession 
of  a  country  inhabited  by  barbarous  tribes,  to  assume  jurisdiction 
over  them,  and  ;  to  combine  within  narrow  limits,'  or,  in  other 
words,  to  appropriate  to  their  own  use,  such  portion  of  the  territory 
as  they  think  proper. 

"  2.  That  in  the  exercise  of  this  right,  such  communities  are 
the  judges  of  the  extent  of  jurisdiction  to  be  assumed,  and  of  terri 
tory  to  be  acquired. 

"  In  the  preceding  investigation  the  attempt  has  been  made  to 
show  that  the  rights  of  jurisdiction  and  soil,  with  such  modifica 
tions  as  circumstances  might  require,  were  the  necessary  results 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  251 

of  the  discovery  and  settlement  of  America.  The  proposition 
embraces  the  power  over  persons  and  things,  because  these  sub 
jects  are  closely  connected  in  the  elementary  discussions,  and  in 
the  historical  review,  and  because  the  consideration  of  both  was 
convenient  for  the  course  of  the  argument. 

"  But  this  union  is  not  necessary  for  any  purpose  which  has 
required  the  present  examination.  And  in  its  further  progress, 
the  connection  will  be  dissolved,  and  the  inquiry  will  be  confined 
to  the  question  of  political  superiority.  It  will  be  conceded  that 
the  Indians  are  entitled,  siib  modo,  to  all  their  rights  of  property, 
and  can  not  be  divested  of  these  without  their  own  consent. 

"  But  in  the  application  of  the  general  principles  to  the  United 
States,  and  to  the  Indians  in  contact  with  them,  a  preliminary 
question  arises,  resulting  from  the  peculiar  form  of  government 
established  in  this  country.  Is  the  general  controlling  authority 
over  the  Indians  vested  in  the  federal  government,  or  in  the 
respective  States?" 

The  Secretary  then  proceeds  to  discuss  the  question,  whether 
the  controlling  authority,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  is  vested  in  the  general  government,  or  in  the  respective 
State  governments,  within  whose  jurisdiction  the  Indians  live; 
and  it  is  remarked : 

"It  is  obvious  that,  in  the  solution  of  this  question,  the  Indians 
have  no  concern.  Their  rights,  whatever  these  may  be,  whether 
natural  or  conventional,  are  wholly  independent  of  this  inquiry. 
It  is  one  which  affects  the  parties  to  our  own  government,  and  it 
is  to  be  decided  by  the  Constitution  which  they  have  established. 
And  whether  that  portion  of  sovereign  power  which  regulates  the 
rights  and  duties  of  the  Indians,  resides  in  the  members  of  this 
Union,  or  in  the  united  body  itself,  the  relation  which  the  two 
parties  bear  to  one  another  will  remain  unchanged. 

"  It  may  be  observed,  in  the  investigation  of  this  subject,  that 
this  attribute  of  sovereignty  once  belonged  to  the  several  States, 
and  still  belongs  to  them,  unless  they  have  ceded  it  to  the  general 
government.  In  the  constitution  of  the  latter,  therefore,  this  evi 
dence  of  cession  must  be  found,  before  the  power  itself  can  be 
exercised. 

"  There  are  but  three  provisions  in  that  instrument  which  have 
the  remotest  connexion  with  this  subject. 

"1.  The  power  to  dispose  of,  and  make  all  needful  rules  and 


252  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

regulations  respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  01  the  United 
States. 

"  This  clause  evidently  refers  to  territorial  rights  ;  to  the  power 
to  control  and  regulate  these,  and  not  to  the  exercise  of  jurisdic 
tion  over  Indians  living  within  the  country  claimed  by  them.  It 
is,  at  all  events,  inapplicable  to  the  Cherokee  country  in  Georgia, 
to  which  the  United  States  have  relinquished  all  their  pretensions. 
Under  this  clause  of  the  Constitution,  Congress  passed  laws  to  pre 
vent  intrusions  upon  the  public  land  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the 
intruders  are  subject  to  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of  the  States 
within  which  such  lands  are  situated.  The  power  to  dispose  of, 
and  make  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  property 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  power  to  exercise  general  jurisdic 
tion  over  persons  upon  it,  are  essentially  different  and  independent. 
The  former  is  general,  and  is  given  in  the  clause  referred  to.  The 
latter  is  special,  and  is  given  in  another  clause,  and  confined  to 
the  federal  district,  and  to  c  places  purchased  by  consent  of  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  in  which  the  same  shall  be,  for  the  erec 
tion  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dock  yards,  and  other  needful 
buildings. 

"  2.  The  power  'to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and 
among  the  several  States,  and  with  the  Indian  tribes.' 

"  It  will  be  recollected  that  the  subject  of  the  present  branch  of 
the  inquiry  is,  where  the  ultimate  jurisdiction  over  the  Indian 
tribes  resides.  Is  it  given  to  the  United  States  by  this  clause  ? 
Certainly  not.  This  is  a  power  to  regulate  commerce,  and  not  to 
exercise  jurisdiction.  There  is  no  necessary  connexion  between 
the  two  subjects,  and  the  effort,  in  this  instance,  to  unite  them, 
leads  to  the  one  or  the  other  of  two  absurdities — either  that  Con 
gress  has  jurisdiction  over  foreign  nations,  or  that  entirely  dif 
ferent  meanings  are  to  be  given  to  the  same  words  in  the  same 
sentence.  The  power  granted  is  to  regulate  commerce  with  whom. 
With  foreign  nations  and  with  the  Indian  tribes,  and  among  the 
several  States.  Can  any  reasonable  version  be  given  to  this  sen 
tence,  by  which  it  shall,  in  fact,  read : — Congress  shall  have  power 
to  prescribe  the  mode  in  which  commerce  shall  be  carried  on  with 
foreign  nations,  and  among  the  several  States,  and  with  the  Indian 
tribes,  and  shall  also  have  jurisdiction  over  the  Indian  tribes  ? 
The  greatest  latitudinarian,  in  the  construction  of  the  Constitution, 
will  scarcely  contend  for  this  interpretation.  We  need  not  stop 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  253 

to  investigate  the  meaning  of  the  word  c  regulate.'  Whether  it 
gives  more  or  less  power  over  the  subject  matter,  or  over  the  white 
persons  engaged  in  the  trade,  it  gives  none  over  the  Indians  them 
selves,  unless  it  also  gives  power  over  the  Englishman  and  the 
Frenchman,  with  whose  countries  our  commerce  may  be  regulated 
by  Congress.  But  this  will  not  be  contended,  and  the  conclusion 
is  inevitable,  that  this  '  regulation,'  whether  by  treaty  or  by  law, 
can  give  no  political  power  and  no  rightful  jurisdiction.  It  must 
be  confined  to  the  object  to  which  it  is  limited  by  the  Constitution. 

"  And,  still  further,  if  the  idea  of  general  jurisdiction  be  included 
in  the  term  '  regulating  commerce,'  the  general  government  may 
annihilate  the  whole  State  laws,  and  bring  within  its-  own  authority 
all  the  people  and  property  of  the  country.  Constructive  powers 
can  scarcely  go  beyond  this. 

"  After  recapitulating  certain  provisions  of  the  Constitution, 
which  cede  to  the  general  government  rights  incompatible  with  the 
absolute  sovereignty  of  the  States,  Mr.  Justice  McLean  asks : 

"  '  lias  not  the  power  been  as  expressly  conferred  on  the  federal 
government,  to  regulate  intercourse  with  the  Indians,  as  any  of 
the  powers  above  enumerated?  There  being  no  exception  to  the 
power,  (that  of  regulating  the  intercourse,)  it  must  operate  on  all 
communities  of  Indians  exercising  the  right  of  self-government, 
and,  consequently,  include  those  who  reside  within  the  limits  of 
a  State,  as  well  as  others.' 

"  To  the  question  here  put  we  answer,  No.  If  such  provision 
can  be  found  in  the  Constitution,  we  will  agree  to  abandon  the 
whole  argument.  There  is  indeed  a  provision  for  regulating 
commerce  with  the  Indian  tribes,  but  we  need  scarcely  undertake 
to  show  that  between  commerce  and  intercourse  there  is  a  wide 
difference,  far  too  wide  to  render  them  convertible  terms  in  the 
investigation  of  the  delicate  question  of  conflicting  jurisdiction. 
To  speak  logically,  the  former  is  a  species,  and  the  latter  a  genus. 
One  existing  at  all  times,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  both  in 
peace  and  war ;  the  other,  like  the  spirit  of  laws,  becomes  silent 
amid  arms.  Intercourse  includes  commerce,  but  it  includes, 
also,  many  other  relations,  political  and  personal,  of  which  com 
merce  forms  no  part.  * 

"The  Chief  Justice  also  remarks,  that  'the  whole  intercourse 
between  the  United  States  and  this  nation,  (the  Cherokees,)  is,  by 
our  Constitution  and  laws,  vested  in  the  government  of  the  United 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

States.  They,'  speaking  of  the  acts  of  Georgia,  '  interfere  forcibly 
with  the  relations  established  between  the  United  States  and  the 
Cherokee  nation,  the  regulation  of  which,  according  to  the  settled 
principles  of  our  Constitution,  is  committed  exclusively  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States.' 

"  This,  as  it  appears  to  us,  is  assuming  the  very  point  upon 
which  the  controversy  turns.  We  can  find  in  the  Constitution  no 
clause  giving  the  United  States  the  right  to  regulate  the  inter 
course  or  relations  with  the  Indian  tribes.  "We  ask  for  that  clause. 
It  is  not  to  be  found.  We  then  ask  for  the  fair  deduction  of  that 
power  from  some  express  grant,  and  we  are  met  by  the  opinion, 
that  the  exclusive  control  of  the  intercourse  and  relations  with  the 
Indians  is  given  to  the  general  government. 

"  If  this  opinion  is  founded  upon  a  belief  that  intercourse,  and 
relations,  and  commerce,  are  synonymous,  the  conclusion  would 
still  involve  us  in  inextricable  difficulties.  This  regulation  of 
commerce  or  intercourse,  if  it  gives  the  United  States  c  exclusive 
jurisdiction  over  the  Indians,'  gives,  as  we  have  said,  exclusive 
jurisdiction  over  all  foreign  nations,  and  over  the  whole  Ameri 
can  people.  We  surely  need  not  pursue  this  subject  farther. 

"  Were  such  an  inquiry  useful,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show 
that  there  were  very  sufficient  reasons  for  granting  to  the  general 
government  this  power  to  regulate  commerce,  arising  out  of  the 
situation  of  the  various  tribes,  some  of  them  extending  into  seve 
ral  States,  and  all  of  them  powerfully  affected  by  the  influence  of 
the  traders,  and  by  the  supplies  rendered  necessary  to  their  com 
fort  arid  subsistence.  But  it  is  an  investigation  into  which  we 
need  not  now  enter. 

"  3.  The  power  of  Congress  to  declare  war,  and  the  power  to 
make  peace,  furnish  the  only  remaining  authority,  by  virtue  of 
which  this  jurisdiction  can  be  assumed  and  exercised. 

"  As  no  war  has  ever  been  declared  by  Congress  against  an 
Indian  tribe,  and  as  all  our  wars  against  these  people  have  been 
prosecuted  by  executive  authority,  it  is  unnecessary,  at  present, 
to  embarrass  the  discussion  with  any  observations  upon  the  war- 
making  power.  The  treaty-making  power  includes  within  it  the 
power  .to  make  peace.  It  is  vested  by  the  Constitution  in  the 
President  and  Senate. 

"  Treaties  in  national  law  are  compacts  made  between  sov 
ereigns.  In  monarchical  governments  the  power  to  conclude 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  255 

them  is  generally  a  branch  of  the  royal  prerogative.  It  is  so  in 
England.  No  treaty,  in  this  acceptation  of  the  term,  was  ever 
negotiated  with  an  Indian  tribe  living  under  the  dominion  of  the 
English  Crown.  No  ministers  were  ever  appointed  to  conduct 
such  a  negotiation,  no  instrument  was  ever  submitted  for  the  sov 
ereign's  approbation,  nor  were  any  ratifications  ever  exchanged. 
All  these  proceedings  are  essential  to  the  constitution  of  a  treaty, 
without  which,  according  to  modern  practice,  no  compact  can 
assume  that  high  character,  nor  be  construed  to  be  a  recognition 

O  f  o 

of  mutual  independence.  And  even  if  they  were  waived,  still 
the  express  assent  of  the  sovereign  is  indispensable. 

"It  is  clear, from  what  has  been  before  stated,  that  as  we  recede 
from  the  period  of  the  discovery,  the  practice,  if  not  the  doctrine, 
of  the  Europeans,  in  their  intercourse  with  the  Indians,  becomes 
meliorated,  and  humanity  asserts  her  claims  in  favor  of  the  latter. 
At  first,  all  rights  of  persons  and  property  and  jurisdiction  were 
disregarded.  But,  by  degrees,  the  true  principles  of  intercom 
munication  were  investigated  and  acknowledged,  and  the  civilized 
governments  found  that  as  much  land  should  be  assigned  to  the 
primitive  people  as  was  necessary  for  their  comfortable  subsist 
ence,  and  that  the  jurisdiction  to  be  exercised  should  depend  upon 
their  situation,  disposition,  and  other  circumstances. 

"  In  the  Spanish  laws  of  the  Indies  it  is  provided,  that  'the 
Indians  shall  be  left  in  the  possession  of  their  lands,  heredita 
ments  and  pastures,  in  such  a  manner  that  they  shall  not  stand 
in  need  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  shall  be  allowed  all  the  aid 
and  facilities  for  the  sustenance  of  their  household  and  families.'" 

The  steps  taken  by  the  Colonies  to  procure  cessions  and  ob 
tain  control  are  stated,  and  then  the  reader's  attention  is  directed 
to  the  action  of  the  federal  government  under  the  present  Con 
stitution. 

"  Upon  the  dissolution  of  the  confederation,  and  the  establish 
ment  of  the  present  Constitution,  one  of  the  first  objects  of  the 
new  government  was  to  conciliate  or  subdue  the  Indian  tribes. 
The  whole  inland  frontier,  from  the  lakes  to  the  St.  Mary's,  was 
exposed  to  their  incursions  and  depredations,  and  a  crisis  had  evi 
dently  arrived  demanding  the  most  vigorous  measures.  Many 
of  the  tribes  were  in  open  hostilities,  and  the  power  of  the  Union 
could  alone  successfully  contend  with  them.  '  To  provide  for  the  com 
mon  welfare,'  was  one  of  the  great  objects  for  the  accomplishment 


256  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  which  the  new  government  was  instituted.  In  the  exe 
cution  of  this  paramount  duty  important  relations  necessarily 
arose  between  them  and  the  Indians.  Hostilities  were  continued 
or  commenced,  and  it  was  not  until  the  decisive  victory  of  Gen 
eral  Wayne,  in  1794,  that  the  power  of  the  savages  was  broken^ 
and  the  'common  defense'  secured.  As  a  necessary  incident  to 
the  power  of  'defense'  is  the  right  to  make  peace,  bringing  into 
action  the  treaty-making  authority,  and  a  special  jurisdiction  over 
all  matters  fairly  connected  therewith,  as  far  as  they  are  actually 
required  for  the  purposes  of  safety  and  as  long  as  the  general 
government  is  responsible  for  that  safety  ;  that  is,  till  the  various 
tribes  are  so  reduced  in  strength,  or  so  improved  in  morals  and 
habits,  that  the  respective  States  may  safely  assume  jurisdiction 
over  them  without  calling  upon  Congress  '  to  provide  for  the  com 
mon  defense,'  when  the  posse  comitatus  may  be  substituted  for 
a  military  force,  and  when  citizens  venturing  to  engage  in  hos 
tilities  will  become  traitors. 

"  This  is  the  only  real  and  visible  foundation  upon  which  the 
power  of  the  general  government  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  any 
Indian  tribe  living  within  the  boundaries  of  a  State,  can  rest, 
except  so  far  as  the  process  may  be  thought  expedient  in  the  pur 
chase  of  their  possessory  right  by  the  United  States,  and  where 
the  United  States  have  the  ultimate  domain,  and,  consequently, 
the  right  to  make  '  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting '  it ; 
and  also  in  the  'regulation  of  commerce'  with  the  Indians,  if  it 
is  necessary  and  proper  that  this  regulation  should  be  made  by 
conventional  arrangements.  And  in  either  case  the  extent  of  the 
power  must  be  limited  by  the  objects  to  be  attained.  Neither  of 
these  have  any  connection  with  civil  or  criminal  jurisdiction,  and 
can  therefore  neither  confer  it  upon  the  Indians,  if  they  have  it 
not,  nor  take  it  from  the  States,  if  it  is  vested  in  them. 

"  We  must,  however,  carefully  separate  the  treaty-making 
power  from  the  power  to  '  regulate  commerce  with  the  Indian 
tribes.'  The  former  is  given  to  the  President  and  Senate,  and 
the  latter  belongs  to  Congress.  The  authority,  therefore,  to  make 
treaties  with  the  Indian  tribes,  whatever  this  may  be,  derives  no 
support  from  the  power  to  '  regulate  commerce,'  but  exists  inde 
pendently  of  it. 

"To  prevent  misconception,  we  may  add,  that,  without  the 
boundaries  of  the  respective  States,  and  within  the  boundaries  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  257 

the  Republic,  the  United  States  have  a  general  jurisdiction  over 
the  Indian  tribes,  as  a  necessary  attribute  of  sovereignty,  and  in 
conformity  with  acknowledged  principles  of  the  laws  of  nations. 

"  Conceding  now,  what,  however,  is  not  required,  that,  under 
the  Constitution,  and  for  the  purposes  of  defense  and  security,  the 
general  government  had  control  over  the  Indians,  that  control 
must,  of  course,  be  limited  by  a  just  construction  of  the  grant 
of  power  and  by  the  duties  of  the  government.  It  is  not  essen 
tial  to  its  existence  or  exercise,  that  it  should  include  every 
4  attribute  of  sovereignty,'  and  it  will  cease  when  danger  is  no 
longer  to  be  apprehended,  and  when  the  ordinary  civil  power  of 
the  community  is  sufficient  to  govern  and  restrain  the  Indians. 
And  the  States  must  necessarily  judge  when  this  period  has 
arrived  ;  when  the  relative  strength  of  the  parties  and  the  cir 
cumstances  and  improvement  of  the  Indians  render  such  a 
measure  proper.  The  portion  of  jurisdiction  till  that  time  en 
trusted  to  the  general  government  may  then  be  assumed,  and 
the  whole  subject  left  to  the  State  authorities. 

"  This  gradual  change  has  taken  place  in  almost  all  the  original 
States,  and  the  principles  connected  with  it  are  not  only  obviously 
just,  and  such  as  will  alone  reconcile  the  difficulties  of  the  subject, 
but  are  supported  by  respectable  authorities. 

"  'We  do  not  mean  to  say,'  observes  the  Supreme  Court  of 
New  York,  '  that  the  condition  of  the  Indian  tribes,  at  former  and 
remote  periods,  has  been  that  of  subjects  or  citizens  of  this  State. 
Their  condition  has  been  gradually  changing,  until  they  have  lost 
every  attribute  of  sovereignty,  and  become  entirely  dependent 
upon  and  subject  to  our  government.' 

"  At  the  time  this  opinion  was  delivered,  there  were  probably 
six  thousand  Indians  in  New  Y"ork.  How  many  there  were  at 
the  termination  of  the  'former  and  remote  periods,'  when  they 
retained  their  quasi  independence,  there  are  no  materials  at  hand 
for  ascertaining.  No  doubt  the  number  was  then  double.  But 
the  strength  of  the  tribes  constitutes  only  one  of  the  elements  for 
the  determination  of  the  question  of  incorporation.  Of  that,  and 
of  the  others,  each  State  has  judged  and  must  judge. 

"  'The  condition  of  the  Indians,'  says  the  Abbe  Eaynal,  'has 
not  always  been  the  same.  At  first  they  were  seized,  sold  in  the 
markets,  and  made  to  work  like  slaves  upon  the  plantations.' 

"  ;  In  some  of  the  old  States,'  says  Mr.  Justice  McLean, 
17 


258  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

'  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  others,  where  small 
remnants  of  tribes  remain,  surrounded  by  white  population,  and 
who,  by  their  reduced  numbers,  had  lost  the  power  of  self-govern 
ment,  the  laws  of  the  State  have  been  extended  over  them,  for  the 
protection  of  their  persons  and  property.' 

"  It  is  obvious  that  the  limitation  of  the  power  of  self-government, 
here  alluded  to,  must  depend  upon  the  opinion  of  the  State,  and 
not  upon  numbers  merely,  for  numbers  are  not  essential  to  self- 
government,  and,  we  may  add,  are  unimportant,  except  so  far  as 
relates  to  their  necessary  defense.  And  it  is  equally  obvious  that 
the  argumentum  al>  inconvenienti  can  not  operate  to  divest  from 
the  general  government,  and  confer  upon  any  of  the  States,  an 
authority  given  to  the  former,  and,  particularly,  when  such  author 
ity,  if  necessary,  may  be  as  well  exercised  by  the  one  as  by  the 
other.  If,  under  the  Constitution,  the  United  States  alone  have 
jurisdiction  over  these  tribes,  and  if,  in  consequence  of  reduced 
numbers  or  other  circumstances,  the  tribes  become  unable  to  exer 
cise  that  portion  of  jurisdiction  entrusted  to  them,  it  is  for  the 
United  States  to  provide  a  remedy,  and  not  for  a  third  party,  who, 
upon  the  principles  assumed,  have  ceded  all  legitimate  authority 
over  the  persons  and  objects.  Certainly  no  claim  of  State  juris 
diction  can  rest  upon  this  foundation. 

u  It  may  be  observed  that,  with  the  extinction  of  that  portion 
of  jurisdiction  arising  out  of  the  duty  of  general  defense,  will  also 
terminate  the  power  of  regulating  commerce.  That  power,  it  will 
be  recollected,  is  to  regulate  commerce  with  the  Indian  tribes.,  and 
not  with  the  Indians.  They  will  then  cease  to  be  'tribes,'  or,  to 
take  the  definition  instead  of  the  term,  will  cease  to  be,  in  the 
language  of  the  American  lexicographer,  ca  body  of  rude  people, 
united  under  one  leader  or  government,  as  the  tribes  of  the  Six 
Nations,  the  Seneca  tribe,  in  America,'  and  will  become  citizens, 
with  such  '  privileges  and  disabilities  as  the  laws  of  the  respective 
States  may  provide.'  Having  endeavored  to  show  the  general 
nature  of  the  jurisdiction  over  the  Indian  tribes,  and  that,  in  the 
United  States,  that  jurisdiction  belongs  to  the  several  State  gov 
ernments,  whensoever  and  howsoever  they  may  choose  to  exercise 
it,  it  is  necessary  now  to  inquire  how  far  the  exercise  of  this  right, 
by  the  State  of  Georgia,  is  controlled  or  prohibited  by  any  conven 
tional  arrangements  made  with  the  Cherokee  Indians.  If  the 
general  government  has  entered  into  engagements  inconsistent 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  259 

with  this  right,  and  if  such  engagements  were  within  the  scope  of 
its  legitimate  authority,  nothing  remains  but  to  regret  these  stipu 
lations  and  to  execute  them,  even  if  they  perpetuate  the  inconve 
niences  which  must  attend  the  permanent  establishment  of  the 
Indians  in  their  present  places  of  residence.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  United  States  have  contracted  obligations  which  they  can  not 
fulfill  without  a  violation  of  preceding  and  paramount  duties,  they 
must  then  compensate  the  Indians,  who  are  the  injured  party,  to 
their  full  satisfaction,  unless  their  demand  is,  upon  the  face  of  it, 
exorbitant  and  unreasonable.  If  it  is.  the  commutation  should  be 
measured  by  the  party  thus  involved  in  contradictory  obligations, 
in  a  spirit  of  liberality,  and  tendered  with  a  full  explanation  of 
the  circumstances.  We  think,  however,  it  will  be  found  that 
neither  of  these  alternatives  is  before  us,  but  that  all  the  compacts 
made  with  the  Indians  may  be  executed  fairly  and  in  good  faith, 
and  consistently  with  the  jurisdictional  authority  of  the  State  of 
Georgia. 

4i  The  extension  of  the  laws  of  the  respective  States  over  the 
Indians  involves  their  personal  and  political  rights.  The  former, 
under  any  state  of  things,  will  no  doubt  be  amply  secured,  and 
all  proper  rights  and  remedies  extended  to  them.  IIow  far  they 
shall  participate  in  political  privileges,  must  depend  on  their 
advancement  in  improvement  and  knowledge.  While  passing 
through  that  probationary  situation  which  their  previous  habits  and 
circumstances  have  rendered  necessary,  they  must  remain  in  the 
state  of  '  pupilage  '  described  by  Judge  Kent.  And  without 
suffering  the  question  to  be  influenced  by  pre-conceived  notions, 
not  applicable  to  the  relations  of  the  parties,  nor  by  those  roman 
tic  delineations  of  Indian  character  and  condition,  more  creditable 
to  the  heart  than  the  judgment,  which  have  misled  many  worthy 
men,  let  us  inquire  what  must  be  the  actual  effect  of  subjecting 
to  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of  the  laws,  those  tribes  which  have 
already  commenced  the  great  career  of  improvement,  and  made, 
as  is  represented,  such  progress  as  to  qualify  them  for  the  task 
of  self-government.  To  one  who  is  ignorant  of  the  controversy 
which  has  recently  arisen  out  of  this  subject,  the  answer  will 
appear  disproportion ed  to  the  fearful  consequences  which,  it  is 
apprehended  or  alleged,  will  result  from  this  change.  TJiese  half- 
civilized  Indians  will  become  subject  to  the  common  law  of 
England^  with  such  temporary  disabilities  as  the  respective  State 


260  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

legislatures  may  impose,  till  they  are  prepared  by  education  and 
habits  for  its  full  enjoyment.  And  is  not  this  preferable  to  their 
present  system  of  polity  ?  All  history  teaches  that  no  free  gov 
ernment  can  exist  among  half-civilized  people.  It  must  become 
a  despotism,  ruled  by  one  or  a  few.  And  if  we  are  not  wholly 
misinformed,  the  experience  of  our  own  Indian  tribes  confirms  the 
general  lesson.  If  the  southern  Indians  have  made  those  advan 
ces  in  improvement  which  many  so  confidently  assert  and  believe, 
they  can  not  be  injured  by  the  operation  of  just  laws.  If  they 
have  not,  they  are  unfit  for  the  task  of  self-government,  and  to 
become  the  founders  of  an  independent  state." 

The  Secretary  then  proceeds  to  an  elaborate  examination  of  the 
question,  whether  the  form  of  the  treaties  and  stipulations,  and 
the  descriptive  epithet,  "  nation,"  applied  to  the  Indians,  are  a 
full  recognition  of  their  independent  position,  precluding  the  gen 
eral  government  from  denying  the  legitimate  consequences  flow 
ing  from  such  admissions.  He  clearly  establishes,  by  authority 
and  argument,  that  they  are  not,  and  terminates  this  branch  of 
the  controversy  with  this  potential  observation  : 

"  We  can  not  express  the  true  doctrine  as  well  as  it  was 
expressed  at  Ghent,  where  this  very  objection  was  urged,  and 
pertinaciously  repeated.  'The  treaty  of  Greenville,'  say  the 
American  Commissioners,  '  neither  took  from  the  Indians  the 
right  which  they  had  not,  of  selling  lands  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  United  States  to  foreign  governments  or  subjects,  nor  ceded 
to  them  the  right  of  exercising  exclusive  jurisdiction  within  the 
boundary  line  assigned.  It  was  merely  declaratory 'of  the  public 
law  in  relation  to  the  parties,  founded  on  principles  previously 
and  universally  recognized? 

"The  position  of  the  Indians  is  no  doubt  anomalous.  Europe 
presents  nothing  similar.  To  demand  that  the  principles  of  inter 
course  which  have  been  adopted,  shall  be  reconciled  with  the 
received  maxims  of  public  law,  which  govern  the  relations  of 
civilized  and  independent  nations,  is  to  reject  the  universal  prac 
tice  of  all  governments  who  have  founded  colonies  in  the  new 
world,  and  is  to  sacrifice  the  true  interests  of  society  to  a  defini 
tion  and  a  deduction." 

Approaching  the  material  inquiry  in  this  great  case,  namely, 
whether  the  treaties  with  the  Cherokees  contain  stipulations  incom 
patible  with  the  exercise  of  jurisdiction  by  the  State  of  Georgia 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  261 

over  them,  the  Secretary,  examining  the  entire  field  of  controversy, 
commencing  with  the  treaty  of  Holston,  in  1731,  and  terminating 
with  that  of  Tellico,  in  1798,  which  was  the  last  treaty,  prior  to 
the  execution  of  the  compact  between  the  United  States  and 
Georgia,  in  1802,  announces  the  irrefragable  conclusion,  that  the 
relations  of  the  general  government  with  the  various  Indian  tribes 
living  within  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States,  do  not  extend  to 
prevent  the  legislatures  from  subjecting  those  Indians,  whenever 
they  please,  to  the  operation  of  State  laws. 

Thus  far,  he  had  discussed  the  rights  of  the  several  parties.  lie 
now  leaves  that  field,  and  briefly  considers  the  expediency  of 
their  just  exercise,  on  the  part  of  the  legitimate  authorities. 

"In  the  previous  discussion  we  have  confined  ourselves  to  the 
question  of  right,  a:\- .ding  all  those  considerations  which  render 
it  expedient  that  these  Indians  should  remove  to  the  country,  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  assigned  for  their  permanent  residence.  Xo 
false  philanthropy  should  induce  us  to  wish  their  continuance  in 
the  situation  they  now  occupy.  The  decree  has  gone  forth  ;  it  is 
irreversible,  that  the  white  and  the  red  man  can  not  live  together. 
He  who  runs  may  read.  He  may  read  it  in  the  past  and  in  the 
present,  and  he  may  discern  it  in  the  signs  of  the  future.  With 
out  attempting  to  investigate  the  causes,  moral  and  physical, 
which  have  enacted  this  law  of  stern  necessity,  it  is  enough  for 
our  present  purpose  to  know  that  it  exists,  and  to  feel  that  its  pen 
alty  is  destruction  to  one  of  these  parties ;  a  penalty  only  to  be 
avoided  by  their  migration  beyond  the  sphere  of  its  influence. 
The  longer  this  salutary  measure  is  delayed,  the  greater  will  be 
the  injury  to  them.  Their  state  of  excitement  and  uneasiness  will 
continue,  the  collisions  and  difficulties  with  their  white  neighbors 
will  multiply,  and  surrounded,  as  they  must  be,  with  dishearten 
ing  troubles,  their  habits  and  prospects  may  be  wrecked  in  this 
hopeless  conflict.  Had  they  not  better  go,  and  speedily  ?  Go  to 
a  climate  which  is  known  to  be  salubrious,  to  a  country  fertile  and 
extensive ;  beyond  their  wants  now,  and  for  generations  to  come ; 
and  to  a  home  which  promises  comfort  and  permanence. 

"  Can  they  expect  to  maintain  their  present  position?  To  estab 
lish  an  independent  government,  having  undefined  and  undefina- 
ble  relations  with  the  State  of  Georgia  ?  To  add  another  imperium 
in  imperio  to  our  complicated  system?  Such  an  expectation 
appears  to  us  vain  and  illusory,  practically  unattainable,  and 


2G2  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

fraught  with  their  destruction  if  it  could  be  obtained.  They 
would  be  exposed  to  the  operation  of  all  those  evils  which  have 
swept  over  their  race,  as  the  fatal  simoon,  the  blast  of  death, 
sweeps  over  the  desert." 

Thus  wTas  the  ability  and  discretion  of  General  Cass  displayed, 
at  this  signal  period  of  the  Indian  controversy.  This  review — 
in  fact,  as  the  reader  was  apprised  a  few  pages  back,  a  state  paper 
— was  a  luminous  and  powerful  refutation  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Supreme  Judicature  of  the  land.  He  dissented,  not  as  a  faction- 
ist  resisting  authority,  or  as  a  sciolist  unable  to  comprehend  it, 
but  as  a  patriot,  a  jurist  and  a  scholar.  Its  effect  upon  the  public 
mind  was  prodigious,  and  the  signs  of  returning  reason,  on  this 
vexed  subject,  to  many  of  the  accomplished  intellects  in  Congress, 
were  unmistakable. 

The  policy  of  the  administration  prevailed,  and  to  the  Secre 
tary  of  War  belongs  the  glory,  as  its  efficient,  learned,  and 
enlightened  expounder  and  defender.  Congress  appropriated  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  removal  of  the  Indians  from 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  other  States,  to  a  territory  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  without  the  limits  of  any  State  or  organized  territory, 
and  belonging  to  the  United  States.  The  Indians  were  removed, 
under  every  humane  care,  to  places  better  fitted  for  their  future 
homes ;  the  high  claim  of  Georgia  to  be  sovereign  within  her  own 
borders  was  fully  vindicated  against  those  disorganizing  counter- 
principles,  subversive  of  the  first  elements  of  civilization  that 
would  have  denied  it ;  and  with  such  an  approving  voice  did  the 
people  of  Georgia  regard  the  conduct  of  General  Cass,  that  the 
Legislature  of  that  State  unanimously  named  a  county  after  him, 
which,  since  its  creation,  has  been  noted  for  its  undeviating 
adherence  to  the  cause  of  the  Democratic  Republican  party. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  263 


CHAPTER  XYIL 

Black  Hawk  War — Peace — Treaties  of  cession  with  Winnebagoes,  Sacs  and  Foxes— General  Cuss'  efforts 
to  effect  Reforms  in  the  Army— The  United  States  Bank— Nullification— Letters  to  General  Scott— 
The  action  of  South  Carolina — Letter  to  Mr.  Ritchie — The  Virginia  Legislature — The  Mission  of  Mr. 
Leigh — The  happy  Termination. 

In  the  summer  of  1832,  the  aggressions  of  the  Sac  and  Fox 
tribes  of  Indians  were  daring  and  extensive — -so  much  so  as  to 
demand  the  interposition  of  the  government.  The  Secretary  of 
War  was  too  well  versed  in  Indian  character,  and  their  invariable 
mode  of  warfare,  not  to  adopt  prompt  and  active  measures  for 
their  subjugation  and  punishment.  The  Indians  were  under  the 
lead  of  a  noted  chief,  called  Black  Hawk,  and  personally  known 
to  General  Cass. 

The  executives  of  the  States  of  Missouri,  Illinois,  and  Indiana, 
and  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  co-operated  zealously  and  effi 
ciently  in  the  protective  measures  of  the  department.  The  regu 
lar  troops  in  the  vicinity  of  the  theater  of  hostilities  were  concen 
trated  under  Brigadier  General  Atkinson,  and  brought  into  the 
field  ;  and  the  militia  of  Illinois,  and  that  part  of  the  Territory  of 
Michigan  exposed  to  danger,  promptly  repaired  to  the  defense  of 
the  frontier.  Such  was  the  nature  of  the  warfare  and  of  the 
country,  that  it  was  difficult  immediately  to  protect  the  long  line 
of  scattered  settlements,  and  to  bring  the  enemy  into  action.  As 
a  precautionary  measure,  and  to  place  the  result  of  the  campaign 
as  far  beyond  the  reach  of  accident  as  possible,  the  garrisons  at 
some  of  the  posts  upon  the  seaboard,  and  upon  the  lakes,  were 
ordered  to  Chicago,  under  the  command  of  Major  General  Scott, 
to  co-operate  with  the  force  already  employed  under  Brigadier 
General  Atkinson.  The  troops  moved  with  the  greatest  despatch 
—  one  of  the  companies  reaching  Chicago  in  eighteen  days  from 
Old  Point  Comfort,  a  distance  by  the  route  necessarily  traveled  of 
more  than  eighteen  hundred  miles.  At  this  place  they  met  a  foe 
far  more  to  be  dreaded  than  their  Indian  foe,  and  their  hopes 
were  suddenly  arrested,  when  highest,  by  that  worse  than  Athen 
ian  plague —  the  cholera;  and  probably  few  military  expeditions 


264:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

have  presented  scenes  more  appalling  in  themselves,  or  calling 
for  the  exercise  of  greater  moral  courage.  The  occasion,  however, 
was  met  by  General  Scott,  the  commanding  officer,  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  his  high  character ;  and  the  example  which  he  gave  to 
the  American  army,  in  that  trying  period  of  responsibility,  is  not 
less  important  than  was  his  gallant  bearing  in  the  presence  of  the 
enemy  at  Lnndy's  Lane  and  Bridgewater.  The  mortality  was 
great;  and  of  about  fifteen  hundred  officers  and  men  of  the  reg 
ular  troops  ordered  to  that  frontier,  not  less  than  two  hundred  fell 
victims  to  the  pestilence. 

The  United  States  soldiers  stationed  in  the  vicinity  of  the  scene 
of  outrage,  together  with  the  militia  from  the  State  of  Illinois  and 
of  the  western  part  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  were  concentrated 
under  the  command  of  General  Atkinson,  and  marched  to  the 
locality  of  the  enemy.  When  they  reached  the  spot  where  it  was 
supposed  Black  Hawk  and  his  forces  were  encamped,  it  was  found 
that  the  Indians  had  withdrawn  upon  their  approach.  General 
Dodge  was  dispatched  in  pursuit.  lie  overtook  them  on  the  eve 
ning  of  the  twenty-first  of  July,  and  engaged  in  battle  with  a  band 
of  about  three  hundred  Sacs,  at  a  place  called  Petit  Roche,  near 
the  Wisconsin  river,  and  about  thirty  miles  from  Fort  Winnebago. 
The  Indians  retreated  towards  the  river,  after  fifty  of  their  number 
were  killed.  On  the  twenty-seventh  and  twenty-eighth  of  July, 
General  Atkinson,  with  thirteen  hundred  men,  crossed  the  Wis 
consin,  and  followed  the  trail  of  the  enemy  until  the  second  day 
of  August,  when  they  came  up  writh  the  main  body  of  the  Indians 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Iowa 
river.  A  battle  ensued,  in  which  the  Indians  were  routed  and 
driven  from  their  position.  One  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  were 
killed,  as  reported  to  the  War  Department.  The  residue  crossed 
the  river,  and  fled  into  the  interior  of  the  country.  The  Indians 
were  completely  vanquished.  Black  Hawk,  with  his  family,  and 
the  Prophet,  his  brother,  were  not  among  the  conquered.  It 
turned  out  to  be  the  fact,  that  they  had  fled  up  the  Mississippi, 
and  sought  refuge  among  the  Winnebagoes,  who,  in  a  short  time, 
brought  forth  Black  Hawk  and  the  Prophet,  and  delivered  them 
up  to  the  army.  • 

The  ample  and  effective  arrangements,  under  the  direction  of 
the  War  Department,  were  prompt  and  judicious,  and  probably 
saved  the  country  from  the  expense  and  horrors  of  a  protracted 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  265 

Indian  war.  The  campaign  terminated  in  the  unqualified  submis 
sion  of  the  hostile  party,  and  in  the  adoption  of  measures  for  the 
permanent  security  of  the  frontier.  Black  Hawk  and  the  Prophet 
— the  real  instigators  of  the  troubles — were  delivered  to  the  Presi 
dent,  and  were,  for  some  time,  held  as  hostages  for  the  faithful 
observance,  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  of  their  treaty  stipulations. 

Treaties  of  cession  were  formed  with  the  Winnebagoes,  and  with 
the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
by  which  the  title  of  the  former  was  extinguished  to  all  the  country 
south  of  the  Ouisconsin  and  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  title 
of  the  latter  to  an  extensive  region  west  of  that  river.  These  ces 
sions  were  highly  important  to  the  peace  and  security  of  that 
distant  frontier,  and  were,  in  a  short  time,  followed  by  such  settle 
ments  as  placed  it  beyond  all  danger  from  the  aggression  and 
hostilities  of  their  Indian  neighbors.  The  result  of  the  Black 
Hawk  war,  as  it  is  commonly  called,  was  a  severe  lesson,  and 
attended  with  the  sacrifice  of  life,  but  it  insured  the  preservation 
of  tranquillity,  and  rendered  a  resort  to  similar  measures,  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States,  unnecessary. 

The  Secretary  of  War,  in  his  annual  report  of  this  year,  recom 
mended  many  salutary  reforms  in  the  personnel  of  the  army.  Well 
aware,  from  his  own  experience  and  observation,  that  much  good 
might  be  effected  for  the  soldier  while  on  actual  service,  and  for 
his  own  welfare  in  time  of  peace,  by  a  slight  attention,  on  the  part 
of  the  head  of  the  department,  to  apparently  trivial  evils,  he  did 
not  consider  it  a  condescension,  but  a  duty,  to  point  them  out  and 
name  the  remedy.  In  the  subsistence  of  the  army  he  had  made 
an  important  change,  which  he  believed  would  prove  salutary  to 
the  health  and  morals  of  the  troops.  In  lieu  of  the  spirituous 
liquor,  which  had  composed  a  part  of  each  ration,  a  commutation 
had  been  established,  by  which  its  value  was  paid  to  each  soldier 
in  money,  but,  at  the  same  time,  he  had  permission  to  purchase 
the  article  from  the  sutler  of  the  post.  General  Cass  modified 
this  regulation,  substituting  coffee  and  sugar  for  the  money.  Four 
pounds  of  coffee  and  eight  pounds  of  sugar  were  directed  to  be 
issued  with  every  one  hundred  rations,  and  thus  increasing  the 
expense  of  the  army  subsistence  to  a  sum  of  about  six  thousand 
dollars.  Simultaneously  with  this  arrangement,  a  regulation  was 
adopted  prohibiting  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquor  by  the  sutlers  to 
the  troops,  or  its  introduction,  under  any  circumstances,  into  the 


2C6  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

forts  and  camps  of  the  United  States,  with  the  exception  of  hospital 
stores,  and  of  the  quantity  necessary  to  issue  under  that  provision 
of  the  law  which  allows  an  extra  gill  to  every  soldier  engaged  in 
fatigue  duty.  As  there  was  no  authority  vested  in  the  executive 
to  dispense  with  this  issue,  the  Secretary  asked  Congress  to  inter 
pose  the  necessary  remedy.  lie  believed  that  the  great  cause  of 
public  morals,  as  well  as  the  discipline  and  efficiency  of  the  army, 
would  be  promoted  by  an  entire  abolition  of  these  issues.  lie 
stated  that  an  addition  of  three  cents  to  the  sum  allowed  for  extra 
daily  labor,  would  be  more  than  an  adequate  pecuniary  compen 
sation  for  the  deprivation  recommended,  and  would  increase,  but 
in  a  very  inconsiderable  degree,  the  public  expenditure.  lie  con 
tended  that  to  habits  of  intemperance  might  be  traced  almost  all 
the  evils  of  our  military  establishment,  and  that  it  was  high  time 
that  an  enemy  so  insidious  and  destructive  should  be  met  and 
overcome ;  that  all  palliatives  be  abandoned,  and  that  a  system 
of  exclusion,  entire  and  unconditional,  be  introduced  and  enforced. 

He  developed  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  thoroughly 
disciplined  mounted  force,  and  urged  an  increased  and  more  effi 
cient  organization  of  the  Topographical  Corps.  In  advance  of 
public  opinion  lie  abolished  the  custom  of  parade  and  inspection 
on  the  Sabbath,  thus  enabling  the  troops  to  observe  the  day  more 
in  accordance  with  its  sacred  duties;  and  recommended  that  a 
suitable  building  be  provided  at  West  Point,  as  a  place  of  public 
wrorship,  so  that  the  pupils  of  the  academy  might  have  the  benefit 
of  religious  instruction.  These  recommendations,  at  first  view 
apparently  of  inconsiderable  moment,  have  been  mostly  adopted, 
and  were  productive  of  important  results. 

But,  during  the  year  1832,  General  Cass  had  other  and  higher 
duties  to  perform,  as  one  of  the  confidential  advisers  of  the  Presi 
dent.  The  question  of  a  re-charter  of  that  mammoth  financial 
institution — the  United  States  Bank — was  before  the  authorities 
of  the  nation.  It  had  become  incorporated  into  and  constituted 
the  leading  and  controlling  topic  in  the  politics  of  the  country. 
Having  an  unbounded  credit,  with  branches  in  all  quarters  of  the 
Union ;  possessed  of  large  pecuniary  resources,  and  wielded  by 
sagacious  and  never-tiring  managers  ;  defended  and  advocated  by 
the  massive  minds  of  such  men  as  Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Web 
ster  in  the  Senate,  and  citizens  of  wealth,  distinction,  and  influence, 
in  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  land  ;  appealing,  with  unblushing 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  267 

effrontery,  to  the  basest  passions  of  which  man  is  susceptible ;  and, 
by  its  recklessness  of  management,  in  too  many  instances,  giving 
cause  for  the  suspicion,  that  its  agents  were  ready,  with  unscru 
pulous  gifts  and  largesses,  to  subsidize  the  ballot  boxes  of  the 
people; — this  monster  power  had  made  its  wTay  through  the  legis 
lative  halls  of  Congress,  and  now,  with  all  the  swaggering  audacity 
of  the  brigand  in  some  lonely  recess  of  the  Alps,  approached  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  nation,  in  the  honest  discharge  of  his 
executive  functions  at  the  presidential  mansion. 

Never  wras  an  administration  so  peculiarly  situated.  Questions 
were  looming  up  in  the  distant  horizon,  that  threatened  the  dis 
ruption  of  the  confederacy  of  republican  States.  It  was  supposed 
that  the  President,  as  the  representative  of  the  democratic  party, 
could  not  approve  of  the  bill.  When  this  bank  was  originally 
chartered,  finance  was  disordered  and  credit  depressed  ;  when  it 
was  re-chartered  at  the  close  of  the  second  war,  the  State  banks 
had  deprived  the  people  of  a  currency ;  and  in  both  instances, 
the  constitutional  objections  to  its  existence  were  lost  sight  of  in 
the  desire  to  secure  temporary  relief.  But  now  the  exigencies 
which  had  called  it  into  existence,  and  once  renewed  the  lease, 
had  ceased,  while  the  objections  to  it  subsisted  in  increased  force. 
Democrats  who  never  believed  that  such  an  institution  could  be 
tolerated  under  a  democratic  construction  of  the  Constitution, 
now  renewed  their  objections  to  its  re-charter.  And  as  for  the 
fiscal  service  it  rendered  to  the  government,  they  rightly  believed 
that  such  service  could  conveniently,  and  with  far  more  virtue 
and  safety,  be  performed  by  a  government  agency,  to  be  called 
an  Independent  Treasury.  But  its  friends  flattered  themselves 
with  the  fallacious  hope  that  the  action  of  many  members  of  that 
party  in  Congress,  together  with  the  recurrence  this  year  of  the 
presidential  election,  would  remove  from  the  President's  mind 
the  objections  he  entertained,  and  induce  him  to  acquiesce. 
Unfortunately  for  themselves,  they  had  overlooked  the  fact  that 
the  watch-tower  of  the  Republic  was  tenanted  by  a  man  of 
lofty  patriotism  and  inflexible  purpose,  unaffected  by  intimida 
tion,  clamor,  or  blandishment,  and  as  for  gold,  that  the  whole 
kingdom  of  nature  did  not  contain  enough  to  debauch  his  incor 
ruptible  heart.  With  characteristic  firmness,  advised  and  sus 
tained  by  the  united  voice  of  his  cabinet,  he  interposed  the  power 
of  his  veto,  under  the  Constitution,  and,  in  respectful  terms, 


268  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

returned  the  bank  charter  to  the  House  of  Legislation  in  which 
it  originated. 

After  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  South  Carolina  considering 
herse'lf  aggrieved  by  "  the  acts  and  parts  of  acts  of  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  purporting  to  be  laws  imposing  duties  and 
imports  on  the  importation  of  foreign  commodities,"  and  particu 
larly  by  "  two  acts  for  the  same  purposes,  passed  in  May,  1828,  and 
July,  1S32,'1  threatened  secession  from  the  Union,  and  began  to 
make  preparations  to  resist  the  operation  of  those  laws  within  her 
limits.  A  convention  assembled  in  that  State,  on  the  nineteenth 
of  November,  1832,  and  passed  an  ordinance  which  declared  all 
the  acts  of  Congress  imposing  duties  on  imported  goods,  more 
especially  the  laws  of  May,  1828,  and  July,  1832,  to  be  null  and 
void  within  the  limits  of  South  Carolina,  and  the  Legislature 
authorized  the  governor  to  call  out  the  militia  to  resist  any 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  government  of  the  United  States  to 
enforce  the  revenue  laws. 

These  proceedings  on  the  part  of  that  State,  brought  on  an  issue 
between  the  State  and  the  federal  government  that  could  not  be 
neglected.  The  very  existence  of  the  latter  depended  upon  its 
decision.  A  single  State  had  set  at  defiance  its  authority,  and 
declared  that  no  umpire  should  be  admitted  to  decide  between 
the  contending  parties.  The  federative  principles  of  the  Consti 
tution,  and  the  whole  authority  of  Congress  and  the  federal 
judiciary,  were  put  in  issue  by  this  question.  This  movement 
received  the  support  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  General  Hayne,  and,  indeed, 
of  all  her  master  minds.  They  expected  that  it  would  be  counte 
nanced  by  other  southern  States,  and  however  unwilling  the  lead 
ers  might  be  to  destroy  the  Union,  still  experience  had  too  clearly 
shown  the  difficulty  of  restraining  an  excited  people,  not  to  create 
apprehension  as  to  the  result  of  these  efforts  to  discard  the  author 
ity  of  the  general  government. 

The  nullifiers  asserted  that  the  federal  Constitution  was  a  com 
pact  between  the  people  of  the  several  States  as  distinct  and 
independent  sovereignties,  and  not  between  the  people  of  the 
United  States  at  large  ;  that  when  any  violation  of  the  letter  or 
spirit  of  that  compact  took  place,  it  is  not  only  the  right  of  the 
people,  but  of  the  State  legislatures,  to  remonstrate  against  it.  and 
that  the  federal  government  was  responsible  to  the  people  when 
ever  it  abused  or  injudiciously  exercised  powers  entrusted  to  it, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  269 

and  that  it  was  responsible  to  the  State  legislatures  whenever  it 
assumed  powers  not  conferred. 

In  tin's  state  of  the  case,  the  administration  considered  that  the 
path  of  duty  for  it  to  pursue  was  plain,  and  determined  at  once 
to  bring  this  question  of  nullification  to  an  issue.  With  this  view, 
the  Secretary  of  War  assembled  all  the  disposable  military  force 
of  the  United  States  at  Charleston.  The  proclamation  of  the 
President  was  issued,  placing  the  powers  of  the  general  govern 
ment  on  the  broad  ground  that  the  federal  judiciary  was  the 
only  proper  tribunal  to  decide  upon  the  constitutionality  of  its 
laws,  and  to  enforce  the  revenue  acts  with  an  entire  disregard 
to  the  pretended  rights  of  sovereignty  assumed  by  South  Carolina. 

As  coming  more  immediately  within  the  province  of  the  Wai- 
Department,  it  became  necessary  for  General  Cass  to  conduct  the 
correspondence.  His  instructions  to  the  commander  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  troops  were  dignified  and  appropriate,  and  although 
positive  as  to  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  general  government,  he 
was  scrupulously  mindful  of  State  rights,  and  his  language  for 
bearing  and  conciliatory.  He  was  impressed  with  the  grave 
importance  of  the  question,  and  with  the  mournful  aspect  it  had 
given  to  the  political  horizon  of  America. 

The  cautious  forbearance  of  the  Secretary,  as  well  as  his  unal 
terable  determination  to  forward  the  true  interest  of  the  nation, 
fully  appear  in  the  following  letters  to  Major  General  Scott. 

(Confidential.) 

"  WASHINGTON,  Nov.  18th,  1832. 

"  Sm : — The  state  of  affairs  in  South  Carolina  has  occasioned 
much  solicitude  to  the  President.  He  indulges  the  hope  that  the 
intelligence  and  patriotism  of  the  citizens  will  prevent  any  infrac 
tion  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  general  government. 
But  while  he  anxiously  looks  for  this  result,  he  deems  it  possible, 
from  the  information  he  has  received,  that,  in  the  first  efferves 
cence  of  feeling,  some  rash  attempt  may  be  made  by  individuals 
to  take  possession  of  the  forts  and  harbor  of  Charleston.  The 
possibility  of  such  a  measure  furnishes  a  sufficient  reason  for 
guarding  against  it,  and  the  President  is  therefore  anxious  that 
the  situation  and  means  of  defense  of  these  fortifications  should 
be  inspected  by  an  officer  of  experience,  who  could  also  estimate 
and  provide  for  any  dangers  to  which  he  may  be  exposed,  &c. 


270  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  Your  duty  will  be  one  of  great  importance,  and  of  great 
delicacy.  You  will  consult  freely  and  fully  with  the  Collector 
of  the  port  of  Charleston,  and  with  the  District  Attorney  of 
South  Carolina,  and  you  will  take  no  step,  except  what  relates 
to  the  immediate  defense  and  security  of  the  posts,  without  their 
advice  and  concurrence.  The  execution  of  the  laws  will  be 
enforced  through  the  civil  authority,  and  by  the  mode  pointed  out 
by  the  acts  of  Congress.  Should,  unfortunately,  a  crisis  arrive, 
when  the  ordinary  power  in  the  hands  of  the  civil  officers  shall 
not  be  sufficient  for  the  purpose,  the  President  will  determine  the 
course  to  be  taken  and  the  measures  to  be  adopted.  Till,  there 
fore,  you  are  otherwise  instructed,  you  will  act  in  obedience  to 
the  legal  requisitions  of  the  proper  civil  officers  of  the  United 
States. 

(Signed,)  "  LEWIS  CASS." 

•'  DEPARTMENT  OF  WAR,         \ 
"  WASHINGTON,  December  3d,  1832.  j 

"  SIR  : — Your  letter  of  the  27th  ult.  has  been  received  and  laid 
before  the  President.  He  is  pleased  at  the  discretion  and  judg 
ment  manifested  by  you. 

"  The  course  of  the  government  will  be  regulated  by  the  prin 
ciples  stated  in  the  personal  interview  I  had  with  you.  I  can  not 
but  hope  the  good  sense  and  patriotism  of  the  citizens  of  South 
Carolina  will  still  prevent  an  occurrence  which  would  make  it 
necessary  to  enforce  the  ordinary  act  recently  passed  by  the  con 
vention  of  that  State.  In  any  event,  the  President  will  perform 
his  duty,  tinder  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States. 
(Signed,)  "  LEWIS  CASS." 

"DEPARTMENT  OF  WAR,  \ 

"WASHINGTON,  January  26th,  1833.  } 

u  SIK  : — All  your  dispatches  have  been  communicated  to  the 
President,  and  your  general  views  and  proceedings  have  been 
approved  by  him.  The  three  orders  to  which  you  specially  refer. 
I  shall  briefly  advert  to. 

"It  is  the  most  earnest  wish  of  the  President  that  the  present 
unhappy  difficulties  in  South  Carolina  should  be  terminated 
without  any  forcible  collision,  and  it  is  his  determination,  if  such 
collision  does  occur,  it  shall  not  be  justly  imputable  to  the  United 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  271 

States.  He  is  therefore  desirous  that  in  all  your  proceedings, 
while  you  execute  your  duty  firmly,  you  act  with  as  much  discre 
tion  and  moderation  as  possible,  arid  this  course  he  has  never 
doubted  you  will  adopt.  Self-defense  is  a  right  as  much  belong 
ing  to  military  bodies  as  to  individuals,  and  officers  commanding 
separate  posts  are  responsible,  at  all  times,  for  their  defense,  and 
are  bound  to  use  all  due  precaution  to  avoid  danger.  If  a  body 
of  men  approach  Sullivan's  Island  with  apparent  hostile  views, 
it  will  be  proper  to  pursue  the  course  indicated  by  you  to  Colonel 
Bankhead — that  is,  to  warn  their  commanding  officer  to  retire, 
and  to  inform  him  of  the  course  which  you  will  be  compelled  to 
adopt,  in  the  event  of  his  continued  approach.  Should  this  warn 
ing  be  ineffectual,  and  the  armed  body  attempt  to  land,  you  will 
be  justified  in  resisting  such  attempt.  But,  before  this  unfor 
tunate  alternative  is  resorted  to,  I  rely  upon  your  patriotism  and 
discretion  to  endeavor,  by  all  reasonable  and  peaceable  means,  to 
induce  any  such  armed  body  to  abandon  their  enterprise.  The 
subject  is  committed  to  you,  in  the  full  conviction  that  while  you 
discharge  your  duty  as  an  officer,  you  will  be  mindful  of  the 
great  delicacy  of  the  subject,  and  the  anxiety  of  the  President  to 
avoid,  if  possible,  a  resort  to  force.  But,  whatever  the  just  rights 
of  self-defense  require,  must  be  done,  should  a  case  occur  involv 
ing  such  a  question. 

(Signed,)  "  LEWIS  CASS." 

This  correspondence  is  the  key  to  the  action  of  the  administra 
tion  on  the  grave  issue  at  stake  between  the  federal  government 
and  one  of  its  members.  It  will  be  perceived  that  the  sovereignty 
of  the  State  was  not  to  be  invaded  in  any  event ;  but  that  its 
power  was  invoked  to  see  that  the  laws  of  the  land  were  enforced. 
If  individuals  interposed  obstacles  to  their  execution,  they  were 
to  be  treated  as  trespassers,  and  dealt  with  accordingly.  If,  in 
that  contingency,  the  State  authorities  declined  to  act,  then  the 
federal  government  would  with  promptitude  exercise  its  reserved 
rights. 

The  President,  however,  could  not  shut  his  eyes  to  the  stubborn 
fact,  that  clouds,  portentous  of  trouble,  darkened  the  Southern 
skies,  which  might  end  in  collision,  bloodshed  and  rebellion.  The 
newspapers  teemed  with  inflammatory  articles  ;  turbulent  assem 
blages  of  the  people  were  constantly  being  held  ;  and  violent. 


272  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

treasonable  speeches  delivered,  calculated,  if  allowed  to  go  on 
unchecked,  to  subvert  all  order  and  good  government,  and,  spread 
ing  to  other  States,  terminate  in  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  It 
was  evident  that  South  Carolina  awaited  the  co-operation  of  all 
south  of  the  Potomac.  Some  of  the  leading  organs  of  the  Demo- 

O  £?> 

cratic  party  began  to  evidence  weakness  and  vacillation,  and 
paused  to  calculate  the  value  of  the  Republic.  Weak-minded 
men  were  appalled,  and  grew  timid.  Patriotism,  in  many  unex 
pected  quarters — the  American  citizen  of  to-day  will  blush  to 
hear — was  ebbing,  and  no  one  could  foresee  how  soon  its  last 
wave  would  recede  from  the  land  of  Washington. 

O 

The  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  acted  as  if  the  bond  of  glo 
rious  memory  was  already  sundered.  Steps  were  taken  to  re 
organize  her  militia  and  prepare  for  active  hostilities.  Her  citi 
zens  were  to  be  classified  from  sixteen  years  of  age  and  upwards, 
and  placed  upon  a  war  footing.  The  governor  was  directed  to 
purchase  ten  thousand  stand  of  small  arms,  with  the  necessary 
accoutrements  ;  and  effective  means  provided  to  procure  all  the 
munitions  of  war.  This  was  something  else  than  mere  bluster 
and  bravado.  It  indicated  that  a  lion-hearted  spirit  was  aroused 
in  all  her  borders,  ready  to  burst  into  an  uncontrollable  tempest 
of  treason.  ~No  one  could  say  what  the  next  month,  week  or  day 
might  bring  forth  !  And  has  it  come  to  this  1  might  the  President 
well  have  exclaimed, — that  my  own  dear  native  State  shall  be  the 
first  to  raise  her  parricidal  arm  to  strike  down  in  blood  the  sacred 
flag  of  liberty  !  He  would  make  one  more  effort  to  stay  the  im 
pending  storm ;  and  casting  about  for  some  other  member  of  the 
confederacy  to  interpose  her  kind  offices  in  this  great  extremity, 
his  eyes  fell  upon  Virginia — the  mother  of  them  all.  Could  she 
forbear  to  use  all  the  influence  to  which  she  was  entitled  ?  Would 
she  stand  aloof  and  wait  till  the  hurricane  of  disunion  swept  the 
fair  fields  of  the  Palmetto,  as  it  surged  madly  onward  to  the  Gulf 
and  the  Mississippi  1  Could  she  not  throw  herself  between  the 
contending  parties,  and  contribute  whatever  of  moral  force  she 
might  exert  to  save  the  Union  and  avert  the  calamities  of 
nullification? 

In  a  day  or  two,  under  date  of  December  13,  1832,  the  follow 
ing  article  appeared  in  the  editorial  columns  of  the  Richmond 
Enquirer — then  the  leading  political  paper  in  all  the  South  : 

"  These  reflections  have  been  suirsrested  to  us  by  the  news  of 

*-^o  v 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  273 

yesterday,  and  by  a  letter  we  have  received  from  one  of  the  ablest 
men  in  the  country.  We  ask  his  pardon  for  laying  extracts  from 
it  before  the  Legislature,  'keeping  Ids  name  strictly  to  ourselves. 
The  members  of  the  Legislature  will  weigh  them  for  what  they 
are  worth.  From  the  high  character  of  their  author — from  the 
deep  importance  of  the  subject — from  the  momentous  crisis  which 
we  are  approaching,  we  respectfully  think  them  entitled  to  serious 
attention.  Now  '<§  the  day,  and  now 's  the  hour. 

"Extract  of  a  Letter  from  Washington. 

"  '  The  impending  crisis  is  a  fearful  one.  What  is  to  be  the 
result  ?  The  question  is  before  me  day  and  night.  As  you  have 
justly  observed,  we  are  between  Scylla  and  Chary bdis.  If  the 
general  government  succeed,  is  there  not  reason  to  fear  that  State 
rights  will  be  in  danger,  and  that  the  federal  arm  will  become  too 
strong  at  some  future  period  ?  On  the  other  hand,  if  South  Caro 
lina  succeed,  either  in  the  project  of  nullification  or  in  that  of  se 
cession,  the  Union  is  virtually  dissolved,  and  we  shall  follow  the 
fate  of  the  other  republics  that  have  checkered  the  eventful  map 
of  history.  What,  then,  is  to  be  done?  If  South  Carolina  pro 
ceeds  as  she  has  begun,  the  shock  must  be  met,  and  our  institu 
tions  may  be  demolished  in  the  conflict.  There  is  scarcely  time, 
even  were  this  Congress  perfectly  wrell  disposed,  to  settle  such  a 
question  between  now  and  the  first  of  February  next ;  and  if  there 
were,  it  is  not  in  human  nature  that  the  whole  protective  system, 
enormous  as  it  is  in  its  application,  should  be  instantaneously 
abandoned.  And  this,  and  this  alone,  would  satisfy  the  South 
Carolina  politicians  !  Under  these  circumstances,  it  has  occurred 
to  me  that  Virginia  might  interpose  most  efficaciously,  and  add 
another  leaf  to  the  wreath  which  adorns  her  civic  chaplet.  Sup 
pose  the  Legislature  should  appoint  a  committee  of  four  or  live  of 
the  most  eminent  citizens  to  proceed  to  South  Carolina  and  to  en 
treat  her  convention  and  her  Legislature  to  recall  her  late  steps, 
and  at  all  events  to  delay  her  final  action  till  another  trial  is  made 
to  reduce  the  tariff.  Possibly  the  measure  would  J>e  more  cer 
tain,  if  Virginia  should  call  upon  North  Carolina,  Georgia  and 
Alabama  to  appoint  similar  committees  to  meet  hers  at  Columbia, 
and  to  join  in  the  good  work.  In  all  political  fermentations,  time, 
if  not  a  positive  cure,  is  almost  sure  to  lead  to  one.  Suppose  Vir 
ginia,  too,  should  address  Congress  in  one  of  those  forcible 
18 


274:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

appeals  she  so  well  knows  how  to  make,  and  urge  an  immediate 
commencement  as  well  as  a  great  reduction  of  the  tariff,  stating 
all  the  great  considerations  which  require  it,  and  should,  at  the 
same  time,  address  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  as  a  sister  suffer 
ing  under  the  same  system,  and  entreat  her,  out  of  regard  to  Vir 
ginia,  to  the  other  Southern  States,  to  the  integrity  of  the  Union, 
and,  in  fact,  to  the  cause  of  free  government  through  the  world, 
to  delay  her  action,  and  to  try  to  procure  a  modification  of  the 
tariff,  &c. 

"  '  Would  not  the  result  be  favorable  ?  At  any  rate,  is  there 
not  such  a  probability  of  it  as  to  justify  the  attempt?  Events  are 
pressing  so  rapidly  upon  one  another,  that  we  hardly  know  what 
the  next  hour  will  produce  ;  of  course,  no  time  is  to  be  lost.  The 
times  are  portentous ;  and  satisfied  I  am,  that  if  Virginia  does 
not  put  her  shoulder  to  the  wheel,  our  fate  hangs  by  a  thread. 
The  President  will  do  all  that  wisdom,  firmness  and  integrity  can 
effect ;  but  still,  without  zealous  aid  from  real  friends,  even  he 
may  not  be  able  to  carry  us  through  unscathed.' " 

The  letter  above  referred  to  was  written  by  General  Cass,  by 
the  request  of  the  President,  and  addressed  to  Thomas  Ritchie. 
It  speaks  for  itself;  and  scarcely  had  it  been  published,  when  and 
on  the  same  day,  the  committee  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  to 
whom  the  whole  subject  of  the  tariff  had  been  referred,  took  up 
the  mission  suggested,  and  after  various  propositions  had  been 
duly  weighed,  both  in  the  committee  and  in  the  Legislature  — 
after  long  debates  and  various  amendments  had  been  made — the 
whole  matter  terminated  in  a  series  of  resolutions  worthy  of  the 
calm,  considerative,  prudent,  but  firm  character  of  the  Old  Domin 
ion,  and  in  electing  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh  as  a  Commissioner 
to  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 

Mr.  Leigh  accepted  this  delicate  and  responsible  post,  and  went 
forth  on  his  mission  of  peace.  He  was  received  with  distinguished 
honors  by  Governor  Ilayne.  by  General  Hamilton,  and  all  the 
authorities  of  South  Carolina.  The  Legislature  and  the  conven 
tion  were  called  together  to  meet  him.  He  addressed  them  in  the 
spirit  of  peace,  and  appealed  to  them  as  the  sons  of  the  land  of 
Marion  and  Sumpter.  His  voice  was  not  unheeded.  The  positive 
action  of  Virginia  produced  a  deep  impression  upon  the  public 
mind  of  the  South,  and  exercised  a  controlling  influence  in  con 
tributing  to  the  suspension  of  the  ordinance  of  nullification,  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  275 

inducing  South  Carolina  to  pause,  and  in  giving  peace  to  the 
country. 

The  movement  of  the  administration  to  compass  the  interposi 
tion  of  Virginia,  was  a  masterly  stroke  of  policy,  and  dictated  by 
the  purest  patriotism.  The  great  object  in  view  was  effected  with 
out  the  expenditure  of  blood  or  treasure;  and  to  no  one — save  the 
President  —  are  the  people  more  indebted  than  to  the  Secretary 
of  War,  who,  with  pride,  shared  the  manly,  vigorous  and  triumph 
ant  resistance  by  which  the  usurpations  of  South  Carolina  were 
thus  encountered  and  prostrated. 


276  LIFE  ^TD  TIMES 


CIIAPTEE  XVIII. 

General  Cass  calls  the  attention  of  Congress  to  Intemperance  in  the  Army — Richard  M.  Johnson  moves 
formation  of  National  Temperance  Association— State  of  society  in  Washington— General  Cass 
invited  to  deliver  an  Address  in  the  Capitol — Accepts — Extracts  from  the  Address — Entire  interdic 
tion — Genera]  Jackson  lie-inaugurated — General  Cass  offers  to  vacate— General  Jackson  refuses 
permission — The  Alabama  trouble — Letters. 

The  Secretary  of  War  having  brought  to  the  attention  of  Con 
gress,  in  his  annual  report,  the  subject  of  intemperance  in  the 
army,  many  members  of  Congress,  awakened  still  more  to  the 
importance  of  giving  a  good  example  to  their 'countrymen,  pro 
posed  an  assembly  of  public  men  in  Washington,  for  the  PROMOTION 

OF  THE  CAUSE  OF  TEMPERANCE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Upon  the  application  of  Richard  M.  Johnson,  member  of  Con 
gress  from  Kentucky,  the  House  of  Representatives  granted  the 
use  of  the  ball  for  the  purposes  of  the  meeting.  It  was  held  on 
the  evening  of  the  twenty-fourth  of  February,  18*33,  and  was  the 
first  of  the  kind  that  had  ever  been  held  at  the  Federal  Capitol. 

On  motion  of  Felix  Grundy,  United  States  Senator  from  Ten 
nessee,  the  Secretary  of  War  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  invited 
to  introduce  the  proceedings  of  the  evening,  and  to  explain  the 
objects  of  the  assemblage,  and  the  views  and  motives  of  those  who 
had  called  it.  He  did  this  with  less  reluctance  —  even  in  that  hall 
of  legislation  —  because  the  evils  of  intemperance  had  passed,  like 
the  blast  of  the  desert,  over  the  land.  Experience,  during  the 
preceding  year,  had  furnished  a  memorable  lesson  on  this  inter 
esting  subject.  That  desolating  pestilence — the  cholera  —  borne 
on  the  wings  of  the  wind,  had  traversed  the  Old  Continent  from 
the  frontiers  of  China  to  the  western  limits  of  Europe ;  it  had 
passed  the  ocean  which  separates  the  hemispheres,  and  with  it 
had  come  despair  and  death.  But  with  it  also  came  the  triumph 
of  temperance.  For,  though  many  a  sacrifice  was  made  among 
the  virtuous  and  exemplary,  still  the  stroke  had  fallen  chiefly  upon 
those  whose  constitutions  had  been  impaired  by  habitual  indul 
gence,  and  who  wTere  thus  prepared  for  the  disease. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  277 

General  Cass  was  willing  to  give  bis  fellow  citizens  the  benefit 
of  bis  example  and  views  —  having  abstained  all  bis  life  from  the 
use  of  spirituous  liquors.  "Whilst  be  bad  not  been  an  enthusiast 
on  the  topic  of  temperance,  be  bad  quietly  been  abstemious, 
because  it  was,  as  he  thought,  promotive  of  his  health  and  happi 
ness.  But  his  experience  and  observation  satisfied  him  that  much 
suffering  might  be  alleviated,  and  the  evils  of  a  profligate  li.'e 
averted,  and  that,  too,  without  over-stepping  the  bounds  of  deco 
rum,  if  men  —  no  matter  what  their  position  was  —  frankly  ex 
pressed  their  sentiments,  and  favored  associated  effort.  He  thought, 
likewise,  that  a  movement  at  the  Capital  would  be  beneficial.  The 
great  avenues  of  communication  diverged  from  that  seat  of  empire 
to  every  section  of  our  extensive  republic,  and  the  most  salutary 
impression  might,  therefore,  be  there  made  upon  the  public  mind, 
by  efforts  founded  in  benevolence  and  directed  by  wisdom. 

In  Washington,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  scenes  of  dissipation 
were  constantly  occurring,  but  not  the  more  so  than  in  other  great 
capitals.  The  bulk  of  the  people  who  thronged  there  consisted 
of  citizens  and  foreigners  on  pleasure  and  business,  sojourning  for 
a  brief  period,  and  then  hieing  away  to  their  homes.  Frolic  and 
merriment,  of  course,  were  indulged,  but  its  never  ending  contin 
uance  could  not  be  otherwise  than  injurious  to  the  permanent 
residents.  If  so  disposed,  their  example  might  be  beneficial,  in 
checking  its  unlimited  indulgence.  At  any  rate,  many  members 
of  Congress  who  bad  sons  and  daughters,  and  other  relatives  and 
friends,  residing  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  bethought  themselves 
of  its  importance. 

General  Cass,  in  the  performance  of  the  duty  assigned  him, 
stated  that  he  did  not  come  to  the  meeting  to  call  out  and  discuss 
the  general  statistics  of  intemperance. 

"I  have  no  disposition  to  count  the  number  of  ruined  men,  of 
wretched  families,  of  lost  estates,  which  this  prevalent  vice  has 
occasioned  in  our  country.  It  is  an  inquiry  full  of  instruction, 
but  full,  likewise,  of  dismay.  Calculations  have  been  made, 
showing  the  enormous  quantity  of  ardent  spirits  annually  made 
and  consumed,  and  the  waste  of  time  and  money  entailed  upon 
the  community.  It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  the  value  of  quanti 
ties  and  numbers  which  are  far  beyond  our  accustomed  range  of 
observation.  Their  very  immensity  becomes  overpowering.  In 
genious  men  have,  therefore,  presented  this  subject  in  different 


278  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

aspects,  that  we  may  separately  survey  the  members  of  a  group 
which,  collectively,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  our  faculties.  For  the 
result,  I  must  refer  you  to  the  many  statements  and  expositions 
which  have  appeared  in  the  periodical  publications  of  the  day. 
You  will  find  ample  food  for  contemplation  and  regret.  I  can  not, 
however,  but  advert  to  one  fact  which  has  been  stated,  and  which 
will  bring  the  subject  to  a  standard  that  is  familiar  to  us.  The 
excise,  which  is  levied  upon  ardent  spirits  in  England,  furnishes 
the  means  of  ascertaining  the  quantity  that  is  sold.  And,  not 
withstanding  the  consumption,  there  is  far  less,  in  proportion  to 
the  population,  than  here,  yet  it  has  been  estimated  that  the  quan 
tity  of  gin  alone  annually  consumed  in  that  country  would  form 
a  river  three  feet  deep,  fifty  feet  wide,  and  five  miles  long.  Well 
may  such  a  stream  be  called  the  river  of  death !  Death  to  our 
duties  and  hopes,  to  our  health  and  happiness,  to  our  fate  and. 
prospects,  on  this  side  of  the  grave  and  beyond  it. 

"  No  man  can  indulge  in  this  habit  with  impunity.  Begin  as 
he  will,  he  may  go  on  increasing.  What  is  now  enough  to  pro 
duce  the  desired  effect  may  soon  become  insufficient  and  inopera 
tive.  The  quantity  must  be  increased  and  the  intervals  diminished. 
The  necessary  tone  can  be  preserved  only  by  gradual  additions, 
and  then  comes  all  the  train  of  evils  which  marks  decaying  facul 
ties  and  a  ruined  constitution.  All  who  have  eyes  to  see  must 
have  seen  them.  They  need  no  description  here.  Unfortunately, 
they  are  too  common  and  too  disgusting  to  require  or  to  admit 
enumeration  in  such  a  place  as  this.  If,  in  the  whole  crea 
tion  of  God,  there  is  one  subject,  more  than  all  others,  to  be 
pointed  at  by  the  finger  of  scorn,  it  is  he  who  abandons  him 
self,  and  all  he  has  and  expects,  to  this  destructive  propensity. 
The  animals  around  us,  ministering  to  human  comfort ;  every 
being  into  which  the  Creator  has  breathed  the  breath  of  life — all 
fulfill  their  destinies  and  perform  the  parts  allotted  to  them  ;  while 
man,  man  alone,  placed  immeasurably  above  them,  reduces  him 
self  for  below,  renounces  the  high  duties  assigned  to  him,  and 
perishes  miserably,  hopelessly.  Were  the  wreck  thus  cast  upon 
the  strand  of  life,  solitary  and  unconnected,  much  as  we  might 
deplore  the  evil,  there  would  be  less  to  regret  than  at  present.  But 
these  unhappy  men  are  united  to  society  by  all  the  ties  which  bind 
society  together.  They  are  sons,  or  brothers,  or  husbands,  or 
fathers.  With  what  little  remorse  the  duties  of  these  relations 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  279 

are  disregarded,  the  experience  of  every  day  sufficiently  demon 
strates.  The  husband  and  father  seeks,  in  unhallowed  pleasure, 
those  enjoyments  his  own  home  would  furnish.  The  means  which 
should  be  destined  to  the  support  of  his  wife  and  children  are  dis 
sipated.  His  time  is  consumed,  his  usefulness  destroyed,  his 
temper  and  habits  ruined,  and  all  who  depend  upon  him  share  in 
the  calamity. 

"Who  ventures  to  say  there  is  no  cure  for  this  malady  of 
mind  and  body  ?  No  signal  of  safety  which  can  be  lifted  up,  like 
the  brazen  serpent  of  old,  and  whereon  the  afflicted  may  look  and 
be  healed  ?  ~No  power  of  conscience — no  regard  for  the  present 
• — no  dread  of  the  future,  which  can  stay  the  progress  of  this  deso 
lating  calamity  ?  It  is  indeed  a  disorder  which  falls  not  within 
the  province  of  the  physician.  Empyricism  has  prescribed  its 
remedies,  and  various  nostrums  have  been  administered  with  tem 
porary  success,  calculated  to  nauseate  the  patient,  and  thus,  by 
association,  to  create  a  revulsion  of  feeling.  But  little  permanent 
advantage  has  attended  this  process.  As  the  habit  of  intoxication, 
when  once  permanently  engrafted  on  the  constitution,  affects  the 
mind  and  body,  both  becomes  equally  debilitated.  And  restora 
tion  to  health  and  self-possession  can  only  be  expected  from  a 
course  of  treatment  which  shall  appeal  to  all  the  better  feelings  of 
our  nature,  and  which  shall  gradually  lead  the  unhappy  victim  of 
his  passions  to  a  better  life  and  to  better  hopes.  The  pathology 
of  the  disease  is  sufficiently  obvious.  The  difficulty  consists  in 
the  entire  mastery  it  attains,  and  in  that  morbid  craving  for  the 
habitual  excitement,  which  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  overpow 
ering  feelings  that  human  nature  is  destined  to  encounter.  This 
feeling  is  at  once  relieved  by  the  accustomed  stimulant ;  and  when 
the  result  is  not  pleasure  merely,  but  the  immediate  removal  of  an 
incubus  preying  and  pressing  upon  the  heart  and  intellect,  we 
cease  to  wonder  that  men  yield  to  the  palliative  within  their 
reach;  that  they  drink  and  die;  that  often,  in  one  brief  night,  they 
lie  down  in  time  and  awaken  in  eternity. 

"  It  is  now  conceded,  by  the  most  profound  observers  who  have 
made  this  subject  their  study,  that  ardent  spirits  are  never  re 
quired  in  a  state  of  health.  They  are  not  merely  useless,  but  inju 
rious.  Ingenious  physicians,  who  have  watched  their  operation 
upon  the  human  system,  and  with  the  express  purpose  of  ascertain 
ing  whether  their  administration  be  proper  in  cases  of  exhaustion 


280  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

from  cold  or  fatigue,  have  borne  testimony  to  their  utter  ineffi- 
cacy.  Our  eminent  countryman,  Dr.  Rush,  coincides  in  this 
opinion,  and  asserts  that  a  small  quantity  of  food  restores  the  sys 
tem  to  its  usual  vigor,  far  better  than  these  destructive  stimulants, 
after  it  has  been  debilitated  by  exertion  or  suffering.  And  in 
some  of  the  most  terrible  shipwrecks  recorded  in  naval  annals,  it 
has  been  found  that  the  persons  who  refrained  from  the  use  of 
spirits,  were  better  enabled  to  resist  the  calamities  impending 
over  them  than  those  who  sought  strength  and  consolation  in  this 

c!>  o 

indulgence.  Experience  is  as  decisive  on  this  subject  as  it  is  sat 
isfactory.  And  in  the  disastrous  retreat  from  Moscow,  which 
broke  the  scepter  of  Napoleon,  and  wrested  the  nations  of  Europe 
from  his  iron  grasp,  it  is  recorded  by  the  historians  of  the  expe 
dition,  that  the  soldiers  who  were  perfectly  temperate  resisted  the 
elemental  war  around  them  when  the  general  '  pulse  of  life  stood 
still,'  and  when  a  scene  was  presented  which,  in  terrible  sublimity, 
surpasses  all  that  the  wildest  imagination  has  ever  shadowed 
forth,  when  the  spirit  of  the  storm  was  abroad,  and  the  chivalry 
of  Europe  fled  or  fell  before  the  northern  blast. 

"  Too  long  have  those  who  are  yielding  to  this  propensity  de 
luded  themselves  and  others  with  this  pretense  of  the  necessary 
use  of  ardent  spirits.  It  is  time  the  foundations  were  broken  up 
and  the  superstructure  demolished.  What  was  the  state  of  the 
ancient  world  where  the  process  of  distillation  was  unknown? 
The  Arabian  chemists  were  the  first  to  introduce  it,  and  not  all 
the  drugs  of  Arabia  have  been  able  to  counteract  its  pernicious 
influence.  There  is  nothing  which  leads  to  the  belief  that  men 
were  less  able  to  endure  fatigue,  or  that  the  average  duration  of 
human  life  was  shorter.  On  the  contrary,  some  of  the  most  stu 
pendous  monuments  of  human  power  were  erected  in  the  early 
age  of  the  world,  and  have  come  down  to  us  unimpaired,  surviving 
the  memory  of  their  founders  and  the  objects  of  their  construction. 
Extreme  longevity  was  one  of  the  characteristics  of  that  period, 
and  many  of  our  most  fatal  disorders  were  unknown.  A  Roman 
soldier  carried  a  weight  of  sixty  pounds,  besides  his  arms,  and 
usually  marched  twenty  miles  a  day.  Every  night  he  labored  to 
enclose  his  encampment  with  a  parapet  and  ditch.  No  fatigue 
nor  exposure  exempted  an  army  from  this  duty,  enjoined  by  the 
fundamental  principles  of  their  military  service.  Could  an 
American  soldier,  with  his  daily  allowance  of  spirits,  or  I  may 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  281 

rather  say,  his  daily  temptation  to  drink,  do  more  than  this  ? 
Carry  eighty  pounds  upon  his  back,  march  twenty  miles  a  day, 
and  then  fortify  his  encampment !  To  the  Roman  soldier  ardent 
spirits  were  unknown.  To  the  American  they  have  been  the  bane 
of  his  life,  and  their  destructive  effects  may  be  traced  in  every 
platoon  of  our  army.  Away,  then,  with  this  idle  pretense  of 
necessity.  The  necessity  exists  nowhere  but  in  the  apologetic 
answers  of  those  who,  determined  not  to  relinquish  this  darling 
habit,  are  yet  desirous  of  presenting  some  excuse  to  themselves 
and  others  for  its  indulgence.  But  there  is,  fortunately,  one  safe 
and  plain  method,  by  which  all  danger  may  be  avoided,  and 
that  is  by  ENTIRE  INTERDICTION".  Abstinence,  and  abstinence  alone, 
from  ardent  spirits,  will  shield  us  from  their  injurious  conse 
quences.  And  this,  in  fact,  is  the  only  effectual  safeguard  within 
our  power." 

Thus  boldly  did  General  Cass  speak,  over  twenty  years  ago, 
on  the  evils  of  intemperance.  ENTIRE  INTERDICTION  was  what  he 
recommended  to  others,  and  adopted  for  himself.  The  regulations 
•which  he  made,  in  this  particular,  for  the  observance  of  the  army, 
introduced  a  new  era  into  our  military  history. 

On  the  fourth  of  March,  1833,  General  Jackson  was  inaugura 
ted  President  of  the  United  States,  for  his  second  term.  After 
one  of  the  most  malignant  political  contests  in  the  history  of  our 
country,  he  was  triumphantly  sustained  by  a  large  majority  of 
the  people,  and  their  approving  voice  given  to  his  important 
measures.  This  incorruptible  verdict  re-invigorated  him,  and 
his  hosts  of  resolute  and  unflinching  friends,  and  paralyzed  in 
astonishment  his  tireless  foes.  On  the  day  after,  General  Cass 
remarked  to  the  President  that  the  Secretaryship  of  War  was  in 
his  hands.  "  No,"  said  the  old  hero,  "  it  is  not.  I  can  not  do 
without  you."  And  that  department  of  the  government  moved 
on  as  usual. 

In  a  few  months  a  question  similar  in  character  to  that  of  South 
Carolina,  arose  within  the  State  of  Alabama,  which  again  brought 
the  federal  and  State  authorities  to  the  very  point  of  collision.  It 
was  in  consequence  of  trespasses  by  emigrants  on  the  lands  of 
the  United  States,  acquired  from  the  Choctaw,  Chickasaw  and 
Huscogee  or  Creek  Indians.  The  United  States  was  under  obli 
gations,  by  treaty,  to  prevent  intrusion  upon  lands  that  had 
belonged  to  these  Indians  within  the  State  of  Alabama,  until  they 


282     .  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

could  be  removed  to  their  new  homes  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Mississippi.  Emigrants,  nevertheless,  intruded  upon  their  grounds. 
It  was  the  duty  of  the  federal  government  to  drive  them  off,  and 
proceeded  to  do  so.  Alabama  demurred,  and  called  upon  her 
judiciary  to  protect  the  settlers.  The  peaceful  relations  of  that 
State  with  the  United  States  were  thus  menaced.  But  the  energy 
and  prudence  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  throughout  the  whole 
exigency,  happily  averted  all  collision.  His  regard  for  law  and  a 
scrupulous  observance  of  the  rights  of  the  judiciary,  in  the  pros 
ecution  of  this  matter,  is  manifested  in  the  following  letters  writ 
ten  by  him,  and  addressed,  the  first  to  Colonel  Mclntosh,  then  a 
major  in  the  army  of  the  United  States,  and  the  latter  to  F.  B. 
Key,  Esq. 

"DEPARTMENT  OF  WAR,  October  29th,  1833. 

"  Sm  : — Your  letter  of  the  21st  instant,  to  General  Macomb,  has 
been  laid  before  me,  and,  in  answer,  I  have  to  inform  you  that  you 
will  interpose  no  obstacle  to  the  service  of  legal  process  upon  any 
officer  or  soldier  under  your  command,  whether  issuing  from  the 
courts  of  the  State  of  Alabama  or  of  the  United  States.  On  the 
contrary,  you  will  give  all  necessary  facilities  to  the  execution  of 
such  process. 

u  It  is  not  the  intention  of  the  President  that  any  part  of  the 
military  force  of  the  United  States  should  be  brought  into  collision 
with  the  civil  authority.  In  all  questions  of  jurisdiction  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  former  to  submit  to  the  latter,  and  no  considerations 
must  interfere  with  that  duty.  If,  therefore,  an  officer  of  the  State, 
or  of  the  United  States,  come  with  legal  process  against  yourself, 
or  any  officer  or  soldier  of  your  garrison,  you  will  freely  admit  him 
within  your  post,  and  allow  him  to  execute  his  writ  undisturbed. 

(Signed,)  "  LEWIS  CASS." 

[Extract  of  a  Letter  to  F.  B.  Key,  Esq.'} 

"DEPARTMENT  OF  WAR,  October  31st,  1833. 

"  Let  all  legal  process,  whether  from  the  courts  of  the  United 
States  or  from  those  of  the  State  of  Alabama,  be  submitted  to  with 
out  resistance  and  without  hesitation.  The  supremacy  of  the  civil 
over  the  military  authority  is  one  of  the  great  features  of  our  insti 
tutions,  and  one  of  the  bulwarks  of  the  Constitution. 

(Signed,)  "  LEWIS  CASS," 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  283 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Eemoval  of  the  Deposits— Popularity  of  the  Administration— Mr.  Clay's  Resolutions— Their  Effect  on 
General  Jackson's  Mind — The  American  Historical  Society — General  Cass  delivers  an  Oration — 
Extracts — The  Auditory — Their  Feelings  on  the  Occasion. 

The  re-election  of  General  Jackson  decided  the  fate  of  the  United 
States  Bank.  It  was  the  paramount  issue  involved,  and  the  chief 
staple  of  acrimony  at  all  the  polls.  Canvassers  and  orators  spoke 
to  that  question  on  the  hustings  and  in  the  committee  rooms.  The 
decisive  fiat  of  the  unshackled  freemen  of  America  had  gone  forth 
— the  institution  must  die — and  the  herculean  monster  was  now 
writhing  under  this  annihilating  sentence  of  a  court  from  which 
there  could  be  no  appeal.  It  had  been  for  years  the  custodian  of 
the  people's  money,  and  yet  had  it  in  its  coffers.  The  bank  must 
now  give  up  the  money,  and  the  President  ordered  his  financial 
officer  to  make  the  demand.  Mr.  Duane,  at  the  head  of  the  Treas 
ury  Department,  declined  to  do  so,  and  Mr.Taney  was  substituted 
in  his  place.  The  deposits  were  removed,  and  the  government, 
for  the  first  time,  became  its  own  banker. 

The  people  pointed  with  pride  to  the  administration  of  their 
affairs,  under  General  Jackson  and  his  constitutional  advisers. 
Long  pending  negotiations  with  England  were  being  brought  to  a 
successful  termination  ;  the  indemnities  of  the  French  government 
obtained  ;  claims,  hoary  with  age,  against  Denmark,  Sweden,  and 
Naples,  were  adjusted,  and  commercial  treaties,  opening  new  and 
advantageous  sources  of  trade,  were  made  with  many  foreign 
countries.  The  sails  of  our  commercial  marine  whitened  almost 
every  sea,  and  went  on  their  way  unmolested.  In  every  foreign 
court,  in  all  countries,  and  upon  every  ocean,  our  flag  was  respected, 
and  the  administration  steadily  and  successfully  directed  its  efforts 
to  the  promotion  of  public  interests  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
national  faith  and  honor.  In  the  eye  of  the  civilized  world  the 
government  of  the  United  States  stood  upon  the  highest  pinnacle 
of  fame. 

In  all  these  measures,  and  in  all  the  councils  of  the  cabinet, 


284:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

General  Cass  was,  in  fact,  what  the  word  signifies,  the  adviser  of 
the  President.  He  never  missed  his  attendance  at  consultation. 
Of  long  experience,  and  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  rights  and 
duties  of  nations,  and,  above. all,  devoted  in  his  attachment  to  the 
President,  his  views  were  always  listened  to  with  attention.  Re 
spected,  in  all  his  personal  relations,  as  a  man  of  stern  integrity, 
the  President  never  failed  to  give  him  his  ear  in  all  matters  of 
public  concern.  On  many  an  occasion,  during  the  sessions  of  Con 
gress,  when  turbulence  was  at  a  furious  hight,  and  grave  senators 
even  seemed  to  be  willing  to  tear  in  pieces  the  Constitution,  and 
invade,  with  pistol  and  bowie  knife,  the  domicil  of  their  chief 
magistrate,  did  General  Cass  repair  to  the  executive  chamber,  at 
the  urgent  summons  of  its  occupant,  and,  on  more  occasions  than 
one,  at  the  dead  hour  of  midnight,  and  there  talk  and  counsel  for 
hours  what  course  to  pursue  and  what  measures  to  bring  forward 
to  preserve  inviolate  the  sacred  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  keep  the 
ship  of  state  proudly  on  her  course. 

The  President,  in  the  course  of  an  eventful  life,  had  passed 
through  many  a  trying  scene,  and  had  often  been  assailed  with 
pen  and  tongue,  but  the  action  of  the  Senate,  in  placing  upon  its 
immortal  records,  the  famous  resolutions  of  Mr.  Clay,  in  Decem 
ber,  1833,  wras  a  fearful  shock  to  his  strong  nervous  system.  It 
produced  more  than  anger.  This  word  faintly  conveys  the  idea. 
The  universally  acknowledged  patriot  felt  that  his  sacred  love  of 
country,  and  in  which  was  concentrated  all  his  pride,  had  been 
vitally  attacked  ;  and  for  months  this  rough  treatment  was  his 
first  thought  in  the  morning  and  his  last  at  night.  With  this  in 
remembrance,  the  reader  can  better  appreciate  with  what  unal 
loyed  satisfaction,  years  afterwards,  he  greeted  the  intelligence 
that  the  same  august  body,  in  its  calmer  moments,  had  endeavored 
to  repair  the  outrage,  and  blot  the  sacriligious  chronicle  from  the 
memory  of  mankind. 

General  Cass,  as  has  already  been  perceived,  was  a  man  of 
letters,  of  varied  information,  and  an  elegant  writer ;  and  fre 
quently  was  he  called  upon  to  gratify  his  admirers.  It  is  remark 
able  that  he  could  find  time  to  do  so,  amid  the  cares  of  office,  and, 
especially,  during  the  stirring  times  he  resided  in  "Washington. 
It  must  be  attributed  to  his  unwearied  industry,  regularity  of  life, 
and,  as  a  quaint  scholar  says,  u  his  concoction  of  reading  into  judg 
ment."  Honored,  time  and  again,  with  notices  in  this  way  from 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  285 

various  sources,  he  frequently  was  constrained  to  decline.  But, 
whenever  he  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  his  fellow  countrymen,  his 
efforts  were  replete  with  instruction — "with  words  that  burn  and 
thoughts  that  breathe." 

On  the  twelfth  of  October,  1835 — the  anniversary  of  the  discov 
ery  of  America — a  society  was  formed  in  the  metropolis  of  the 
Union,  under  the  title  of  the  American  Historical  Society,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  discover,  procure,  and  preserve  whatever 
related  to  the  natural,  civil,  literary,  and  ecclesiastical  history  of 
America.  The  society  made  a  draft  on  the  Secretary  of  War  to 
deliver  the  introductory  discourse,  and  he  honored  it  on  the  thir 
tieth  of  January  following. 

There  was  a  vast  audience  gathered  in  the  Hall  of  Representa 
tives,  on  Capitol  Hill,  to  hear  him.  The  number  in  attendance 
exceeded  the  accommodations,  and,  for  two  hours,  many  members 
of  Congress  and  foreign  ministers  stood  in  the  aisles  and  listened 
with  rapt  attention. 

He  introduced  himself  to  this  learned  assembly  by  saying  that : 

"In  looking  back  upon  the  history  of  man,  it  was  obvious  that 
different  ages  of  the  world  have  been  distinguished  by  different 
characteristics.  The  progress  of  events  has,  from  time  to  time, 
been  marked  by  some  predominating  trait,  communicating  its 
impress  to  the  moral  circumstances  around  it  ;  and  the  aspect  of 
human  life  is  brighter  or  darker,  as  this  controlling  principle  is 
worthy  or  unworthy  of  the  race  of  beings  placed,  by  the  creation 
of  God,  in  their  present  state  of  accountability,  and  endowed  with 
powers,  whose  extent,  after  an  existence  of  sixty  centuries,  is  un 
known  to  us,  but  whose  use  or  abuse  constitutes  the  advancement 
or  retardation  of  individuals  and  of  societies.  It  is  thus  that  pris 
matic  rays  tinge  with  their  hues,  while  they  illumine  with  their 
light,  the  objects  upon  which  they  are  cast. 

"  In  the  contest  for  this  ascendency  over  the  great  world  of 
mind,  sometimes  the  passions  of  mankind  have  gained  sway  and 
held  it  for  ages  ;  and  wars,  social,  political  and  religious,  have 
spread  desolation  over  the  earth,  and  have  marked  their  progress, 
not  less  by  moral  than  by  physical  evils.  Then  the  intellectual 
powers  have  asserted  their  supremacy  ;  at  one  time,  for  purposes 
merely  speculative,  and  at  another,  for  practical  action.  The  one 
state  is  illustrated  by  that  wonderful  but  puerile  system  of  logom 
achy,  which  so  long  passed  for  philosophy,  and  which  has  come 


286  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

down  to  us  as  a  splendid  monument  of  human  wisdom  and  of 
human  folly;  and  the  other,  by  those  efforts  at  rational  improve 
ment,  whose  full  operation  has  been  reserved  for  our  days.  These 
social  paroxysms,  though  unequal  in  their  intensity  and  duration, 
are  yet  sufficiently  perceptible  in  their  operation,  whenever  we 
look  out  upon  that  ocean  of  the  past,  on  the  brink  of  which  we 
stand,  and  where  we  must  soon  be." 

After  referring  to  the  innumerable  stimulants  to  exertion  in  the 
ages  of  the  past,  he  observes: 

"  Our  own  age  has  been  denominated  the  age  of  movement;  of 
advancement  in  the  intellectual  faculties;  of  improvement  in  all 
those  principles  and  pursuits  which  are  most  essential  to  the  hap 
piness  of  man,  and  most  conducive  to  the  dignity  of  human  nature. 
ONWARD  is  the  great  word  of  our  time.  In  the  story  so  beautifully 
told  by  the  historian  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  seven  youths  of 
Ephesus  laid  down  to  sleep,  and  awoke,  after  the  lapse  of  two 
centuries,  in  the  midst  of  a  changed  world,  but  unchanged  them 
selves.  He  who  should  fall  into  such  a  slumber,  in  this  period  of 
moral  acceleration,  might  arise,  after  a  much  briefer  interval,  and 
walk  abroad  into  a  world  far  more  transformed  than  that  which 
met  the  wondering  view  of  the  Ephesian  sleepers  when  their  trance 
was  broken,  and  they  looked  out  from  their  living  cemetery  upon 
the  fair  face  of  nature. 

"Another  agent  in  this  process  of  advancement,  and  one  with 
which  we  are  here  intimately  connected,  is  the  system  of  associa 
tions,  that  have  been  formed  for  the  cultivation  of  particular 
branches  of  knowledge.  These  co-operative  societies  are  the  in 
vention  of  modern  times ;  and,  in  the  form  in  which  they  now 
exist,  they  came  into  being  at  the  end  of  that  long  night  of  ignor 
ance  and  imbecility,  which  shrouded  the  intellect  of  the  world, 
from  the  decline  of  the  Roman  empire  till  the  revival  of  learning 
in  these  later  ages.  There  were,  indeed,  celebrated  schools  where 
the  principles  of  ancient  knowledge  were  taught;  and  two  of 
these,  the  Academy  and  the  Lyceum  of  Athens,  are  well  known 
to  all  scholars,  from  the  peculiarity  of  their  doctrines,  the  high 
reputation  of  their  masters,  and  the  number  and  celebrity  of  the 
pupils.  But  the  teachers  were  lecturers,  expounding  their  peculiar 
views  to  disciples  and  partial  admirers;  and  their  lectures  were 
didactic  essays,  too  often  intended  to  display  the  pride  of  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  287 

rhetorician,  rather  than  to  advance  the  purposes  of  science,  or  to 
afford  instruction  to  inquirers  after  truth. 

"  In  these  voluntary  associations  the  members  are  animated  with 
a  kindred  spirit,  and  devoted  to  kindred  pursuits;  and  their  or 
ganization  is  admirably  adapted  to  promote  the  objects  of  the 
institutions.  An  esprit  de  corps  is  created,  which  ensures  a  unity 
of  purpose  and  of  action,  while  an  emulation  is  excited,  which 
stimulates  the  exertions  of  individuals.  A  repository  is  thus 
formed  for  the  preservation  of  useful  collections.  The  public 
attention  is  awakened,  and  its  favor  lightens  the  toils  and  aids  the 
researches  of  the  members.  It  is  in  the  practical  sciences,  in  his 
tory,  and  in  the  fine  arts,  that  these  combinations  have  been  most 
usual  and  most  useful.  Our  own  country  has  given  her  full  share 
to  the  general  stock  of  these  contributions,  and  we  have  this  night 
assembled  to  add  another  to  the  number." 

He  spoke  of  the  duty  of  the  historian: 

"History,  indeed,  when  justly  estimated,  is  not  a  mere  record 
of  facts.  These,  certainly,  are  essential  to  its  truth,  which  is  the 
first  and  greatest  virtue  of  an  historian.  But  he  must  have  a 
higher  and  nobler  aim,  if  he  seek  to  interest  or  instruct  mankind. 
He  must  trace  the  motives  and  causes  of  actions  to  their  results. 
He  must  delineate  the  characters  of  those  master-spirits,  whose 
deeds  he  portrays,  and  hang  them  upon  the  outer  wall,  as  specta 
cles  for  admiration  or  reprobation.  '  !N"or  am  I  less  persuaded,' 
said  the  patriot  first  called  to  administer  the  present  Constitution; 
;  nor  am  I  less  persuaded  that  you  will  agree  with  me  in  opinion, 
that  there  is  nothing  which  can  better  deserve  your  patronage 
than  the  promotion  of  science  and  literature.' 

" '  Knowledge  is,  in  every  country,  the  surest  basis  of  public 
happiness.  In  one,  in  which  the  measures  of  government  receive 
their  impressions  so  immediately  from  the  sense  of  the  community 
as  in  ours,  it  is  proportionably  essential.'  Wonderful  man !  Time 
is  the  great  leveler  of  human  pretensions.  The  judgment,  which 
he  pronounces  upon  men  and  their  actions,  is  as  just  as  it  is  irre 
versible.  How  few  of  the  countless  throng,  who,  in  the  brief  day 
of  their  pride,  looked  down  upon  their  fellow-men,  or  were  looked 
up  to  by  them,  now  live  in  the  memory  of  mankind  !  And  as  we 
recede  from  the  periods  in  which  they  lived  and  flourished,  their 
fame  becomes  dimmer  and  dimmer,  till  it  is  extinguished  in  dark- 

£3 

ness.     The  world  has  orown  wiser  in  its  estimate  of  human  worth. 


288  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  the  fame  of  common  heroes  has  become  cheaper  and  cheaper. 
But  we  have  one  name,  that  can  never  die.  One  star,  which  no 
night  of  moral  darkness  can  extinguish.  It  will  shine  on,  brighter 
and  brighter,  till  it  is  lost  in  the  effulgence  of  that  day,  foretold  in 
prophecy,  and  invoked  in  poetry, 

'  When  Heaven  its  sparkling  portals  shall  display, 
And  break  upon  us  in  the  flood  of  day; 
No  more  the  rising  sun  shall  gild  the  morn, 
Nor  evening  Cynthia  fill  her  silver  horn  ; 
But  lost,  dissolved  in  thy  superior  rays, 
One  tide  of  glory,  one  unclouded  blaze 
O'erflow  thy  courts  ;  the  light  himself  shall  shine 
Revealed,  and  God's  eternal  day  be  thine.' 

"  Happen  what  may  to  our  country,  this  treasure  can  never  be 
reft  from  her.  Her  cities  may  become  like  Tadmor,  her  fields  like 
the  Campagna,  her  ports  like  Tyre,  and  her  hills  like  Gilboa,  but, 
in  all  the  wreck  of  her  hopes,  she  may  still  proudly  boast  that  she 
has  given  one  man  to  the  world,  who  devoted  his  best  days  to  the 
service  of  his  countrymen,  without  any  other  reward  than  their 
love  and  his  own  self-approbation  ;  who  gladly  laid  down  his 
arms,  when  peace  was  obtained;  who  gladly  relinquished  supreme 
authority,  when  the  influence  of  his  character  was  no  longer  want 
ed  to  consolidate  the  infant  institutions  of  the  Republic;  and  wrho 
died,  ripe  in  years  and  in  glory,  mourned  as  few  have  been  mourn 
ed  before  him,  and  revered  as  few  will  be  revered  after  him. 
Here,  in  this  hall,  whose  foundations  were  laid  by  his  own  hand; 
here,  under  this  dome,  which  looks  out  upon  the  place  of  his 
sepulchre;  here,  in  this  city,  named  from  his  name,  and  selected 
for  its  high  object  by  his  choice,  let  us  hope  that  his  precepts  will 
be  heard,  and  his  example  heeded  through  all  succeeding  ages. 
And  when  these  walls  shall  be  time  worn  and  time  honored,  and 
the  American  youth  shall  come  up,  as  they  will  come  up,  to  this 
temple  of  liberty,  to  meditate  upon  the  past,  and  to  contemplate 
the  future,  may  they  here  find  lessons  and  examples  of  wisdom 
and  patriotism  to  study  and  to  emulate.  And  when  the  votary  of 
freedom  shall  make  his  pilgrimage  to  the  tornb  of  Mount  Yernon, 
and  lay  his  hand  upon  the  lowly  cemetery,  let  him  recall  the 
virtues  and  bless  the  memory  of  WASHINGTON. 

"  When  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  is  recommended  to  the  con 
sideration  of  the  government  by  this  authority,  I  may  well  be 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  289 

spared  all  effort  to  illustrate  its  importance.  But  its  effects  I  may 
briefly  advert  to,  in  one  splendid  example  of  literary  distinction, 
which  exhibits  the  triumph  of  intellect  during  the  long  period  of 
twenty  centuries.  The  little  territory  of  Attica,  containing  about 
thirty  miles  square,  and  half  a  million  of  inhabitants,  furnishes  a 
pregnant  lesson  for  the  world.  There  literature  flourished,  free 
dom  prevailed,  the  arts  and  sciences  were  cultivated,  and  genius 
was  honored  and  rewarded.  She  sent  out  her  armies  and  navies, 
wherever  her  interest  or  honor  required.  She  repelled  the  Persian 
hordes  from  her  land  ;  she  gallantly  maintained  her  independence 
for  a  long  series  of  years,  and  she  became  the  school  of  antiquity, 
imparting  to  all  other  countries  the  treasures  of  her  knowledge. 
How  proud  a  monument  she  now  is,  even  in  her  desolation ! 
From  the  Ganges  to  the  Saint  Lawrence,  where  is  the  man  of  in 
telligence  wrho  does  not  look  upon  her  fallen  fortunes  with  sorrow  ; 
and  upon  her  future  fate  with  solicitude  ?  The  Turk  has  ruled  in 
the  habitation  of  Pericles  ;  and  the  horse-tail  has  waved  where 
the  aegis  was  displayed.  But  the  Parthenon  still  stands,  though  in 
ruins,  yet  in  glory  ;  a  fit  emblem  of  the  country  it  adorned  in  its 
pride,  and  now  hallows  in  its  decay.  And  whence  this  triumph  of 
the  feeble  over  the  strong  ?  How  happens  it,  that  this  small  spot 
is,  and  has  been,  the  revered  one  of  the  earth  ?  The  school-boy, 
upon  the  Missouri,  talks  of  the  Illissus.  The  ardent  youth,  who, 
at  Bunker  Hill  and  New  Orleans,  gazes  with  intense  interest  upon 
those  fields  of  blood  and  renown,  has  room  also  in  his  heart  for 
the  stories  of  Marathon  and  Salamis.  The  lover  of  the  fiue  arts, 
who  surveys  the  works  of  the  chisel,  which  already  in  our  country 
have  almost  fashioned  the  marble  into  life,  still  thinks  of  Praxiteles, 
and  concurs  in  the  universal  opinion  of  artists,  that  the  Venus  de 
Medicis  is  yet  the  model  of  statuary  beauty.  And  the  patriotic 
citizen,  while  he  blesses  God  that  he  was  born  in  the  country  of 
Warren,  and  Hancock,  and  Franklin,  and  Jefferson,  casts  a  look 
of  reverence  upon  the  land  of  Socrates,  and  Plato,  and  Aristides. 

"  All  this  is  the  triumph  of  intellect ;  the  monument  and  the 
reward  of  public  spirit  and  intelligence,  and  the  evidence  of  pri 
vate  devotion  to  all  those  pursuits  which  give  to  mind  its  ascend 
ency  over  matter. 

"  The  true  province  of  the  historian  is  now  better  understood 
than  formerly.     Time  has  been,  and  not  long  since,  when  all  nar 
ratives  were  considered  as  entitled  to  almost  equal  credit ;  when 
19 


290  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  habit  of  severe  investigation  was  no  part  of  the  qualification 
of  the  historian  ;  and  more  especially  in  the  annals  of  antiquity 
which  have  come  down  to  us.  In  this  spirit  Eollin  compiled  his 
voluminous  work,  and  he  gravely  relates  incidents  as  he  found 
them,  without  any  discrimination  between  the  degree  of  credit  due 
to  an  eye-witness,  who  records  events  as  we  might  expect  to  find 
them,  and  to  the  relater  of  incredible  traditions,  worthy  of  perusal 
as  evidences  of  human  credulity.  Herodotus  himself,  whose  his 
tory  was  composed  for  the  purpose  of  being  recited,  not  read,  and 
whose  dramatic  manner  and  imaginative  mind  prove  the  early  age 
in  which  he  wrote — Herodotus,  who  recorded  the  early  fables  of 
his  country,  and  the  strange  tales  he  had  heard  in  other  lands  ; 
who  believed  the  occurrence  of  all  the  events  repeated  through  a 
succession  of  ages,  from  sire  to  son,  and  who  recited  his  work  to  a 
believing  people — this  father  of  the  art  furnished,  for  centuries, 
not  the  outline  only,  but  all  the  details  of  early  profane  history  ; 
and  kindred  authors,  who  wrote  later,  but  still  with  the  same 
credulity,  were  received  as  unerring  guides  in  exploring  the  mazes 
of  human  actions,  in  distant  regions  and  ages.  The  charm  of 
style,  the  splendor  of  eloquence,  the  grace  of  rhetoric  abound  in 
these  compositions,  and  they  are  inestimable  as  pictures  of  early 
manners,  and  as  vehicles  of  early  opinions  ;  but  no  scholar  would 
now  trust  these  narratives  without  proper  scrutiny,  whenever  the 
incidents  are  improbable  in  themselves,  or  whenever  there  is  rea 
son  to  believe  the  proper  sources  of  information  were  not  within 
the  reach  of  the  writers.  The  philosophy  of  history  requires  labo 
rious  investigation  and  deliberate  decision. 

"  In  all  researches  into  the  history  of  this  continent,  we  have  one 
advantage  over  every  other  people.  Our  origin  and  progress  are 
within  the  reach  of  authentic  history  ;  we  have  no  fabulous  nor 
doubtful  eras  to  perplex  investigation  and  to  provoke  discussion. 
"We  have,  indeed,  one  remnant  of  antiquity,  one  surviving  memo 
rial  of  a  former  and  unknown  state  of  things — one  race  of  men, 
whose  origin  is  as  doubtful  as  their  fate.  Their  past  and  future 
are  equally  closed  to  us,  and  it  were  vain  to  attempt  to  penetrate 
the  one  or  the  other.  They  were  here  when  Christian  banners 
were  first  displayed. 

"  There  are  six  periods  in  the  history  of  the  United  States,  sepa 
rated  by  epochs,  which  resemble  the  elevations  in  the  journey  of 
a  traveler,  that  enable  him  to  stop  and  contemplate  the  country 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  291 

he  lias  passed.  These  periods  are  different  in  interest  and  dura 
tion  ;  but  each  is  marked  by  an  historical  unity,  necessary  to  bind 
together  detached  portions  of  any  great  course  of  events.  It  is  by 
this  distribution  into  groups  that  the  human  mind  finds  itself  able 
to  grasp  the  vast  variety  of  incidents  which  make  up  the  annals 
of  a  country.  These  divisions  may  be  denominated  the  period  of 
the  discovery,  extending  from  the  time  this  part  of  the  continent 
became  known  to  Europeans,  to  their  first  permanent  establish 
ment;  of  settlement,  including  the  long  interval  between  this 
establishment  and  the  conquest  of  Canada  ;  of  civil  dissension, 
commencing  immediately  thereafter,  and  terminating  in  open  re 
sistance  ;  of  revolution,  including  the  war  of  independence  ;  of 
the  confederation,  reaching  from  the  conclusion  of  peace  to  the 
adoption  of  the  present  government ;  and  of  the  Constitution, 
extending  to  our  own  times.  These  designations  have  no  claim 
to  actual  precision.  They  indicate  only  the  leading  features  of 
each  period,  those  which  gave  to  it  its  peculiar  characteristics." 
Passing  the  reader  on  to  the  period  of  settlement,  he  says : 
"The  period  of  settlement  embraces  an  interval  of  about  a  cen 
tury  and  a  half.  And  while  its  progress  was  marked  by  extraor 
dinary  vicissitudes,  it  was  still  advancing  with  a  celerity  before 
unknown  in  the  march  of  society.  Never  was  the  prophetic 
declaration,  that  a  little  one  should  become  a  thousand,  and  a 
small  one  a  strong  nation,  more  wonderfully  fulfilled  than  in  the 
planting  and  rearing  of  these  colonies.  A  few  hardy  adventurers 
seated  themselves  upon  the  shores  of  the  ocean,  in  a  distant  and 
unexplored  region.  An  interminable  forest  was  around  them,  and 
a  fierce  and  treacherous  foe  occupied  its  recesses.  In  the  provi 
dence  of  God  they  were  sent  out  to  suffer  in  their  day,  but  to 
become  glorious  in  their  generation.  And  well  did  they  fulfill 
their  destiny.  We  are  now  a  community  of  fifteen  millions  of 
people,  and  yet  I  have  often  conversed  with  a  venerable  relative 
who  was  a  cotemporary  of  the  first  child  born  to  the  pilgrims,  after 
they  landed  upon  this  continent.  What  an  almost  overpowering 
image  does  this  simple  fact  present  of  the  progression  of  this  fed 
erated  empire  !  And  where  is  the  forest,  wrhich  then  shut  in  the 
adventurers  upon  the  brink  of  the  sea?  And  where  are  the  noma 
dic  tribes,  the  untamable  warriors,  who  stood  up  in  their  path, 
and  said,  '  You  shall  go  no  further!'  Let  our  fields  and  villages, 
our  towns  and  cities — let  our  cheering  prospects,  the  evidence  and 


292  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  effect  of  human  industry  and  enterprise — let  the  peace,  and 
plenty,  and  prosperity  of  a  happy  land,  covered  with  a  busy  pop 
ulation,  enjoying  the  blessings  of  equal  government,  of  a  benign 
religion,  and  of  intellectual  improvement — let  all  these  explain 
how  the  forests  have  been  brought  low,  and  how  the  great  circle 
of  cultivation  has  spread  itself,  even  to  the  vast  lakes  of  the  Xorth, 
and  to  the  trans-Mississippi  regions.  And  let  the  feeble  remnant 
of  the  primitive  race  pronounce  their  father's  fate,  and  their  doom. 
"  The  character  of  our  ancestors  took  its  impress  from  the  stormy 
events  which,  surrounded  them  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  They 
were  nurtured  in  hardships  and  exposures  ;  their  manhood  was 
devoted  to  the  fields  of  labor  and  of  battle  ;  and  their  old  age, 
when  they  lived  to  attain  it,  was  too  often  interrupted  by  the 
Indian  war  whoop,  that  signal  of  death,  which,  once  heard,  is  never 
forgotten.  This  school  of  exertion  and  exposure,  during  six  gene 
rations,  produced  those  distinctive  traits  of  character  which  be 
longed  to  our  fathers.  The  Indians  are  suspicious,  neither  seeking 
nor  yielding  confidence  with  facility,  incapable  of  abstract  specu 
lations,  or  aiding  the  incredulous,  and  too  often  insensible  to  the 
obligations  of  veracity.  The  difficulty  of  penetrating  the  recesses 
of  such  a  people  is  obvious,  increased  as  these  are  by  the  incom- 
petency  of  the  usual  medium  of  communication.  Under  such 
untoward  circumstances,  what  has  already  been  done,  instead  of 
discouraging,  should  stimulate  us.  Our  military  posts  furnish 
excellent  places  of  observation,  where  the  best  materials  for  Indian 
history  can  be  collected  ;  and  the  graduates  of  the  Military  Acad 
emy,  who  are  sent  there,  could  not  devote  their  leisure  to  a  pursuit 
more  interesting  in  itself,  nor  richer  in  the  rewards  it  offers. 
Their  education  gives  them  the  proper  qualifications,  and  the 
whole  philosophy  of  the  Indian  condition  is  open  to  their  investi 
gation.  A  proper  series  of  inquiries,  prepared  with  a  view  to  a 
common  operation,  and  transmitted  to  these  aboriginal  observa 
tories,  would  furnish  a  most  interesting  subject  of  inquiry  ;  and, 
if  prosecuted  with  zeal,  would  lead  to  the  collection  of  a  mass  of 
materials  far  more  valuable  than  has  heretofore  been  procured. 
The  traditionary  legends  of  the  Indians  are  passing  away.  All 
that  is  not  arrested  within  a  few  years  will  be  beyond  the  reach 
of  recovery.  Although  their  tales  of  former  ages  can  not  be  viewed 
as  authentic  materials  for  history,  yet  they  may  dimly  shadow  out 
events  which  have  left  no  other  memorials ;  and  they  are  valuable 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  293 

as  the  monuments  of  a  rude  people,  illustrating  their  peculiar 
opinions." 

He  spoke,  in  the  voice  of  eloquence,  of  the  comparative  exertions 
of  many  of  the  nations  in  the  fields  of  literature,  arts,  and  arms. 
He  contrasted,  in  vivid  language,  the  motives  of  these  exertions ; 
and  coming  to  our  own  favored  land,  most  happily  remarked  : 

"  Characters  are  sometimes  best  described  by  a  single  sketch 
presenting  that  ruling  passion 

'Where  alone 
The  wild  are  constant  and  the  cunning  known.' 

Such  a  sketch  is  furnished  by  the  debarkation  of  the  Puritans 
upon  the  coast  of  New  England,  and  by  the  descent  of  Cortez  upon 
the  Mexican  shore.  When  the  English  colonists  left  the  old  world, 
their  last  act  was  to  implore  the  Divine  blessing  upon  their  enter 
prise,  and,  when  they  reached  the  new,  their  first  act  was  to  return 
their  thanks  to  that  Providence  which  had  protected  them  in  their 
voyage  across  the  ocean.  Before  they  left  their  vessel,  they  pre 
scribed  and  established  a  form  of  government,  in  which  they  de 
clared  they  had  undertaken  to  plant  the  first  colony  in  the  northern 
parts  of  Virginia,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  for  the  honor  of  their  king  and  country. 

"What  a  contrast  is  presented  between  the  humble  appearance 
and  the  lowly  and  subdued  spirit,  but  firm  purpose  of  these  self- 
expatriated  men,  and  the  Spanish  invasion,  with 

'The  neighing  steed  and  the  shrill  trump, 
The  spirit-stirring  drum,  the  ear-piercing  fife, 
The  royal  banner,  and  all  quality, 
Pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war.' 

The  English  colonists  were  impelled  by  their  high  regard  for  the 
rights  of  conscience;  the  Spanish  conquerors,  by  their  thirst  for 
gold.  The  bible  and  the  magna  charter  were  borne  by  the  one, 
and  the  sword,  the  cross,  and  papal  decrees  by  the  other.  The 
physical  and  moral  results  are  before  the  world,  and  promise  to 
go  down  to  after  ages,  furnishing  one  of  the  most  impressive  les 
sons  in  the  whole  history  of  man," 

And  further  on,  in  passing  this  period  in  review,  he  remarks : 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  white  man  was  always  right, 

and  the  red  man  always  wrong.     I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  the 

ancient  possessor  had  too  often  just  cause  to  complain  that  his 


294  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

inheritance  was  violently  reft  from  him  or  craftily  obtained.  And 
the  tradition,  that  the  first  settlers  upon  a  part  of  the  coast  asked 
for  a  seat  which  could  be  covered  by  a  buffalo  robe,  and  then, 
cutting  this  into  thongs,  took  possession  of  all  the  land  it  would 
encircle,  if  false  in  fact,  was  certainly  true  to  the  feelings  of  the 
Indians. 

"  Ancient  chronicles  have  brought  down  to  us  a  similar  tradi 
tion  respecting  another  barbarous  people,  separated  by  a  wide 
interval  of  time  and  space  from  our  aboriginal  inhabitants.  The 
legend  of  the  flight  of  the  Tyrian  colony  under  Dido,  and  its 
establishment  upon  the  African  coast,  says  that  they  purchased 
of  the  indigenous  people  as  much  land  for  the  site  of  Carthage  as 
could  be  covered  by  a  bull's  hide,  and  then  dividing  this  into 
the  smallest  strips,  claimed  all  embraced  within  it.  Yirgil  has 
recorded  the  purchase,  but  omitted  the  deception,  out  of  tender 
ness,  perhaps,  to  the  memory  of  the  deserted  and  disconsolate 
queen  : 

'  Mercatiqne  solum,  facti  de  nomine  Byrsara, 
Taurino  quantum  possent  circumdare  tergo.' 

But  the  piece  of  land  as  big  as  a  hide  was  the  purchase,  as 
described  both  by  the  eastern  and  the  western  .primitive  possessor. 
However  or  wherever  the  traditions  may  have  originated,  the 
coincidence  of  sentiment  is  interesting,  as  is  the  proneness  of  bar 
barous  people,  while  they  feel  the  superiority  of  civilized  men,  to 
attribute  all  the  difference  whicli  results  from  the  intercourse,  to 
cunning  rather  than  to  wisdom." 

When  he  reaches  that  bright  era  in  American  history  devoted 
to  the  investigation  and  assertion  of  human  rights  : 

"Many  a  fervid  mind  was  at  work  upon  the  foundation  of  soci 
ety.  Many  a  received  dogma  was  swept  away  with  contempt. 
It  is  not  a  little  curious  to  compare  the  advance  of  society  in  some 
of  the  most  important  elements  of  human  knowledge,  at  different 
stages  of  its  existence.  It  will  be  found  that  sometimes  centuries 
roll  away,  while  certain  great  departments  of  science  are  station 
ary,  if  not  retrogressive.  At  other  times  these  are  pushed  forward 
with  wonderful  rapidity,  like  the  spring  that  has  long  been  coiled 
and  is  suddenly  unbent.  Who  can  point  out  a  single  advance  in 
the  most  important  of  mere  human  institutions,  that  of  governing 
society,  during  centuries  of  the  most  enlightened  period  of  antiq 
uity  ?  Wherein  was  the  theology  of  the  Koman  empire  better 


OF  LEWIS  CAS3.  295 

than  the  religious  fables  of  Greece,  or  their  prototypes,  nourished 
under  the  shade  of  the  pyramids  ?  In  the  philosophy  of  the 
intellect,  who  was  ever  made  wiser  by  the  metaphysics  of  Aris 
totle?  And  who  does  not  know  that  his  system  of  dialects  ruled 
the  world  of  mind,  from  his  own  era  down  to  the  very  dawn  of 
our  day? — ruled  it  with  absolute  sway,  affecting  not  only  to  teach 
the  way  to  knowledge,  but  to  contain  within  itself  the  very  cycle 
of  all  that  was  known  or  could  be  known.  Studying  nature  in 
the  closet,  instead  of  walking  abroad  and  surveying  her  works  ; 
not  proceeding  by  induction,  and  deducing  general  laws  from  the 
operations  of  the  world,  but  rashly  advancing  theories,  and  then 
boldly  promulgating  them,  as  the  laws  impressed  by  the  Creator 
upon  universal  matter." 

His  large  and  learned  auditory  was  charmed  with  the  discourse. 
It  displayed  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  social  and  political 
institutions  of  his  country,  and  of  the  world.  It  showed  him  to 
be  a  man  of  thought  as  well  as  of  research,  and  that  his  disposi 
tion  and  inclination  was  to  overlook  the  vices  of  other  ages  and 
nations,  and  retain  only  their  virtues.  The  gentlemen  of  the  His 
torical  Society  felt  themselves  honored  by  the  production,  and 
resolved  to  perpetuate  it  among  their  archives. 


296  LIFE  AND   TIMES 


CHAPTEK  XX. 

The  Florida  War— Its  Origin— Its  Conduct,  whilst  General  Cass  was  Secretary  of  War— An  Examina 
tion  of  Testimony  given  before  a  Military  Court  of  Inquiry,  at  Frederick. 

The  Florida  War — as  it  is  familiarly  called — occurred  during 
the  second  term  of  General  Jackson.  The  events  that  gave  rise 
to  it,  however,  date  farther  back.  In  September,  1823,  a  treaty 
was  made  at  Fort  Moultrie,  South  Carolina,  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Seminoles,  by  which  those  Indians  relinquished 
their  claims  to  large  tracts  of  land  in  Florida,  with  a  reservation 
of  a  small  portion  for  a  residence.  Subsequently,  disputes  arose 
respecting  the  construction  of  this  treaty,  the  Seminoles  insisting 
that  it  gave  them  undisputable  possession  for  twenty  years.  This 
dispute  resulted  in  another  treaty  made  at  Payne's  Landing,  in 
Florida,  by  Colonel  Gadsden,  agent  of  the  United  States,  by  which 
the  Seminoles  stipulated  to  cede  their  reservation,  and  remove 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  A  delegation  of  their  chiefs,  appointed 
by  the  treaty,  was  sent,  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States,  to 
examine  the  country  assigned  them,  and  also  to  ascertain  whether 
the  Creeks,  who  had  already  emigrated,  would  unite  with  them 
as  one  people.  If  the  Seminoles  were  satisfied  on  these  points, 
then  the  treaty  was  imperative.  The  Indian  delegation,  after 
examining,  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  American  commission 
ers,  rendering  absolute  the  treaty  of  Payne's  Landing.  To  this 
transaction  some  of  the  Indian  nation  objected,  and  contended 
that  the  delegation  had  exceeded  their  powers,  and  that  they 
should  have  reported  the  result  of  their  mission  to  them  and  taken 
a  vote  ;  and  unfairness  and  treachery  were  charged.  The  Indi 
ans,  as  the  final  stipulations  in  the  treaty  now  stood,  were  to 
remove  within  three  years,  and  to  commence  emigration  in  1833. 
The  Indian  nation  at  large,  however,  objected  so  strongly,  that 
their  removal  in  that  year  was  not  attempted. 

But  the  policy  of  the  administration  was  fixed,  and  although  a 
short  delay  was  granted,  with  the  view  of  producing  a  more  wil 
ling  disposition  to  remove,  there  was  no  radical  modification  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  297 

the  policy.  Hence,  in  1834,  the  President  appointed  General 
Wiley  Thompson  an  agent  for  superintending  the  removal,  and 
sent  him  to  Florida  to  make  the  necessary  preparations.  Captain 
Russell,  of  the  army,  accompanied  him  as  .disbursing  officer. 
General  Thompson  soon  found,  and  so  reported  to  the  government, 
that  most  of  the  Indians  evinced  an  unwillingness  to  leave  their 
homes,  contending  again,  that  the  treaty  gave  them  twenty  years 
undisturbed  possession,  and  also  alledging  that  though  the  lands 
beyond  the  Mississippi  might  be  good,  the  Indians  there  were 
bad.  On  reporting  this  to  the  Department  of  War,  a  reply  was 
promptly  forwarded  that  they  were  to  be  removed  for  their  own 
benefit,  and  would  not  be  permitted  to  remain  ;  that  the  military 
force  in  the  neighborhood  of  these  Indians  would  be  increased ; 
and  General  Thompson  was  directed  to  inform  them  that  the 
annuity,  under  the  treaty  of  Fort  Moultrie,  would  be  withheld 
until  they  consented  to  emigrate  ;  and  he  was  also  required  to 
communicate  freely  with  Brigadier  General  Clinch,  by  brevet,  of 
the  army,  who  owned  a  plantation  near  the  Indian  reservation. 

The  President,  also,  sent  a  conciliatory  "  talk  "  to  the  chiefs,  who 
assembled  to  hear  it  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  December,  1834. 
They  discussed,  writh  the  government  agent,  their  intended  de 
parture,  seemed  much  gratified  with  the  President's  talk,  and  their 
principal  chief,  Osceola,  or  Powel,  with  others,  parted  apparently 
in  perfect  good  humor.  General  Clinch  wrote  to  the  War  De 
partment,  inquiring  if  it  would  not  be  better  to  let  them  remain 
until  the  next  spring,  provided  they  would  consent  to  remove 
peaceably  on  the  first  of  March.  "  I  believe,"  said  he,  "  the  whole 
nation  will  readily  come  into  the  measure,  and  it  is  impossible  not 
to  feel  a  deep  interest,  and  much  sympathy,  for  this  people."  The 
answer  was,  peremptorily  to  proceed  without  delay  to  their  re 
moval.  The  Indians,  on  the  twenty-second  of  April,  1835,  acknowl 
edged  the  validity  of  the  treaty  of  Payne's  Landing,  and  agreed 
to  carry  it  into  effect. 

In  November,  1834,  upon  the  receipt  of  the  first  intelligence, 
by  the  War  Department,  that  difficulties  might  possibly  occur  with 
the  Seminoles,  General  Clinch  was  directed  to  assume  the  com 
mand  in  Florida,  and  the  necessary  instructions  were  given  him 
for  his  government. 

Some  two  years  afterwards,  a  military  court  of  inquiry  convened 
at  Frederick,  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  in  consequence  of  the 


298  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Florida  war ;  and  in  answer  to  the  main  question  before  that 
court,  "  What  in  your  opinion  prevented  the  subjection  of  the 
Seminole  Indians  in  the  campaign  conducted  by  General  Scott,  in 
Florida,  in  1836?"  General  Clinch,  in  substance,  asserts  that  it 
was  owing  to  the  neglect  of  the  head  of  the  War  Department  in 
not  having  made  more  adequate  preparations  in  1835,  and  early 
in  1836.  In  other  words,  because  there  were  not  troops  enough 
in  Florida  to  prevent  the  Indians  from  commencing  hostilities  ; 
therefore,  the  campaign  to  reduce  them  was  unsuccessful.  A 
strange  answer  to  a  most  sweeping  inquiry. 

The  causes  of  the  Indian  hostilities,  or  the  measures  taken  by 
the  government  to  prevent  them  previously  to  the  assumption  of 
the  command  by  General  Scott,  in  1836,  were  not  subjects  before 
the  court.  They  were  questions  of  public  policy,  properly  cogni 
zable  by  Congress  alone,  and  which  had  more  than  once  engaged 
the  attention  of  that  body.  But  between  them,  and  the  nature  of 
the  military  operations,  there  was  no  just  connection  ;  and  whether 
there  were  in  the  country,  before  the  war,  ten  men  or  ten  thousand, 
was  a  question  having  no  relation  to  the  duties  of  the  court,  or  the 
conduct  of  General  Scott. 

From  the  accounts  given  of  a  dinner  to  General  Clinch,  in 
Florida,  shortly  prior  to  the  assembling  of  this  court,  it  would  seem, 
from  the  address  made  by  him  on  that  occasion,  that  he  enter 
tained  unpleasant  feelings  towards  General  Cass.  He  attributed 
to  the  latter  his  being  suspended  in  command,  and  to  the  Presi 
dent  the  return  of  his  commission,  which  he  had  tendered 
to  the  government.  To  this  it  is  sufficient,  here,  to  say  that  a 
morbid  sensibility,  or  some  other  motive  not  more  worthy  of  tol 
erance,  led  him,  it  would  seem,  to  mistake  his  own  claims  and 
situation,  and  to  become  the  vehicle  of  unjust  imputation. 

Two  reasons  produced  a  change  of  command.  The  occurrences 
in  Florida,  in  the  month  of  December,  1835,  information  of  which 
reached  Washington  in  January,  1836,  led  to  the  conviction,  that 
measures  upon  a  more  enlarged  scale  had  become  necessary  ;  and 
at  the  same  time  reports  were  received,  indicating  that  the  Creeks 
had  manifested  a  determination  to  join  theSeminoles  in  hostilities. 
As  two  series  of  operations,  under  different  officers,  against  ene 
mies  near  enough  to  co-operate,  and  with  the  same  habits,  arid 
feelings,  and  objects,  were  to  be  avoided,  if  practicable,  and  as  the 
amount  of  force  to  be  called  into  service  might  be  such  as  to  justify 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  299 

the  States  furnishing  troops,  in  sending  into  the  field  major  gen 
erals  with  their  requisitions,  it  was  obviously  necessary  to  vest  the 
principal  command  in  an  officer  of  the  highest  rank  in  our  service. 
It  was  very  desirable  to  have  an  officer  of  established  character 
and  experience,  particularly  in  a  duty  involving  such  a  heavy  re 
sponsibility  in  its  expenditures  ;  and  not  to  leave  the  command  to 
fluctuate,  as  general  officers  of  the  militia  might  be  called  into  or 
retire  from  service.  General  Clinch  was  a  brevet  brigadier-gen 
eral,  and  therefore  liable  to  be  superseded  by  a  major-general  of 
the  militia. 

But  there  was  a  still  stronger  reason  for  this  measure.  The 
ambush  of  Major  Dade,  and  his  command,  on  the  twenty-eighth  of 
December,  1835,  the  battle  of  Withlacoochie,  on  the  thirty-first, 
the  massacre  at  Camp  King,  and  the  exposed  condition  of  Florida, 
painfully  excited  the  public  mind,  particularly  in  the  Southern 
States.  Spontaneous  movements  were  made  in  that  quarter  for 
raising  troops,  and  the  patriotism  of  the  country  called  into  ser 
vice  many  corps,  before  the  state  of  affairs  could  be  known  at 
Washington.  There  were  no  telegraphic  wires  for  the  lightning 
to  travel  upon.  The  government  was  required  by  public  opinion, 
as  well  as  by  the  higher  obligation  of  duty,  to  take  the  most  im 
mediate  and  efficient  measures  for  the  suppression  of  hostilities. 
General  Clinch  was  isolated  in  the  heart  of  Florida.  In  fact,  his 
true  position  was  necessarily  unknown,  for  events  were  every  mo 
ment  changing,  and  the  aspect  of  affairs  becoming  worse.  His 
communications  might  at  any  moment  have  been  intercepted, 
himself  remain  ignorant  of  the  measures  of  the  government,  and 
they  of  his  situation  and  designs.  General  Scott  was  in  Washing 
ton.  ISTo  time  would  be  lost  in  giving  him  the  necessary  instruc 
tions,  and  his  route  would  necessarily  lead  him  through  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  whence  most  of  the  force  had  to  be  drawn. 
While  a  dispatch  was  traveling  to  General  Clinch,  General  Scott 
could  be  in  the  Southern  country,  or  joining  his  force  and  plans. 
And  besides,  such  a  dispatch  might  have  failed  or  been  inter 
cepted,  and  then  in  what  condition  would  the  country  have  been  ? 
and  to  what  just  censure  would  the  government  have  been  ex 
posed?  And  even  should  the  necessary  authority  reach  General 
Clinch,  much  time  must  be  lost  in  returning  upon  the  route  with 
his  communications.  He  could  not  leave  his  command  :  affairs 
were  too  critical.  And  it  must  be  obvious,  that  the  arrangements 


300  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

for  such  a  campaign  as  was  contemplated,  could  not  be  made 
without  the  presence  and  personal  co-operation  of  the  officer  des 
tined  to  command.  The  remedy  for  all  this  was  obvious.  And 
was  the  government  to  be  deterred  from  adopting  it,  because  Gen 
eral  Clinch  might  choose  to  consider  it  a  reflection  upon  him? 
There  were  much  higher  considerations  involved  in  this  affair  than 
General  Clinch  seems  to  appreciate.  He  never  had  the  slightest 
reason  to  consider  himself  injured.  A  just  sensitiveness  is  an 
honorable  feeling  in  a  military  man  ;  but  if  carried  too  far,  it  de 
generates  into  mortified  vanity.  All  governments  have  at  all 
times  assumed  and  exercised  the  right  of  changing  their  command 
ing  officers  at  pleasure  ;  and  especially  so  when  the  sphere  of 
operations  is  enlarged.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  change 
of  command  was  not  intended  to  cast,  nor  did  it  cast,  the  slightest 
reflection  upon  General  Clinch. 

As  to  the  selection  of  his  successor,  it  may  safely  be  said,  that 
General  Scott  had  won  his  way  to  this  command  by  high  and  hon 
orable  services  ;  and  with  respect  to  the  return  of  General  Clinch's 
commission,  it  is  only  necessary  here  to  say,  that  General  Cass 
proposed  the  measure  to  the  President,  by  whom  it  was  cordially 
approved,  as  well  as  was  the  assignment  of  General  Scott  to  the 
command. 

It  was  intimated  before  the  court,  that  time  was  lost  by  the  War 
Department  in  putting  General  Scott  in  motion.  The  most  cur 
sory  attention  to  dates,  as  recorded  in  the  Adjutant  General's 
report  of  February  ninth,  1836,  published  by  order  of  Congress, 
will  show  that  the  action  of  the  department  was  not  less  prompt 
upon  that  occasion  than  upon  all  others. 

Unofficial  information  of  General  Clinch's  action  reached  Wash 
ington  on  the  seventeenth  of  January ;  and  on  the  same  day  a 
plan  of  operations  was  devised,  and  the  necessary  instructions 
given  to  General  Eustis  for  its  execution,  to  provide,  as  far  as 
seemed  necessary,  for  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war.  Three 
days  later,  to  wit,  on  the  twentieth,  reports  were  received  that  the 
Creeks  meditated  hostilities  ;  and  it  was,  therefore,  considered 
necessary  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  operations,  and  to  call  General 
Scott  to  the  command  ;  and  this  was  done,  and  detailed  instruc 
tions  prepared  and  delivered  to  General  Scott  on  the  next  day. 
General  Scott,  in  his  defense,  said  :  "  I  do  not  mean  to  intimate, 
Mr.  President,  that  any  time  was  lost  by  the  War  Department  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  301 

putting  me  in  motion,  after  the  news  of  Clinch's  affair  of  Decem 
ber  thirty-one,  which  preceded  at  Washington  the  account  of 
Major  Dade's  melancholy  fate  on  the  twenty-eighth."  In  view  of 
the  facts  as  above  stated,  if  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  allude  to 
the  matter  at  all,  it  would  have  been  more  just,  more  noble,  more 
in  consonance  with  his  own  chivalric  character,  to  have  said 
plainly  and  explicitly,  that  never,  in  his  experience,  were  more 
prompt  or  decisive  measures  taken  than  on  that  occasion — meas 
ures,  whose  discussion  and  consideration  extended  far  into  the 
night,  and  broke  upon  his  rest  as  well  as  that  of  the  Secretary  of 
War. 

Rumors  of  Indian  disturbances  are  matters  of  frequent  occur 
rence.  Sometimes  these  have  been  followed  by  hostilities,  but 
more  frequently  they  have  proved  unfounded.  It  is  obviously 
impracticable  to  keep  a  superior  force  to  the  Indians  upon  any 
point  of  our  extended  and  exposed  frontier  ;  and  were  troops  col 
lected  upon  every  rumor,  the  country  would  be  subjected  to  enor 
mous  expense,  and  the  army  and  militia  to  perpetual  fatigue.  It 
is  the  duty  of  government  to  act  prudently  as  well  as  promptly 
upon  these  occasions  ;  and  while  efficient  measures  are  adopted, 
where  they  appear  necessary,  to  withhold  them  where  they  do  not, 
and  to  preserve  in  these  measures  a  just  proportion  to  the  strength 
of  the  Indians,  and  the  probability  of  their  hostile  designs. 

The  accounts  are  conflicting  as  to  the  exact  amount  of  the  white 
population  in  Florida  in  1835.  It  was  agreed  on  all  hands  that  it 
probably  exceeded  thirty  thousand.  This  is  an  important  fact  to  be 
borne  in  mind  by  the  searcher  after  truth,  because  each  part  of 
our  frontier  must  be  expected  to  supply  a  considerable  proportion 
of  the  force  at  any  time  required  to  repel  sudden  aggression  of  the 
Indians.  No  one  estimated  the  number  of  Seminoles  higher  than 
live  thousand,  and  the  official  records  of  the  War  Department  re 
duced  it  to  three  thousand.  There  was,  then,  near  the  theater  of 
difficulties,  a  permanent  force,  ready  to  aid  the  efforts  of  the  army, 
and  abundantly  sufficient,  agreeably  to  all  preceding  experience, 
to  restrain  or  subdue  the  Indians. 

A  treaty  had  been  formed  with  the  Seminole  Indians,  providing 
for  their  removal  west  of  the  Mississippi;  and  from  the  time  which 
had  elapsed,  and  the  reluctance  manifested  by  the  Indians  to  re 
move,  it  had  become  necessary  to  take  measures  for  carrying  the 
treaty  into  effect.  But  all  the  difficulties  anticipated  with  this 


302  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

tribe,  were  expected  to  result  from  the  contemplated  movement; 
and  no  one  looked  to  hostile  demonstrations  on  the  part  of  the 
Indians  until,  and  unless  they  were  required  to  emigrate.  The 
prevailing  sentiment  in  Florida  was,  that  the  Seminoles  would  not 
make  a  hostile  movement  before  the  arrival  of  the  period  fixed 
for  their  departure.  Governor  Eaton  distinctly  stated,  in  a  letter 
to  the  Secretary  of  War,  that  their  hostilities  were  entirely  unex 
pected  at  that  time  by  the  people  of  Florida;  and  the  Secretary 
of  that  territory  communicated  the  same  information.  The  whole 
correspondence  of  General  Clinch,  until  just  before  the  commence 
ment  of  actual  hostilities,  indicates  the  same  opinion.  The  De 
partment,  therefore,  had  a  right  to  suppose,  as  it  did  suppose,  that 
General  Clinch  had  time  to  collect  all  his  force,  and  to  anticipate 
the  Indians,  should  he  become  satisfied  of  their  hostile  designs. 

It  is  important  for  the  searcher  after  truth  to  know,  also,  the 
amount  of  the  Seminole  population.  Captain  Thurston,  in  his 
testimony  before  the  court,  estimated  them  at  the  high  figure  of 
five  thousand.  Lieutenant  Harris,  a  very  intelligent  officer,  and 
charged  with  the  duty  of  providing  and  distributing  the  articles 
stipulated  by  the  treaty  to  be  given  to  the  Indians,  and  well  ac 
quainted  with  them,  estimated  them  in  a  report  to  the  War  De 
partment,  as  not  exceeding  three  thousand,  including  negroes,  of 
which  sixteen  hundred  were  females.  This  was  the  latest  report 
upon  the  subject,  when  the  war  broke  out,  and  derived  value 
from  the  fact,  that  as  certain  articles  were  to  be  distributed  to  each 
Seminole,  and  as  Lieutenant  Harris  had  this  duty  to  perform,  it 
was  obviously  necessary  for  him  to  use  his  best  exertions  to  ascer 
tain  the  full  number,  in  order  to  avoid  any  complaint  at  the  distri 
bution;  and  it  was  as  obviously  the  policy  of  these  Indians  not  to 
diminish  in  their  repoit  their  actual  number.  General  Thompson, 
the  Indian  Agent,  in  a  letter  to  the  Commissary  General  of  Sub 
sistence,  of  August  twenty-ninth,  1835,  says:  "  I  have  resorted  to 
all  practicable  means  of  information  to  ascertain,  with  a  probable 
approach  to  precision,  the  actual  number  of  the  Seminole  people, 
and  I  am  induced  to  believe  it  very  little  exceeds  three  thousand." 

General  Scott,  in  one  of  his  reports  after  his  campaign,  states 
that  there  had  never  been  five  hundred  warriors  collected  together 
at  one  time,  in  Florida.  The  President  supposed  their  whole 
force  did  not  exceed  five  hundred;  and  previous  circumstances 
had  given  him  very  favorable  opportunities  of  forming  a  correct 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  303 

opinion  upon  this  subject,  and  no  person  expected  the  whole  of 
the  Indian  force  would  be  opposed  to  us.  Because,  a  consider 
able  party  was  desirous  of  emigrating,  and  the  previous  history 
of  our  Indian  wars  had  furnished  example  after  example,  where, 
on  the  occurrence  of  hostilities  with  any  of  the  tribes  within  our 
borders,  a  division  of  the  tribe  has  taken  place,  that  the  seceding 
party  had  uniformly  either  remained  neutral  or  joined  us;  and  in 
the  case  of  the  Seminoles,  even,  a  band  of  about  five  hundred 
left  their  people  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  and  placed 
themselves  within  our  lines. 

In  the  report,  already  alluded  to,  of  the  Adjutant  General,  is 
embodied  a  report  from  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  upon 
this  subject,  in  which  he  states,  that  assuming  the  estimate  of 
Lieutenant  Harris  as  correct,  and  supposing  the  Seminoles  equally 
divided  on  the  question  of  emigration,  there  would  be  seven 
hundred  Seminole  males,  children,  and  adults,  forming  the  hostile 
party.  He  supposes  that  not  more  than  one  half  of  this,  to  wit: 
three  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  were  fit  to  bear  arms;  but  he 
adds,  that  this  hostile  party  may  have  received  accessions  from 
the  other  party,  and  also  from  the  Creeks.  The  current  accounts 
of  that  day  justify  the  belief  that  but  few,  if  any,  of  the  Creeks 
joined  the  Seminoles. 

It  was  under  all  these  circumstances  that  the  Secretary  of  "War 
thought  the  estimate  of  five  hundred  hostile  warriors  sufficiently 
high.  He  was  not  answerable  for  the  accuracy  of  the  informa 
tion.  He  was  only  answerable  for  the  use  which  was  made  of  it. 
It  was  the  only  basis  upon  which  the  government  could  act. 
And  it  may  with  propriety  be  added,  that  the  number  of  Indians 
is  usually  over-rated,  rather  than  under-rated;  and  that  in  almost 
all  actions  we  have  fought  with  them,  subsequent  information  has 
reduced  the  estimate  of  the  numbers  originally  given  upon  vague 
calculation. 

There  were  two  periods  in  the  progress  of  the  Seminole  diffi 
culties  anterior  to  the  commencement  of  actual  hostilities.  One 
between  the  origin  of  these  difficulties,  and  the  pacification,  if  it 
may  so  be  termed,  made  by  General  Clinch,  General  Thompson, 
and  Lieutenant  Harris,  with  these  Indians,  in  April,  1835,  when  a 
mutual,  and  apparently  a  satisfactory  arrangement,  was  made 
with  them,  by  which  they  agreed  to  remove  during  the  succeeding 
winter,  and  the  government  agreed  that  they  might  remain  until 


304  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

then.     The  second  period  intervened  between  this  time  and  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war. 

The  change  of  circumstances  induced  by  this  arrangement  was 
overlooked  by  General  Clinch  in  his  testimony,  because  he  refers, 
in  proof  of  the  charge  he  makes  of  the  negligence  of  the  govern 
ment,  to  his  letter  of  January,  1835,  to  the  Department,  asking 
for  six  additional  companies.  The  state  of  things  existing  when 
he  made  that  application,  and  to  the  time  subsequent  to  the  above 
mentioned  pacification,  was  totally  different;  and  it  is  wrong  to 
refer  to  that  application  as  any  step  in  the  series  of  measures 
having  relation  to  actual  hostilities.  The  force  in  Florida  in  the 
spring  of  1835,  was  found,  by  experience,  to  be  enough.  It  ac 
complished  its  object,  and  led  to  a  mutual  arrangement.  A  person 
looking  at  the  presentation  of  this  letter,  with  the  others  by  Gen 
eral  Clinch,  would  suppose  that  it  constituted  one  of  a  series  of 
demands  made  by  him,  and  rejected  by  the  government.  He 
would  never  dream  that  it  had  a  relation  to  a  state  of  things 
which  was  terminated  peacefully  .and  successfully;  and  after 
which  the  force  under  General  Clinch  was,  for  some  months, 
judged  sufficient  by  him  for  the  protection  of  the  country.  While 
he  supposed  the  Indians  altogether  unfavorable  to  a  removal,  he 
estimated  the  necessary  force  to  control  them  at  twelve  companies; 
but  when  they  had  consented  to  go  voluntarily,  he  considered  a 
less  force  necessary,  as  his  letters  and  proceedings  conclusively 
show. 

What  are  the  facts? 

In  January,  1835,  General  Clinch  asked  for  six  additional 
companies  to  strengthen  his  command,  with  a  view  to  the  re 
moval  of  the  Seminole  Indians  "  in  the  spring,"  say  in  April  or 
May,  of  that  year.  His  demand  was  submitted  to  the  President, 
who  decided  that  four  companies  should  be  sent  to  Florida  from 
Fort  Monroe,  and  that  General  Clinch  should  be  authorized  to 
order  the  company  at  Key  West  to  join  him  whenever  he  might 
think  proper.  Orders  for  these  purposes  were  given  on  the  14th 
of  February,  1835.  When  the  estimated  force  of  the  Indians  is 
taken  into  view,  the  just  desire  of  circumscribing  the  expense  as 
far  as  was  prudent,  and  the  material  fact  that,  by  the  treaty,  only 
about  one  third  of  the  Seminoles  could  be  required  to  remove 
that  "  spring  " — say  short  of  two  hundred  disaffected  warriors — 
the  decision  of  the  President  must  be  thought  a  discreet  one. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  305 

But  there  is  a  still  better  authority,  if  possible,  upon  this  occasion, 
in  justification  of  the  measures  of  the  government.  That  is  the 
authority  of  General  Clinch  himself.  He  asked,  as  the  maximum 
of  force  which  could  be  wanted,  eleven  companies,  or  five  hun 
dred  and  fifty  men.  He  received  nine  companies,  or  four  hundred 
and  fifty  men;  and  he  received,  also,  power  to  order  the  company 
from  Key  West  to  join  him,  which  would  make  ten  companies,  or 
five  hundred  men.  His  requisitions  were  for  companies,  and 
those  requisitions  were  not  neglected. 

Well,  then,  the  force  sent  to  General  Clinch  carried  him  through 
the  spring.  He  made  an  arrangement  with  the  Indians  which 
appeared  to  be  satisfactory  with  them,  and  was  so  with  the  gov 
ernment,  which  quieted  the  frontier  and  induced  the  general 
belief  that  this  troublesome  matter  was  over.  His  force  was  found 
sufficient  because  his  purpose  was  effected. 

But  General  Clinch  himself  evidently  considered  a  less  force 
than  that  he  named  —  and  even  a  less  force  than  that  placed  at 
his  disposal  by  the  government — adequate  to  the  objects  he  had 
to  attain.  He  did  not  call  to  his  aid  the  company  from  Key  West; 
and  it  is  very  important  to  remark,  that  while  General  Clinch 
accused  the  government,  in  his  testimony  before  the  court,  of  neg 
lecting  his  application  for  a  proper  force,  during  that  whole  season 
the  company  at  Key  West  —  placed  under  his  command  the  pre 
ceding  February — almost  in  sight  of  Florida,  and  not  more  than 
one  day's  sail  from  its  shore,  was  left  by  him  upon  that  island, 
and  never  reached  the  sphere  of  his  command  till  the  twenty-first 
of  December.  The  order  authorizing  him  to  call  it  to  his  aid 
must  have  reached  him  the  beginning  of  March. '  During  nine 
months,  then,  deducting  the  few  days  necessary  to  communicate 
his  orders  to  Major  Dade,  and  for  that  officer  to  cross  over  to  the 
main  land  of  Florida,  General  Clinch  considered  his  force  suffi 
cient,  or  he  was  guilty  of  the  neglect  which  he  afterwards  vainly 
charged  to  his  government.  And  what  stronger  proof  can  be 
given  of  the  assertion  already  made,  that  the  hostile  movement 
of  the  Indians  was  unexpected  by  him  who,  of  all  others,  was 
charged  with  watching  and  restraining  them,  than  this  failure  to 
employ  for  that  purpose  all  the  force  placed  at  his  disposal  ?  But 
still  further :  General  Clinch,  in  his  letter  to  the  department  of 
April  first,  1835,  after  stating  his  belief  that  an  arrangement  would 
be  made  which  would  quiet  the  Indians  and  be  satisfactory  to  the 
20 


306  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

government,  says  that,  "should  the  chiefs  come  to  the  conclusion 
to  remove  quietly,  it  would  be  still  necessary  to  keep  the  present 
force  in  Florida."  The  chiefs  did  consent  to  remove  quietly,  and 
the  then  "  present  force  "  was  kept  in  Florida  ;  and  nothing  more 
did  General  Clinch  then  demand.  In  all  this,  where  is  the  neglect 
of  the  head  of  the  War  Department  ? 

So  passed  the  first  period  of  the  Seminole  difficulties.  Thus 
did  matters  remain  until  fall,  without  any  intimation  from  Gene 
ral  Clinch  that  an  additional  force  would  be  necessary.  The  first 
suggestion  of  this  nature  was  made  on  the  twelfth  of  October,  by 
Lieutenant  Harris,  in  a  personal  interview  with  General  Cass,  at 
the  department.  But,  as  General  Clinch  had  not  asked  for  any 
increase,  it  was  not  judged  proper  positively  to  direct  it.  But  he 
was,  nevertheless,  authorized  to  call  for  two  more  companies,  one 
from  Pensacola,  and  one  from  Mobile,  if  he  thought  necessary; 
and  orders  were  issued  to  the  commanding  officers  of  those  com 
panies  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  for  an  immediate  movement. 

On  the  twenty-first  of  October,  a  letter  was  received  from  Gen 
eral  Clinch,  dated  on  the  ninth  of  that  month,  in  which  he  sug 
gested  the  propriety  of  being  authorized  to  call  into  service  one 
hundred  and  fifty  mounted  volunteers,  to  aid  in  the  removal  of  the 
Indians,  and  suppress  any  difficulties  which  might  occur.  "  But," 
says  the  report  of  the  Adjutant  General,  before  referred  to,  "  as  this 
force  was  required  to  aid  in  the  removal,  and  to  prevent  difficulties 
which  were  anticipated,  and  not  to  repel  hostilities  which  had 
commenced,  or  which  were  then  impending,  General  Clinch  was 
informed  in  answer,  on  the  twenty-second  of  October,  that  there 
was  no  appropriation  authorizing  the  measure,  and  that  the  Pres 
ident,  under  existing  circumstances,  did  not  consider  that  the  case 
came  under  the  constitutional  power  to  call  into  service  additional 
force  for  the  defense  of  the  country." 

This  was  the  view  of  President  Jackson  respecting  his  own 
powers.  General  Cass  fully  approved  of  it,  and  so  should  any 
person  who  looks  at  the  facts  as  they  were  then  known  at  the  seat 
of  government,  and  at  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  President. 

"  But  he  was  authorized,"  continues  the  report  of  the  Adjutant 
General,  "  to  order  two  more  companies,  viz:  those  at  Forts  Wood 
and  Pike  to  join,  which,  with  the  two  companies  placed  at  his  dis 
posal  on  the  fifteenth  of  October,  made  four  companies  of  regular 
troops,  in  lieu  of  the  mounted  men.  On  the  thirtieth  of  the  same 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  307 

month,  orders  were  given  by  the  Navy  Department  to  Commo 
dore  Dallas,  to  direct  one  of  the  vessels  of  the  squadron  to  co-op 
erate  with  General  Clinch  in  his  endeavors  to  effect  the  removal 
of  the  Serninoles.  In  a  letter  received  on  the  thirty-first  of  Octo 
ber,  General  Clinch  requested  that  three  companies  of  regular 
troops  might  be  added  to  his  command.  He  was  apprised,  how 
ever,  by  previous  orders,  that  four  had  already  been  placed  at  his 
disposal." 

General  Clinch  complained,  afterwards,  that  these  troops  ought 
to  have  been  sent  from  the  north,  rather  than  from  the  points 
whence  they  were  ordered.  This  was  a  question  for  the  proper 
military  officers  of  the  department  at  Washington  to  decide,  hav 
ing  reference  to  the  wants  of  the  service  and  the  position  of  the 
troops.  The  subject  was  referred  to  them,  and  the  selection  made 
of  the  companies  enumerated.  One  leading  reason  is  obvious. 
There  was  still  ground  to  hope  that  coercive  measures  might  not 
be  necessary.  It  was,  therefore,  thought  better  to  place  these 
additional  troops  under  the  orders  of  General  Clinch,  at  the  near 
est  points  to  Florida,  where  they  could  remain,  if  not  wanted,  or 
whence  he  could  speedily  draw  them  when  necessary,  than  to 
order  them  positively  into  the  country  from  a  great  distance.  As 
to  the  delay  in  their  arrival,  General  Cass  neither  knew  anything 
of  the  cause,  nor  is  he  responsible.  The  fault  or  misfortune  was 
not  in  giving  the  necessary  directions,  but  in  their  execution. 
Most  assuredly,  had  proper  diligence  been  used,  the  companies 
from  Pensacola,  Mobile,  Lake  Ponchartrain — and  they  best,  could 
have  reached  Tampa  Bay  before  the  period  of  their  actual  arrival, 
as  shown  in  the  report  of  the  Adjutant  General,  to  wit :  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  November,  and  the  twelfth,  twenty-fifth,  twenty-eighth 
and  thirty-first  of  December.  And  it  is  perfectly  evident  that 
this  delay  did  not  originate  in  the  want  of  time  ;  for  the  Key 
West  company,  which  might  have  been  called  into  Florida  nine 
months  before,  did  not  reach  there  until  the  twenty-first  of  Decem 
ber,  nearly  a  month  after  the  Pensacola  company,  which  was  only 
placed  at  General  Clinch's  disposal  on  the  fifteenth  of  October. 

The  last  measures  directed  by  the  government  before  the  com 
mencement  of  actual  hostilities,  are  stated  in  the  same  report. 

"In  his  communication  from  St.  Augustine,  dated  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  November,  received  on  the  ninth  of  December,  General 
Clinch  reported  that,  should  he  find  it  necessary  for  the  protection 


308  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  the  frontier  settlements,  lie  would  assume  the  responsibility  of 
calling  out  at  least  one  hundred  mounted  men,  believing  that  the 
measure  would  be  sanctioned  by  the  President  and  the  Secretary 
of  War.  This  approbation  was  communicated  to  him  on  the  same 
day;  and  in  addition  to  it,  a  letter  was  addressed  to  the  Governor 
of  Florida,  requesting  him  to  place  at  the  disposal  of  General 
Clinch  any  militia  force  which  that  officer  might  require.  Of  this 
General  Clinch  was  informed.  He  was  also  informed  that,  at  the 
request  of  General  Hernandez,  orders  would  be  given,  through  the 
Ordnance  Department,  to  issue  five  hundred  muskets,  and  the 
necessary  accoutrements,  to  the  militia." 

Here  terminated  all  the  demands  of  General  Clinch  for  troops, 
prior  to  the  commencement  of  hostilities ;  with  this  exception, 
however,  that  on  the  ninth  of  December,  he  suggested  the  expe 
diency  of  substituting  four  companies  from  the  north  instead  of 
the  four  from  the  south,  as  the  latter  might  not  reach  the  country. 
But  at  the  moment  when  the  letter  was  written,  one  of  these  com 
panies  had  already  been  two  weeks  at  Tampa  Bay,  and  all  of 
them  were  there  before  the  letter  reached  the  War  Department. 
So  that  suggestion  was  evidently  impracticable. 

Now  let  us  slightly  review  this  matter.  We  will  pass  over  the 
first  period,  in  order  not  to  encumber  the  subject,  and  because  an 
arrangement  was  made  which,  for  some  time,  seemed  to  promise 
permanent  tranquillity. 

General  Clinch  had  eight  companies  with  him,  and  one  more 
within  his  reach  ;  and  these,  as  has  been  shown,  he  deemed  suffi 
cient.  His  next  demand  was  for  three  more  companies,  and  this 
was  succeeded  and  met  by  giving  him  four.  lie  asked  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  mounted  men,  but  the  President  did  not  feel 
authorized,  in  the  then  state  of  affairs,  to  call  for  them.  He  then 
subsequently  stated  he  should  ask  the  Governor  of  Florida  for  one 
hundred  men,  if  he  should  find  it  necessary  for  the  protection  of 
the  frontier.  The  President,  believing  that  circumstances  were 
then  sufficiently  menacing  to  justify  this  measure,  gave  his  sanc 
tion  to  it ;  and,  in  addition,  without  any  demand  from  General 
Clinch,  he  placed  the  whole  militia  of  the  Territory,  through  the 
Governor,  at  his  disposal. 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  General  Clinch  had  a  far  greater  force 
under  his  command  than  he  ever  required.  It  is  not  meant  that 
he  had  collected  them  together.  That  was  not  the  duty  of  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  309 

head  of  the  department.  The  measures  adopted  at  Washington 
ought  to  have  given  him  the  full  complement  of  regular  troops 
asked  for ;  in  addition  to  which,  he  embodied  five  hundred  militia, 
and  that  force  was  with  him,  as  stated  by  the  Adjutant  General,  at 
the  battle  of  "Withlacoochie,  on  the  thirty-first  of  December,  1835. 
Why  it  was  not  in  the  engagement,  has  not  been  satisfactorily 
explained.  General  Clinch's  personal  conduct  on  that  day  was 
beyond  all  reproach,  and  never  was  the  honor  of  the  American 
arms  more  nobly  sustained  than  by  the  regular  troops.  But  this 
most  favorable  opportunity  of  terminating  the  war,  by  striking  a 
decisive  blow,  was  lost.  The  combat  was  sustained  by  about  two 
hundred  regular  troops  ;  indeed,  it  is  said,  by  twenty-five  or  thirty 
militia.  And  why  was  not  the  whole  force  in  action?  A  narrow 
stream,  like  the  Withlacoochie,  ought  not  to  have  prevented  Amer 
ican  riflemen  from  crossing  upon  logs — upon  rafts,  by  swimming 
their  horses,  to  take  part  in  the  struggle,  unequally  but  gallantly 
maintained  by  their  countrymen,  within  full  sight ;  more  espe 
cially  as  there  could  be  no  danger  from  the  enemy  in  crossing,  the 
regular  troops  covering  the  banks  of  the  river.  The  regulars 
crossed  early,  and  it  was  some  time  after  they  effected  their  pas 
sage  before  the  action  commenced.  The  enemy  was  repulsed  by 
two  hundred  men.  Who  can  doubt  but  that  there  was  force 
enough,  had  it  been  properly  directed  and  employed,  to  terminate 
the  war  at  once?  If  these  five  hundred  spectators  had  been 
brought  into  action,  and  the  enemy  broken  and  pursued  by  the 
horsemen,  the  victory  might  have  been  as  decisive  as  any  of  those 
gained  under  happier  auspices  in  the  same  section  of  the  Union. 
If  these  troops  were  prevented,  by  insurmountable  obstacles,  from 
participating  in  the  contest,  General  Clinch  owed  to  them  a  full 
development  of  the  circumstances.  If  they  were  prevented  by 
any  less  justifiable  cause,  General  Clinch  owed  to  himself,  to  the 
regular  troops,  to  justice,  and  to  his  country,  a  plain  and  unequiv 
ocal  disclosure  of  the  truth,  bear  where  it  might. 

So  much  for  the  year  1835.  The  charge  of  General  Clinch 
against  the  War  Department  extends  to  the  year  1836 ;  and  he 
continues  his  accusation  of  neglect,  asserting  that  a  competent 
force  and  competent  supplies  were  not  provided  "  early  "  in  that 
year. 

It  will  be  conceded  that  the  eighth  of  January  may  be  fairly 
said  to  be  "  early  "  in  1836.  Well ;  then,  on  the  eighth  of  January, 


310  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

authority  was  given  to  General  Clinch  to  call  for  any  amount 
of  force  he  might  require,  from  the  States  of  South  Carolina,  Geor 
gia,  and  Alabama ;  and  this  measure  was  taken  upon  the  respon 
sibility  of  the  department,  and  without  any  application  from  that 
officer;  and  the  necessary  requests  were  transmitted  to  the  execu 
tives  of  these  States.  And  on  the  tenth  and  thirteenth  of  the  same 
month,  upon  the  suggestion  of  the  War  Department,  orders  were 
given  for  the  employment  of  three  revenue  cutters,  and  for  the 
co-operation  of  Commodore  Dallas'  squadron. 

The  seventeenth  of  January  was  "early"  in  the  year  1836. 
Well ;  then,  upon  the  seventeenth  of  January,  fearing,  from  the 
intelligence,  which  every  day  became  worse,  that  the  communica 
tion  with  General  Clinch  might  be  intercepted,  and  he  thus  pre 
vented  from  executing  the  orders  of  the  government,  General 
Eustis,  then  at  Charleston,  was  directed  to  proceed  to  Florida,  and 
to  take  all  necessary  measures  to  keep  open  the  communication 
with  General  Clinch,  and  to  report  to  him  for  further  instructions. 
General  Eustis  was  directed  to  take  with  him  the  garrisons  at 
Charleston  and  Savannah,  and  such  a  portion  of  the  South  Caro 
lina  militia  as  he  might  deem  necessary  ;  and  the  Governor  of  that 
State  was  requested  to  supply  him  with  that  force. 

It  may  be  said,  again,  that  the  twenty-first  of  January,  1836, 
was  "  early"  in  that  year.  Very  well ;  on  the  previous  day  the 
first  intimation  reached  the  department  of  the  unquiet  disposition 
of  the  Creeks,  and  of  the  probability  of  their  joining  the  Seminoles. 
It  instantly  became  apparent  that  much  more  extensive  operations 
might  become  necessary  than  had  been  contemplated.  It  was 
immediately  determined  to  adapt  the  measures  to  be  taken  to  this 
new  state  of  things,  and  General  Scott,  with  ample  powers,  was, 
on  the  twenty-first,  ordered  to  take  the  command  in  that  quarter, 
and  he  had  unlimited  means  placed  at  his  disposal.  The  measures 
taken  for  the  employment  of  the  proper  force  is  what  the  head  of 
the  department  is  responsible  for,  not  the  execution  of  the  meas 
ures.  When  a  force  is  directed  to  any  point,  the  proper  military 
bureaus  of  the  War  Department  make  arrangements  with  or  with 
out  the  conjunction  of  the  officer  commanding,  for  all  the  materiel 
which  can  be  required ;  and  that  officer  has,  besides,  the  right  to 
make  his  requisitions,  and,  if  necessary,  to  make  the  purchases  for 
everything  he  needs. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  311 

These  are  details  into  which  no  head  of  the  War  Department 
can  have  time  to  enter,  and  it  is  precisely  for  their  execution  that 
the  military  bureaus  are  instituted.  The  Adjutant  General  states, 
in  the  report  before  mentioned  :  "  I  have  not  considered  it  neces 
sary  to  detail,  in  this  report,  the  orders  given  by  the  various  mili 
tary  bureaus  of  the  War  Department,  to  provide  the  necessary 
means,  such  as  transportation,  ordnance,  and  ordnance  stores,  and 
provisions  for  the  operations  in  Florida.  All  the  measures  in 
relation  to  these  subjects,  which  appeared  to  be  necessary,  were 
duly  taken."  It  was,  at  no  time,  alledged  that  the  operations  in 
Florida  were  crippled  for  want  of  supplies. 

The  failure  of  a  campaign  is  an  old  subject  for  crimination  and 
recrimination.  In  all  ages  and  countries  it  has  been  futile  in  dis 
putes  ;  sometimes  confined  to  the  officers  themselves,  and  some 
times  extending  to  the  administration  of  the  government.  To 
bring  these  observations  to  a  close,  let  it  suffice  to  say  that  the 
Secretary  of  War  differed  from  the  commanding  officer  in  relation 
to  the  policy  to  be  adopted  in  carrying  out  the  treaty  of  Payne's 
Landino-.  When  it  was  intimated  that  some  of  the  Seminoles 

O 

distrusted  the  good  faith  of  their  chiefs,  after  their  return  from 
their  tour  of  observation  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  began  to 
give  signs  of  discontent,  General  Cass  was  for  urging  the  removal 
at  once.  He  would  have  the  emigration  commence  in  the  spring 
of  1835,  instead  of  waiting  until  the  fall  or  winter  following.  He 
had  had  too  much  experience  with  the  Indians,  and  knew  their 
character  too  well,  not  to  be  at  least  suspicious  that,  when  fall 
came,  another  postponement  would  be  asked  for,  and  procrastina 
tion  would  become  the  studied  policy  of  the  Seminole  nation  at 
large.  By  the  adoption  of  vigorous  measures  of  removal,  the 
Indians  would  be  prevented  from  making  much,  if  any,  hostile 
demonstration ;  and  as  to  the  humanity  of  the  measure,  if  it  was 
in  consonance  with  right  to  insist  upon  removal  taking  place  in 
1836,  so  it  was  in  1835.  Probably,  if  this  policy  had  obtained, 
much  blood  and  treasure  would  have  been  saved,  and  many  valu 
able  lives  spared  to  the  country.  As  it  was,  after  actual  hostilities 
broke  out,  all  that  he  could  do  was  to  exert  all  the  power  which 
the  government  possessed  in  bringing  the  wrar  to  a  triumphant 
termination.  This  was  done,  and  General  Scott  took  the  command, 
with  carte  "blanche  as  to  men,  means,  and  plans.  His  measures 


312  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

were  left  to  his  own  discretion,  and  he  was  authorized  to  call  from 
the  neighboring  States  such  force  as  he  might  judge  adequate  to 
the  attainment  of  the  objects  committed  to  him  ;  and  the  various 
military  departments  were  directed  to  provide  and  furnish  all  the 
supplies  demanded.  It  follows,  of  course,  that  the  government  was 
not  responsible  for  results.  They  did  what  every  wise  government 
should  do  in  such  a  juncture.  They  sanctioned  the  full  employ 
ment  of  all  the  means  judged  necessary  by  those  upon  whom  was 
to  devolve  the  conduct  of  the  war.  The  main  reliance,  after  all, 
as  in  most  other  wars  in  which  our  country  has  been  engaged,  was 
necessarily  upon  the  militia.  The  small  amount  of  our  regular 
army,  its  dispersed  condition,  and  the  numerous  points  it  is  called 
upon  to  maintain,  rendered  it  impracticable  to  carry  on  operations 
by  its  means  alone,  and,  added  to  these  considerations,  there  were, 
during  a  part  of  the  Seminole  campaign,  strong  reasons  which  all 
will  appreciate,  having  reference  to  our  foreign  relations,  which 
rendered  it  inexpedient  to  withdraw  all  the  troops  from  the  Atlan 
tic  and  south-western  frontiers. 

There  was  not  a  report  received  of  the  operations  in  Florida, 
from  the  first  apprehension  of  difficulties,  which  was  not  sub 
mitted  to  the  President,  nor  any  measure  of  importance  taken? 
which  was  not  first  approved  by  him.  No  confidence  is  violated 
by  making  this  announcement.  And  it  is  well  known,  that  from 
the  practice  and  organization  of  our  government,  the  heads  of  the 
departments  are  in  daily  communication  with  the  President,  and 
that  all  questions  of  much  interest  are  discussed  with  him  ;  and  to 
those  who  know  the  habits  of  rigid  scrutiny  which  General  Jack 
son  carried  with  him  into  public  life,  it  is  not  necessary  to  say, 
that  no  question  could  be  presented  to  him  which  he  did  not  care 
fully  consider.  In  the  examination  of  papers,  he  was  remarkable 
for  the  most  patient  attention,  and  it  is  not  invidious  to  say,  that 
no  man  brought  to  every  subject  quicker  powers  of  perception,  nor 
a  more  intuitive  sagacity.  This  authority  is  not  resorted  to  for  the 
purpose  of  shielding  General  Cass  from  responsibility  under  the 
constitutional  prerogative  of  the  President.  The  Secretary  was 
ready  at  all  times  to  acknowledge  and  feel  his  own  responsibility 
to  the  fullest  extent,  and  is  always  prepared  to  meet  it.  The 
measures  directed  by  him  became  his  measures,  whether  approved 
by  the  President  or  not :  but  the  opinion  of  Andrew  Jackson,  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  313 

Secretary  was  not  indifferent  to  ;  and  his  views  concerning  the 
operations  in  Florida  possessed  peculiar  value,  because  of  his  in 
timate  knowledge  of  the  country,  and  of  those  Indians  who  inhab 
ited  that  region,  acquired  during  years  of  service  there  in  a  military 
and  civil  capacity,  and  of  those  personal  claims  to  consideration 
which  will  be  as  undying  as  the  history  of  our  country, 


314  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTEK  XXL 

Battle  of  New  Orleans— Intimacy  between  General  Jackson  and  General  Cass — The  Latter  at  the  re 
quest  of  the  Former  prepares  an  Authentic  Account  of  the  Battle — Appears  in  the  American 
Quarterly — Defenses  of  the  Country — General  Cass'  Report  on  the  Subject. 

In  the  December  number  of  the  American  Quarterly,  published 
at  Philadelphia,  appeared  an  article  upon  a  book  published  in 
London,  in  1834,  entitled  "A  Narrative  of  Events  in  the  South  of 
France,  and  of  the  Attack  on  New  Orleans  in  1814  and  1815,  by 
Captain  John  Henry  Cook,  late  of  the  forty-third  Regiment  of 
Infantry."  It  was  a  work  not  without  interest.  The  author  re 
lated  occurrences  which  passed  before  his  eyes,  during  a  period 
of  active  military  service  in  Europe  and  America.  Many  of  his 
descriptions  were  spirited  and  racy  ;  and  he  exhibited  a  commend 
able  effort  at  impartiality,  and  a  spirit  of  free  investigation.  In 
his  sketches  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  he  was,  however,  im 
perfect  ;  and  so  many  accounts  of  that  important  transaction  had 
from  time  to  time  appeared — differing  from  each  other — that  Gen 
eral  Jackson  felt  a  desire  that  an  authentic  account  should  be 
given,  not  only  of  the  actual  events  of  the  eighth  of  January,  but 
of  the  fortnight  previous,  and  of  the  condition  of  that  part  of  the 
country — of  the  true  state  of  his  command,  and  of  the  difficulties 
with  which  he  had  to  contend.  He  asked  his  old  friend,  General 
Cass,  to  draw  up  the  paper,  and  hence  the  appearance  of  the  arti 
cle  alluded  to.  It  was  prepared  with  much  care,  and  under  the 
eye  of  General  Jackson.  It  covered,  in  a  condensed  form,  but  yet 
at  sufficient  length  to  go  into  detail,  the  history  of  the  attack  and 
defense  of  New  Orleans,  and  of  the  glorious  triumph  of  the  Amer 
ican  arms,  and  the  rout  of  the  British.  The  style  and  language, 
as  is  usual  with  all  the  literary  productions  of  its  author,  were  in 
viting,  and  gave  the  President  great  satisfaction. 

"On  the  night  of  the  seventh  of  January,"  says  this  article, 
"  the  American  lines  were  manned  by  the  troops,  who  were  aware, 
from  the  incidents  around  them,  that  the  enemy  was  preparing  for 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  315 

the  attack.  The,  British  had  collected  about  forty  boats,  some  of 
them  armed  with  cannon,  which  were  yet  lying  in  the  canal,  ready 
to  receive  on  board  the  detachment  destined  for  the  operations  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  river.  Many  a  sleepless  eye  watched  the 
slow  progress  of  that  night — many,  indeed,  which  never  watched 
again.  !No  man  can  contemplate,  without  emotion,  the  approach 
of  such  a  struggle  as  was  then  evidently  impending.  "When  the 
blood  is  up,  and  all  the  excitement  of  battle  around  us,  the  mind 
is  withdrawn  from  the  reflection  of  danger,  or  rather  is  elevated 
above  it.  Duty,  hope,  shame,  habit,  discipline,  all  conspire  to 
stimulate  to  exertion.  But  '  the  pain  of  death  is  most  in  apprehen 
sion.'  It  is  in  the  stillness  of  the  night,  and  of  solitude,  that  those 
thoughts  come  over  us,  which  are  told  in  such  burning  words  by 
the  great  dramatic  poet  of  our  father-land,  when, 

' ,  the  dread  of  something  after  death, 

The  undiscovered  country,  from  whose  bourne 
No  traveler  returns — puzzles  the  will.' 

"The  whole  scene,  with  its  associations,  must  have  been  singu 
larly  impressive  to  an  Englishman — to  a  native  of  the  older  world, 
who  had  never  seen  the  works  of  nature  spread  out  in  that  mag 
nificence  which  marks  her  operations  upon  this  continent.  Before 
him  is  that  mighty  river,  of  which  he  had  heard  from  his  infancy, 
rolling  its  endless  floods  to  the  ocean,  and  seeking  its  supply  in 
the  fountains  of  the  north  ;  traversing  regions  of  boundless  forests 
and  perpetual  solitude,  and  overtopping  the  rich  but  narrow  plain 
which  man  had  gained  from  its  dominion.  High  up,  on  its  trunk 
and  tributaries,  those  nomades  wander,  whose  origin  is  a  mystery; 
whose  condition,  habits,  institutions  and  history  have  arrested  the 
attention  of  Christendom,  since  the  veil  which  insulated  them  and 
their  world  has  been  withdrawn  ;  whose  fierce  passions  have 
always  been  gratified  in  the  blood  of  friend  and  foe ;  who  have  been 
stationary,  not  in  position,  but  improvement,  while  everything 
around  them  has  been  changing ;  and  whose  destiny  we  have  no 
pleasure  in  anticipating.  Around  him  is  the  primeval  forest,  bid 
ding  defiance  to  the  slow  progress  of  human  industry,  shown,  and 
scarcely  shown,  in  the  little  fertile  tract  it  has  taken  a  century  of 
labor  to  reclaim.  The  promised  city — the  object  of  his  hopes 
and  toils — is  within  his  sphere  of  vision,  though  shrouded  from 
his  view  by  the  obscurity  of  the  night,  and  guarded  against  his 


316  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

approach  by  an  enemy  he  came  to  conquer  without  an  effort,  but 
whom,  he  now  fears,  no  effort  can  conquer.  The  river  is  sending 
up  its  dense  canopy  of  fog,  which  gradually  encircles  all  objects, 
animate  and  inanimate,  and  circumscribes  the  lonely  spectator 
within  his  own  narrow  world.  His  companions  had  fought  in 
many  a  foreign  clirne  ;  at  Corunna,  at  Busaco,  at  Cuidad  Roclrigo, 
at  Badajoz,  at  Salamanca,  at  Yittoria,  at  Toulouse,  at  Martinique, 
and  at  other  famous  battles ;  and  where  they  had  seen  the  elete  of 
Europe  flee  before  them,  and  its  proudest  fortresses  yield  to  their 
impetuous  valor.  Now  they  had  been  foiled  by  a  band  of  hus 
bandmen —  a  'posse  comitatus,'  'dressed  in  colored  clothes,' 
£  wearing  broad  beavers,'  '  armed  writh  long  duck  guns  ; '  'by 
lumps  and  crowds  of  American  militia,'  and  'by  round-hatted 
Americans,'  but  who,  with  practiced  weapons,  with  stout  hearts, 
sharp  eyes,  and  steady  hands,  had  placed  themselves  in  the  path 
between  them  and  their  prey." 

The  article  filled  some  sixty  pages  of  the  Review,  and  was  read 
with  avidity  by  all  classes.  It  not  only  told  the  whole  story,  but 
it  in  fact  came  from  the  hero  of  that  immortal  day  in  the  history 
of  American  warfare. 

On  the  seventh  of  April,  1836,  General  Cass  presented  to  the 
President  his  report,  relative  to  the  military  and  naval  defenses 
of  the  country,  and  on  the  following  day,  General  Jackson  trans 
mitted  the  same  to  Congress,  approving  of  the  report  generally, 
and  especially  adding  his  concurrence  in  the  views  expressed  by 
the  Secretary  on  the  topics  of  difference  between  him  and  the 
Engineer  bureau. 

The  report  was  ably  drawn  up,  and  amid  the  variety  of  opin 
ions  entertained  by  many  prominent  statesmen  and  military  men 
of  high  rank,  removed  much  of  the  misconception  prevalent,  as  to 
the  wants  of  the  country,  both  in  peace  and  war.  It  recognized 
the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  properly  appropriated  fortifica 
tions,  but  earnestly  recommended  a  discriminating  and  judicious 
application  of  the  public  money  to  the  erection  and  full  equip 
ment  of  fortifications  at  certain  definite  localities,  under  the  full 
belief  that  the  adoption  of  such  a  policy  would  be  more  advanta 
geous  for  general  defense,  than  an  indefinite,  hap-hazard  system 
of  construction  arid  equipment,  as  the  dominant  caprice  of  Con 
gress  might  from  time  to  time  adopt. 

After  a  scrutinizing  examination  of  the  nature  and  condition 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  317 

of  the  northern  frontier,  washed  by  those  seas  which  extend  alono- 
its  borders,  the  report  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  did  not 
require  permanent  defenses,  and  that  we  might  safely  rely  for  its 
security  upon  those  resources,  both  in  the  personnel  and  materiel 
which  the  extent  and  other  advantages  of  our  country  CD  sure, 
and  which  must  give  us  the  superiority  in  that  quarter.  It  sug 
gested,  however,  the  expediency  of  establishing  a  depot  for  the 
reception  of  munitions  of  war,  in  some  part  of  the  Peninsula  of 
Michigan,  and  to  strengthen  it  by  such  defenses  as  will  enable  it 
to  resist  any  coup  de  main  that  might  be  attempted.  From  the 
geographical  features  of  the  country,  our  possessions  there  receded 
from  their  natural  points  of  support,  and  were  placed  in  immedi 
ate  contact  with  a  fertile  and  populous  part  of  the  neighboring 
colony.  In  the  event  of  disturbances,  the  ordinary  communica 
tions  might  be  interrupted,  and  therefore  it  was  advisable  to  have 
in  deposit  a  supply  of  all  the  necessary  means  for  offensive  or 
defensive  operations,  and  to  place  these  beyond  the  reach  of  any 
enterprising  officer  who  might  be  disposed,  by  a  sudden  move 
ment,  to  gain  possession  of  them. 

It  was  upon  the  sea  coast  of  three  thousand  miles'  extent,  that 
General  Cass  thought  fortifications  should  be  erected  and  a  line 
of  defenses  established.  This,  in  case  of  war,  could  be  used  in 
co-operating  with  the  naval  power.  If  the  ocean,  the  great  medi 
um  of  communication  and  the  element  at  the  same  time  of  sepa 
ration  and  of  union,  interposed  peculiar  obstacles  to  the  progress 
of  hostile  demonstrations,  it  also  offered  advantages  which  were 
not  less  obvious,  and  which,  to  be  successfully  resisted,  requires 
corresponding  arrangements  and  exertions.  These  advantages 
depended  on  the  economy  and  facility  of  transportation — on  the 
celerity  of  movement,  and  on  the  power  of  an  enemy  to  threaten 
the  whole  shore  spread  out  before  him,  and  to  select  his  point  of 
attack  at  pleasure.  "  A  powerful  hostile  fleet  upon  the  coast  of 
the  United  States,"  remarks  the  Secretary,  "  presents  some  of  the 
features  of  a  war  where  a  heavy  mass  is  brought  to  act  against 
detachments  which  may  be  cut  up  in  detail,  although  their  com 
bined  force  would  exceed  the  assailing  foe.  Our  points  of  expo 
sure  are  so  numerous  and  distant,  that  it  would  be  impracticable 
to  keep,  at  each  of  them,  a  force  competent  to  resist  the  attack  of 
an  enemy,  prepared  by  his  naval  ascendency  and  his  other 
arrangements,  to  make  a  sudden  and  vigorous  inroad  upon  our 


318  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

shores.     It  becomes  us,  therefore,  to  inquire  how  the  consequences 
of  this  state  of  things  are  to  be  best  met  and  averted. 

"  The  first  and  most  obvious,  and  in  every  point  of  view,  the 
most  proper  method  of  defense  is  an  augmentation  of  our  naval 
means  to  an  extent  proportioned  to  the  resources  and  the  necessi 
ties  of  the  nation.  I  do  not  mean  the  actual  construction  and 
equipment  of  vessels  only.  The  number  of  those  in  service  must 
depend  on  the  state  of  the  country  at  a  given  period.  But  I  mean 
the  collection  of  all  such  material  as  may  be  preserved  without 
injury,  and  a  due  encouragement  of  those  branches  of  interest 
essential  to  the  growth  of  a  navy,  and  which  may  be  properly 
nurtured  by  the  government,  so  that  on  the  approach  of  danger 
a  fleet  may  put  to  sea  without  delay,  sufficiently  powerful  to  meet 
any  force  which  will  probably  be  sent  to  our  coast. 

"  Our  great  battle  upon  the  ocean  is  yet  to  be  fought,  and  we 
shall  gain  nothing  by  shutting  our  eyes  to  the  nature  of  the  strug 
gle,  or  to  the  exertions  which  we  shall  find  it  necessary  to  make. 
All  our  institutions  are  essentially  pacific,  and  every  citizen  feels 
that  his  share  of  the  common  interest  is  effected  by  the  derange 
ment  of  business,  by  the  enormous  expense,  and  by  the  uncertain 
result  of  a  war.  This  feeling  presses  upon  the  community  and 
government,  and  is  a  sure  guarantee  that  we  shall  never  be  pre 
cipitated  into  a  contest,  nor  embark  in  one,  unless  imperiously 
required  by  those  considerations  which  leave  no  alternative  be 
tween  resistance  and  dishonor.  Accordingly,  all  our  history 
shows  that  we  are  more  disposed  to  bear  while  evils  ought  to  be 
borne,  than  to  seek  redress  by  appeals  to  arms  ;  still,  however,  a 
contest  must  come,  and  it  behooves  us,  while  we  have  the  means 
and  the  opportunity,  to  look  forward  to  its  attendant  circumstan 
ces,  and  to  prepare  for  the  consequences. 

"  There  is  as  little  need  of  inquiry  now  into  our  moral  as  into 
our  physical  capacity  to  maintain  a  navy,  and  to  meet  upon  equal 
terms  the  ships  and  seamen  of  any  other  nation.  Our  extended 
commerce,  creating  and  created  by  those  resources  which  are 
essential  to  the  building  and  equipment  of  fleets,  removes  all 
doubts  upon  the  one  point,  and  the  history  of  our  naval  enterprise 
from  the  moment  when  the  colors  were  first  hoisted  upon  the  hast 
ily  prepared  vessels,  at  the  commencement  of  our  revolutionary 
struggle,  to  the  last  conquest  in  which  any  of  our  ships  have  been 
engaged,  is  equally  satisfactory  upon  the  other.  The  achievements 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  319 

of  our  navy  have  stamped  its  character  with  the  country  and 
the  world.  The  simple  recital  of  its  exploits  is  the  highest 
eulogium  which  can  be  pronounced  upon  it.  With  ample  means, 
therefore,  to  meet  upon  the  ocean,  by  which  they  must  approach 
us,  any  armaments  that  may  be  destined  for  our  shores,  we  are 
called  upon  by  every  prudential  consideration  to  do  so.  Though 
all  wars  in  which  we  may  be  engaged  will  probably  be  defensive 
in  their  character,  undertaken  to  repel  or  resent  some  injury  or  to 
assert  some  right,  still  the  objects  of  the  war  can  be  best  attained 
by  its  vigorous  prosecution.  Defensive  in  its  causes,  it  should  be 
offensive  in  its  character.  Our  principal  belligerent  measures 
should  have  for  their  aim,  to  attack  our  antagonist  where  he  is 
most  vulnerable.  If  we  are  to  receive  his  assaults,  we  abandon 
the  vantage  ground,  and  endeavor,  in  effect,  to  compel  him  to  do 
us  justice  by  inviting  his  descent  upon  our  shores,  and  by  all 
those  consequences  which  mark  the  progress  of  an  invading  force, 
whether  for  depredation  or  for  conquest.  By  the  ocean  only,  can 
we  be  seriously  assailed,  and  by  the  ocean  only  can  we  seriously 
assail  any  power  with  which  we  are  likely  to  be  brought  into 
collision." 

After  setting  forth  strong  reasons  for  providing  liberally  for 
naval  operations,  the  report  proceeds: 

"  It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  our  first  and  best  fortification 
is  the  navy.  Nor  do  I  see  any  limit  to  our  naval  preparations, 
except  that  imposed  by  a  due  regard  to  the  public  revenues  from 
time  to  time,  and  by  the  probable  condition  of  other  maritime 
nations.  Much  of  the  materiel  employed  in  the  construction  and 
•equipment  of  vessels  is  almost  indestructible,  or  at  any  rate  may 
be  preserved  for  a  long  series  of  years ;  and  if  ships  can  be  thus 
kept  without  injury  upon  the  stocks,  by  being  built  under  cover, 
I  do  not  see  what  should  restrain  us  from  proceeding  to  build  as 
many  as  may  be  deemed  necessary,  and  as  fast  as  a  due  regard 
to  their  economical  and  substantial  construction  will  permit,  and 
to  collect  and  prepare  for  immediate  use  all  the  munitions  of 
war  and  other  articles  of  equipment  not  liable  to  injury  or  decay 
by  the  lapse  of  time.  Nor  do  I  see  that  these  preparations  should 
be  strictly  graduated  by  the  number  of  seamen  who  would  prob 
ably  enter  the  service  at  this  time  or  within  any  short  period.  To 
build  and  equip  vessels  properly  requires  much  time,  as  well  with 
reference  to  the  execution  of  the  work  as  to  the  proper  condition 


320  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  the  materials  employed.  And  the  costly  experiment  made  by 
England,  when  she  too  hastily  increased  her  fleet,  about  thirty 
years  ago,  by  building  ships  with  improper  materials  and  bad 
workmanship,  ought  to  furnish  us  with  a  profitable  lesson.  Those 
vessels  soon  decayed,  after  rendering  very  little  service.  Naval 
means  should,  therefore,  be  provided  at  a  period  of  leisure,  to  be 
ready  for  immediate  employment  in  a  period  of  exigency;  and  a 
due  regard  to  prudence  dictates  that  these  means  should  so  far 
exceed  the  estimated  demands  of  the  service  as  to  supply  in  the 
shortest  time  any  loss  occasioned  by  the  hazards  of  the  ocean  and 
the  accidents  of  war.  We  may  safely  calculate  that  the  number 
of  seamen  in  the  United  States  will  increase  in  proportion  to  that 
rapid  augmentation  which  is  going  on  in  all  the  other  branches  of 
national  interest.  If  we  assume  that,  at  a  given  period,  we  may 
expect  to  embark  in  war,  our  capacity  to  man  a  fleet  will  exceed 
our  present  means  by  a  ratio  not  difficult  to  ascertain.  And  even 
then,  by  greater  exertions,  and  perhaps  higher  wages,  a  larger 
portion  may  be  induced  to  enter  the  naval  service,  while  no  exer 
tions  can  make  a  corresponding  addition  to  the  navy  itself,  but 
at  a  loss  of  time  and  expense  and  a  sacrifice  of  its  permanent 
interests." 

General  Cass,  in  this  celebrated  report,  repelled  the  idea  of 
shutting  up  our  coasts  by  fortifications,  and  insisted  that  no  nation 
would  embark  in  the  Quixotic  enterprise  of  conquering  this  coun 
try.  And,  hence,  that  any  army  thrown  upon  our  coast  would 
push  forward  with  some  definite  object  to  be  attained  by  a  prompt 
movement  and  vigorous  exertions.  He  showed,  too,  that  the  system 
of  fortifications  adopted  in  Europe  was  inapplicable  to  America,- 
and  referred  to  our  own  experience  as  proof  positive  that  an  invad 
ing  force  could  only  command  but  little  more  than  the  position 
it  actually  occupied.  lie  reasoned  that,  perhaps  England  might 
be  considered  conquered  if  London  was  taken — France,  if  Paris 
fell — but  no  such  consequences  would  flow  to  this  country  by  the 
capture  of  Washington. 

"  Our  seats  of  government,"  said  he,  "  are  merely  the  places 
where  the  business  of  the  proper  departments  is  conducted,  and 
have  not,  themselves,  the  slightest  influence  upon  any  course  of 
measures,  except  what  is  due  to  public  opinion  and  to  their  just 
share  of  it.  If  the  machine  itself  were  itinerant,  the  result  would 
be  precisely  the  same.  Or,  if,  by  any  of  the  accidents  of  war  or 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  321 

pestilence,  the  proper  authorities  were  compelled  to  change  their 
place  of  convocation,  the  change  would  be  wholly  unobserved, 
except  by  the  few  whose  personal  convenience  would  be  affected 
by  the  measure.  ISTor  have  our  commercial  capitals  any  more 
preponderating  influence  than  our  political  ones.  And  although 
their  capture  by  an  enemy,  and  the  probable  loss  of  property  and 
derangement  of  business  which  would  be  the  result,  might  seri 
ously  affect  the  community,  yet  it  would  not  produce  the  slightest 
effect  upon  the  social  or  political  systems  of  the  country.  The 
power  belongs  to  all  and  is  exercised  by  all." 

After  going  over  the  subject  of  the  national  defenses,  in  all  its 
ramifications,  and  discussing  in  detail  the  advantages  and  disad 
vantages  of  each  locality,  he  put  his  suggestions  in  a  practical 
form,  under  the  following  heads  of  recommendation: 

1.  An  augmentation  of  the  navy. 

2.  The  adoption  of  an  efficient  plan  for  the  organization  of  the 
militia. 

3.  The  cultivation  of  military  science,  to  the  end  that  we  may 
keep  pace  with  the  improvements  in  all  the  branches  of  that 
advancing  science. 

4.  The  skeleton  of  a  regular  establishment,  to  which  additions 
might  be  made  from  time  to  time,  as  the  public  exigency  should 
require  —  securing,  at  the  same  time,  economy,  with  a  due  power 
of  expansion. 

5.  The  preparation  and  proper  distribution  of  all  the  munitions 
of  war. 

6.  Defensive   works   then   in   process   of  construction    to    be 
finished. 

7.  All  the  harbors  and  inlets  upon  the  coast,  where  there  are 
cities  or  towns  whose  situation  and  importance  create  just  appre 
hension  of  attack,  and  particularly  where  we  have  public  naval 
establishments,  should  be  defended  by  works  proportioned  to  any 
exigency  that  might  probably  arise. 

8.  Provision  to  be  made  for  the  necessary  experiments  to  test 
the  superiority  of  the  various  plans  that  may  be  offered  for  the 
construction  and  use  of  steam  batteries,  meaning  batteries  to  be 
employed  as  accessories  in  the  defense  of  harbors  and  inlets,  and 
in  aid  of  the  permanent  fortifications. 

9.  A  reconsideration  of  the   project   for  fortifying  the  road 
steads  or  open  anchorage  grounds,  and  its  better  adaptation  to  the 

21 


322  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

circumstances  of  the  country.  And  then,  in  connection  with  the 
prosecution  of  the  public  works,  he  recommended:  first,  that  the 
corps  of  engineers  should  be  increased  ;  and,  secondly,  that  when 
the  plan  of  a  work  has  been  approved  by  Congress,  and  its  construc 
tion  authorized,  the  whole  appropriation  should  be  made  at  once, 
to  be  drawn  from  the  treasury  in  annual  installments,  to  be  fixed 
by  the  law. 

A  report  so  complete,  upon  a  subject  of  such  intrinsic  import 
ance,  could  not  fail  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  people,  and 
receive  the  consideration  of  Congress.  It  did  so.  The  leading 
features  of  the  recommendations  are  incorporated  into  our  system 
of  national  defenses,  and  conserved  the  great  business  interests  of 
the  country  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation.  And  its  author, 
for  this  labor,  if  for  no  other,  is  entitled  to  the  lasting  gratitude 
of  the  republic. 

With  other  heavy  cares  of  office  making  large  drafts  upon  his 
time  and  thoughts,  nothing  but  the  dictates  of  the  truest  patriot 
ism  could  have  prompted  his  efforts.  If  he  had  been  so  disposed, 
he  could  very  well  have  confined  his  attention  to  the  ordinary 
routine  of  departmental  life,  and  acquitted  himself  honorably,  as 
the  stereotype  phrase  goes;  and  if,  perchance,  he  had  happened 
to  stumble  upon  some  new  project,  however  utterly  foreign  to  the 
general  scope  of  a  cabinet  officer,  upon  that  could  he  have  reposed 
for  fame, — temporary,  most  assuredly,  but,  nevertheless,  sufficient 
for  the  ephemeral  quid-nuncs  of  to-day — known  but  yesterday 
and  forgotten  to-morrow. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  323 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

General  Cass-  Health — Desires  to  leave  the  Cabinet — Accepts  the  French  Mission — Toyage  across  the 
Atlantic — Reception  at  the  Court  of  St.  Cloud — General  Cass  as  a  Diplomatist — His  duties — Ilia 
Memoranda  of  Court  Customs— French  Life— An  Eineute— French  Manners— French  Knowledge. 

General  Cass'  ambition  in  being  a  member  of  the  American 
Cabinet  at  Washington,  was  early  gratified;  and,  as  the  reader 
already  has  been  apprised,  he  so  informed  the  President  at  the 
commencement  of  his  second  term.  Itwas  more  in  conformity  of 
the  wish  of  the  President,  than  of  his  own,  that  he  remained  a 
member.  He  continued  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  Secre 
tary  of  \V^ar  until  the  summer  of  1836,  when,  finding  that  his 
health  was  failing,  because  of  the  assiduousness  which  a  proper 
discharge  of  the  duties  of  the  position  demanded  the  year  round, 
he  acquainted  the  President  of  his  desire  to  withdraw  from  public 
duties,  and  in  retirement  refresh  his  exhausted  energies. 

General  Jackson  was  loth  to  part  company  with  his  old  friend, 
and  would  not  listen  to  the  idea  of  his  going  into  private  life.  A. 
month,  probably,  elapsed  before  the  President  signified  his  wil 
lingness  to  accept  the  resignation;  and  even  then  it  was  condi 
tional.  The  President  was  willing  to  exchange  General  Cass 
from  the  War  office  to  that  of  a  Foreign  Ambassador  at  the  Court 
of  St.  Cloud;  and  the  acceptance  of  the  Secretary's  resignation 
in  this  modified  form  was  assented  to  by  General  Cass,  coupled 
with  the  condition  that  he  shouH  be  permitted  to  travel  on  the 
continent  and  in  the  countries  of  the  east,  as  soon  as  the  business 
of  the  Legation  at  Paris  wouM  permit. 

An  important  historian,  in  alluding  to  General  Cass  at  the 
time  he  held  the  War  post  in  General  Jackson's  cabinet,  stated 
that,  "  In  the  important  station  which  he  now  holds,  his  sphere  of 
usefulness  is  enlarged,  and  none  of  his  predecessors  ever  enjoyed 
a  greater  share  of  pizblic  confidence.  Strict  and  punctual  in  his 
business  habits,  plain  and  affable  in  his  manners,  with  powers  of 
mind  which  grasp,  as  it  were  by  intuition,  every  subject  to  which 
they  are  applied — united  to  various  acquirements." 


324  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

General  Cass  retired  from  the  Department  of  War  with  a 
voluntary  letter  from  the  President,  expressive  of  the  warmest 
thanks  for  his  valuable  services,  and  earnest  wishes  for  his  wel 
fare;  and  in  October  following  he  embarked  in  the  ship  Quebec, 
at  New  York,  for  Paris,  accompanied  by  his  family.  Our  diplo 
matic  relations  with  that  country  had  been  for  some  time  suspended, 
owing  to  the  failure  to  make  the  payments  due  to  us,  agreeably  to 
treaty  stipulations,  for  injuries  done  to  our  commerce.  The  money, 
however,  having  been  paid,  there  was  no  reason  why  this  state  ot 
alienation  should  continue,  and  the  necessary  measures  to  renew 
the  intercourse  were  therefore  taken.  But  as  no  direct  commu 
nication  had  taken  place  between  the  two  governments,  General 
Cass  was  instructed  to  repair  to  London,  and  there  to  wait  till  it 
was  ascertained  that  he  would  be  received,  and  that  a  corres 
pondent  step  would  be  taken  by  France.  The  British  government 
acted  as  the  intermediary  upon  this  occasion,  and  immediately 
received  assurances  that  the  advances  of  the  United  States  would 
be  met  in  an  equally  friendly  spirit.  Accordingly,  an  envoy  was 
appointed,  and  after  spending  a  few  days  in  England,  awaiting 
the  result,  our  Minister  repaired  to  Paris,  where  his  reception  was 
all  an  American  could  require. 

This  was  General  Cass'  first  voyage  across  the  ocean,  and  the 
first  time  in  a  public  life  of  thirty  years,  that  he  had  turned  his 
back  upon  his  native  land;  and  he  now  did  so,  only  to  again  set 
his  face  towards  the  stars  and  stripes  he  loved  so  well,  as  soon  as 
he  could  receive  his  exequatur  from  Louis  Phillippe.  All  the 
knowledge  that  books  could  give  of  the  countries  to  which  he 
went,  General  Cass  had  by  heart;  and  now  the  favorable  oppor 
tunity  had  come  for  him  to  learn,  by  personal  observation,  how 
near  or  how  far  astray  he  was,  from  their  truthful  condition  and 
position  in  the  mighty  scale  of  nations.  He  had  seen  America 
and  American  life,  in  all  its  diveisih'ed  phases,  from  the  dreary 
and  barbarian  wilds  of  Superior,  to  the  pleasant  and  soul-inspir 
ing  savannas  of  the  southern  latitudes;  he  had,  time  and  again, 
with  the  terrific  war-whoops  and  death-song  ringing  their  startling 
and  melancholy  cadence  upon  the  ear,  srtoked  the  pipe  of  peace, 
and  refreshed  himself  in  the  rude  wigwam  of  the  savage;  and  he 
had  as  often,  and  more,  moved  "the  observed  of  all  observers,"  in 
the  most  enlightened  society,  and  among  the  most  accomplished 
men  of  his  time.  He  had  witnessed,  with  equal  pain, the  treachery 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  325 

of  the  savage,  and  the  intrigue  of  civilized  life.  By  no  means  an 
inattentive  observer  of  the  springs  of  human  nature,  whether  in 
its  primitive  or  cultivated  state,  he  had  drawn  valuable  lessons 
of  wisdom  from  these  wells  of  experience.  He  was  now  on  the 
verge  of  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  life.  He  had  already  been 
favored  with  a  longer  lease  of  human  existence  than  many  men; 
and  many  and  many  of  his  most  valuable  and  cherished  friends 
he  already  had  missed  from  earth.  As  to  political  preferment, 
and  the  enjoyment  of  the  distinction  of  office,  already  did  he  feel 
himself  abundantly  gratified.  He  had  received  the  favor,  in  an 
unbroken  line,  of  each  successive  President  from  the  commence 
ment  of  the  present  century,  and  partaken  of  their  unlimited 
confidence.  His  remaining  ambition  was  to  maintain  the  dignity 

o         «/ 

of  his  government  at  the  proud  Court  to  which  he  was  now  ac 
credited,  and,  in  contentment,  familiarize  his  mind  with  all  that 
he  had  read  of,  in  the  classics  of  his  youthful  days,  and  in  the 
chronicles  of  the  modern  traveler.  Much  the  larger  portion  of 
his  active  life  had  been  passed  by  General  Cass  amid  the  struggles 
of  a  new  country,  where  man  and  nature  were  contending  for  the 
mastery,  and  where  the  conversion  of  the  forest  and  the  prairie 
into  pleasant  farms  and  cultivated  fields,  could  only  be  effected 
by  indefatigable  labor  and  by  constant  privations.  He  was  now 
exchanging  primeval  solitudes,  the  haunts  of  the  red  man  and  of 
the  animals,  his  co-tenants  of  the  forest  whom  God  had  given  to 
him  for  his  support,  for  the  highest  state  of  improvement ;  for 
regions  where  the  wealth  and  industry  of  long  ages  had  been 
striving  to  embellish,  and  to  cover  with  everything  essential  to 
human  luxury  and  comfort.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  greater 
contrast  than  that  which  met  his  eye  when  he  compared  the 
splendors  of  Paris  with  the  remote  scenes  of  forest  and  prairie, 
where  much  of  his  life  had  been  spent.  But  the  display  of 
European  magnificence  changed  in  nothing,  either  the  sentiments 
or  habits  of  General  Cass.  He  returned  as  he  went,  a  plain 
American,  with  his  attachment  to  his  country  increased  instead 
of  diminished,  by  the  artificial  and  unequal  state  of  society  which 
he  witnessed  abroad. 

Immediately  upon  reaching  the  gay  capital  of  France,  he  pre 
sented  his  letters  of  credence  to  the  French  government,  and  re 
ceived  permission  to  dwell  near  it.  This  mission  was  among  the 
most  important  from  the  United  States  at  all  times,  and  eminently 


326  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

so  on  this  occasion.  Diplomatic  negotiations  had  been  inter 
rupted  by  the  tardy  payment  of  the  indemnity  for  spoliations  of 
American  commerce.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  new  Amer 
ican  Minister  was  specially  directed  to  ascertain  what  were  the 
feelings  of  the  French  government  towards  the  United  States. 
Scarcely  had  he  been  presented  to  the  King  than  he  undertook  to 
procure  the  interest  on  the  indemnity  of  twenty-five  millions  of 
francs,  which  had  been  retained  at  the  time  the  principal  was 
paid.  In  this  he  was  presently  successful,  and  thus  had  the  satis 
faction  of  terminating  the  dispute,  which,  at  one  time,  threatened 
to  involve  the  litigating  powers  in  a  war. 

The  fame  of  General  Cass — as  a  man  of  superior  talents,  and 
for  a  long  period  occupying  a  distinguished  position  among  his 
fellow  countrymen — had  preceded  him  in  this  great  metropolis  of 
Europe,  and  the  leading  capital  of  the  civilization  of  the  world. 
Not  only  diplomatists  and  statesmen  sought  the  opportunity  to 
make  his  acquaintance,  but  even  the  most  illustrious  literary  men 
gathered  around  him,  and  paid  him  their  tribute  of  respect. 

The  manner  in  which  the  American  envoys,  not  unfrequently, 
conducted  themselves  towards  their  countrymen,  was  far  from 
what  it  ought  to  have  been.  Many  of  these  gentlemen  seemed  to 
have  forgotten  that  they  were  the  representatives  of  a  people, 
each  one  of  whom  had  a  claim  upon  their  attention  as  far  as  means 
and  time  would  permit,  but  appeared  to  imagine  themselves  the 
representatives  of  an  autocrat  or  monarch,  of  whom  an  humble, 
private  citizen,  had  no  right  to  ask  the  least  service  or  attention; 
and  when  accorded,  to  be  considered  as  a  condescension  and  a 
favor.  Of  all  this  no  person  was  better  aware  than  General  Cass, 
and  he  determined  to  reform  it  altogether.  Nor  was  he  unmind 
ful  of  the  position  which  his  country  entitled  him  to  take  in  his 
intercourse  with  the  many  Diplomats  accredited  at  that  Court. 
The  following  anecdote  may  be  taken  as  an  instance: 

From  time  immemorial  it  had  been  the  habit  of  the  representa 
tives  of  the  great  European  powers  to  prepare  the  discourses  which 
were  made  to  the  Kings  on  New  Year's  day  and  other  special  oc 
casions,  when  the  Diplomatic  corps  presented  itself  in  a  body  at 
the  Courts.  During  his  embassy  in  France,  after  having  assisted 
at  the  first  of  these  ceremonies,  and  heard  the  speech  made  to  the 
King  by  the  Pope's  nuncio,  as  the  organ  of  the  diplomatic  body, 
General  Cass  took  occasion  to  wait  upon  the  ambassadors  of  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  327 

great  powers,  and  to  inform  them  that,  as  he  represented  a  country 
of  some  importance  in  the  world,  he  felt  that  as  its  representative 
he  should  be  consulted  as  to  the  appropriate  language  to  be  used, 
in  the  annual  discourse  made  to  the  Chief  of  the  State,  and  that 
on  all  public  occasions,  if  he  should  not  be  so  consulted,  he  owed 
it  to  his  government  to  decline  accompanying  the  diplomatic  body, 
and  to  ask  for  a  personal  and  separate  interview  with  his  majesty, 
where  he  could  use  such  language  as  the  honor  and  interest  of  his 
own  country  might  require.  The  success  of  this  movement  was 
immediate  and  complete.  These  ambassadors  and  ministers  as 
sured  General  Cass  that  no  offense  was  intended  towards  him  or 
his  country,  but  that  the  old  usage  had  been  continued  because 
no  American  Minister  up  to  that  time  had  ever  objected  to  it. 
From  that  time  General  Cass  was  always  consulted  on  these  oc 
casions,  and  it  is  presumed  that  the  precedent  thus  established  has 
been  continued  ever  since  in  the  person  of  his  successor. 

His  conduct  was  unexceptionable.  All  Americans  who  visited 
Paris,  while  he  was  the  representative  of  the  United  States  there, 
bear  united  testimony  to  his  uniform  courtesy  and  politeness. 
His  house  was  always  open  to  American  citizens,  and  his  hospi 
tality  and  kindness  towards  them,  of  the  most  liberal  character. 
His  object  was  to  make  his  fellow  countrymen  feel  at  home  when 
under  the  flag  of  the  Legation,  even  in  the  land  of  strangers.  And 
how  admirably  well  he  succeeded  in  doing  so,  let  those  of  our 
readers  who  happened  to  sojourn  in  Paris  during  his  mission, 
furnish  the  reply.  His  expenses,  it  is  true,  far  exceeded  his  salary, 
and  diminished  his  private  resources.  But,  as  in  all  other  previous 
offices,  he  was  determined  to  do  his  whole  duty;  and  whatever 
pecuniary  loss  to  him  it  might  occasion,  he  resolved  to  forego,  re 
serving  to  himself  the  perfect  right  to  withdraw  from  the  post, 
whenever  the  higher  duty  to  his  family  and  himself  should  require 
him  to  do  so. 

The  interruption  of  diplomatic  intercourse  between  France  and 
the  United  States,  had  caused  a  great  accumulation  of  business  in 
the  office  of  the  Legation  ;  and  to  the  immediate  dispatch  of  this, 
General  Cass  employed  the  first  months  of  his  residence  at  Paris. 
The  tide  of  travel,  too,  from  the  United  States,  was  accumulating 
upon  the  Continent,  and  through  Paris,  of  course,  it  thronged. 
In  carrying  out  the  new  regulations  of  the  Legation,  with  reference 
to  its  conduct  towards  them,  an  extra  amount  of  labor  was  thrown 


328  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

upon  the  Minister  ;  but  it  was  a  labor  of  pleasure  ;  it  was  not  toil, 
but  a  consumption  of  time. 

Presentation  to  the  king  was  always  a  part  of  the  programme 
which  each  visitor  had  prepared.  Different  motives  prompted 
this  desire.  With  some,  to  learn,  by  personal  intercourse,  the 
manners  and  customs  of  a  monarchical  court ;  with  others,  to  see 
royalty  in  propria  persona  ;  with  all,  to  have  it  to  say  that  they 
had  not  passed  through  the  French  dominions  without  the  honor 
of  an  introduction  to  the  "  citizen  king."  There  was  no  limitation 
to  numbers,  and  the  American  minister  sometimes  asked  for  the 
presentation  of  fifty  of  his  countrymen  in  one  night.  Whilst  General 
Cass  was  minister,  no  application  of  an  American  for  presentation 
was  ever  refused.  During  this  period,  the  modus  operand!  of 
reaching  the  hand  of  the  king,  was  as  follows  : 

When  there  was  a  public  presentation  coming  off  at  the  Tuil- 
leries,  the  various  strangers,  belonging  to  different  nations,  who 
desired  to  be  present,  made  known  their  wishes  to  their  proper 
minister,  who  communicated  them  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  from  whom,  or  from  the  Introducer  of  Ambassadors, 
an  answer  was  given,  authorizing  their  reception,  and  indicating 
the  proper  day  and  hour.  When  this  time  arrived,  these  persons 
repaired  to  the  palace,  and  were  introduced  into  a  suite  of  apart 
ments,  commencing  at  what  is  called  the  throne  room,  and  extend 
ing  along  the  front  of  this  immense  building.  The  visitors  were 
arranged  in  one  line,  passing  down  one  side  of  the  apartments 
and  up  the  other.  Their  position  depended  upon  the  rank  and 
seniority  of  the  representative  of  their  country.  The  ambassadors 
are  nearest  the  point  where  the  king  approaches,  and  then  follow 
the  ministers  plenipotentiary,  the  ministers  resident,  and  the 
charges,  each  in  the  order  of  time  when  he  was  accredited  at  the 

O         ' 

court.  This  sensible  arrangement,  in  diplomatic  precedence,  was 
adopted  by  the  Congress  of  Yienna,  and  terminated  all  those 
ridiculous  disputes  about  rank  which  theretofore  occupied  such  a 
space  in  the  history  of  national  intercommunication.  The  king 
and  all  his  family  enter  the  public  rooms  together,  and  the  king 
commences  his  attention  to  the  circle  by  a  few  moments'  conver 
sation  with  the  oldest  ambassador  present.  This  ambassador  then 
passes  along  the  line  with  the  king,  presenting  in  succession  each 
of  his  countrymen,  and  stops  when  he  arrives  at  the  end  of  his 
charge.  Here  the  king  salutes  him,  which  he  returns,  and  then 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  329 

the  same  ceremony  takes  place  with  the  next  diplomatic  agent, 
and  so  on,  in  succession,  till  the  circle  is  completed.  The  name 
of  each  person  is  mentioned  to  the  king,  and  he  addresses  him  a 
few  questions,  generally  having  relation  to  his  own  country  or  to 
his  visit  to  France.  In  a  ceremonial  like  this,  it  is  pretty  difficult 
to  exhibit  much  variety  in  the  questions,  but  General  Cass  was 
told  by  those  who  accompanied  the  king  throughout  the  whole 
ceremonial,  that  he  displayed  great  tact  upon  these  occasions. 
After  the  king  had  proceeded  some  distance  down  the  line,  the 
queen  commences  the  same  ceremony,  and  she  is  followed  by  the 
duke  of  Orleans,  the  princess  Adelaide — the  king's  sister — and  the 
duke  of  Nemours.  The  other  sons  of  the  family,  when  present, 
remained  at  the  head  of  the  apartment,  and  the  princess  Cli men- 
tine — the  youngest  daughter — a  young  lady  of  beauty  and  accom 
plishments,  usually  made  the  tour  of  the  circle,  leaning  upon  the 
arm  of  her  mother  or  her  aunt.  Such  was  the  ceremonial  of  pre 
sentation  of  gentlemen  at  the  French  court.  An  application  of 
the  same  kind  was  made  in  favor  of  the  ladies  who  desired  to  be 
presented,  but  this  application  went  to  the  proper  lady  of  honor, 
and  from  her  reached  the  queen.  For  ladies  there  were  but  two 
presentations  in  the  year,  generally  in  the  first  week  of  January; 
and  the  ceremonies  nearly  similar  to  the  description  already  given. 

The  public  conduct  of  Louis  Phillippe  differed  from  his  prede 
cessors,  Louis  Eighteenth  and  Charles  the  Tenth.  The  former 
associated  himself  with  the  glories  of  his  country,  and  no  petty 
jealousy  prevented  him  from  doing  justice  to  Napoleon.  He,  no 
doubt,  recognized  the  eminent  qualities  of  the  great  chief  of  the 
revolution.  His  busts  and  engravings  were  everywhere  to  be  met 
with,  and  his  bronze  statue,  which  stood  upon  the  columns  of  the 
Place  Vendome  when  General  Cass  was  in  Paris,  and  on  which 
the  glories  of  the  emperor  were  recorded,  looked  out  upon  his 
favorite  city  like  some  guardian  genius.  The  carpet  that  covered 
the  saloon  of  reception  at  theTuilleries,  was  the  work  of  Napoleon's 
day,  and  emblazoned  with  his  imperial  emblems.  It  covered  the 
same  room  during  the  Empire,  but,  on  the  restoration  of  the  Bour 
bons,  it  was  removed,  and  deposited  in  some  lumber  apartment. 

How  blind  must  have  been  they  who  could  not,  or  would  not, 
see  that,  between  the  epochs  of  1789  and  1815,  ages  of  ordinary 
life  had  been  compressed  ;  and  that  there  was  more  sympathy 
between  the  ages  and  the  convocation  of  the  turbulent  councils  of 


330  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  middle  ages  and  the  States  General  in  1789,  than  between  the 
latter  event  and  the  accession  of  Louis  Eighteenth  to  the  throne  of 
Lis  ancestors.  But  the  Bourbons,  as  has  been  truly  said,  learned 
nothing  and  forgot  nothing.  Charles  the  Tenth,  of  the  two,  was 
more  unfortunate  in  this  respect.  This  king  had  such  an  aversion 
to  the  revolution  that  he  refrained  to  pronounce  even  the  name 
of  the  king  of  Sweden,  because  he  was  &  parvenu.  This  was  an 
unpardonable  crime  in  nature,  not  to  be  overlooked  by  this  proud 
Bourbon.  At  his  levees,  when  he  received  the  diplomatic  corps, 
he  usually  addressed  to  each  representative  of  a  monarchical  gov 
ernment  some  question  respecting  the  health,  residence,  or  family 
of  his  sovereign  ;  and,  as  the  story  goes,  when  it  came  to  the  turn 
of  the  Swedish  minister  to  be  received,  the  king,  inflexible  in  his 
determination  to  avoid  all  reference  to  the  northern  monarch, 
inquired  if  there  were  any  news  from  Sweden.  The  minister — 
the  Count  of  Loewenheilm — a  man  of  great  worth  and  a  veteran 
officer  of  high  rank,  as  resolute  that  the  king  should  hear  the  name 
of  his  sovereign  as  the  latter  could  be  not  to  pronounce  it,  invari 
ably  replied :  "  I  thank  your  majesty ;  my  master,  the  king  of 
Sweden,  is  very  well ;"  and  General  Cass  was  told,  by  those  who 
had  often  witnessed  this  royal  and  diplomatic  encounter,  that  the 
question  and  answer  were  as  regularly  put  and  returned  as  any 
other  ceremony  of  the  presentation  ;  and  the  thing  was  so  well 
understood  that  the  whole  circle  always  prepared  itself  to  see  the 
effort  of  the  king  to  preserve  his  dignity  and  to  smile  at  an  exhi 
bition  of  royal  weakness.  And  yet  such  are  too  often  human 
rulers. 

It  is  scarcely  credible,  yet  the  fact  is  well  known,  says  General 
Cass  in  his  diary,  that,  when  the  result  of  the  elections  of  1830 
had  left  the  government  in  a  minority  in  the  chamber  of  represen 
tatives,  and  had  given  proof  of  the  discontent  of  the  country,  no 
preparation  was  made  to  meet  the  storm  which  the  measures  in 
contemplation  necessarily  tended  to  produce.  The  faithless  and 
violent  attack  upon  the  Constitution,  dignified  with  the  name  of  a 
coup  tfetat,  but  which  was,  in  truth,  one  of  the  most  perfidious 
efforts  which  po\ver  has  ever  made  to  crush  public  rights,  found 
the  king  at  St.  Cloud,  calmly  enjoying  the  pleasures  of  rural  life. 
When  the  cannon  of  Paris — the  knell  of  his  power — announced  to 
him  that  the  people  had  risen,  and  that  his  crown,  and,  perhaps, 
his  life,  depended  on  the  issue  of  the  contest,  he  was  engaged  in  a 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  331 

game  of  cards,  and  tranquilly  gave  orders  to  Ins  grand  huntsman 
to  arrange  a  hunting  party  for  the  next  day.  But  that  day  opened 
with  a  different  chase,  and  there  were  other  hunters  and  other 
game  in  the  field,  and  the  unfortunate  monarch  became  himself 
the  stricken  deer.  Had  this  effort  of  arbitrary  power  proved  suc 
cessful,  the  fruits  of  the  revolution  would  have  perished,  and  France 
would  have  been  prostrated  at  the  foot  of  a  master.  Still  more : 
it  would  have  been  the  signal  for  the  death-blow  to  all  the  free 
institutions  of  Continental  Europe,  and  would  everywhere  have 
opened  the  way  for  conspiracy  against  public  rights.  But  France 
arose  in  its  strength,  and  the  reigning  branch  fell  in  weakness. 

While  General  Cass  was  in  Paris,  he  spared  no  pains  to  inform 
himself  of  the  actual  condition  of  the  people,  and  he  endeavored 
to  acquaint  himself  with  their  sensations  and  sentiments.  Actions 
frequently  speak  louder  than  words.  He  had  read  much  and 
heard  much  of  their  excitability,  and  popular  outbreaks  ;  and  as 
these  had  occurred  so  often,  he  sometimes  thought  that,  perhaps, 
after  all,  they  were  more  like  the  startling  scenic  plays  of  the 
theater,  to  afford  temporary  gratification,  than  for  permanent 
prosperity.  He  had  not  so  far  lost  the  Yankee  curiosity  of  his 
ancestors,  as  not  to  occasionally  wish  he  might  have  the  oppor 
tunity  to  witness,  as  a  spectator,  some  of  these  public  commotions. 
Strange  enough,  it  was  to  happen,  that  he  could  gratify  this  mor 
bid  desire.  We  will  take  the  account  as  he  tells  it. 

"  I  did  not  wish  that  an  emente  should  occur  at  Paris,  while  I 
dwelt  there,  in  order  that  I  might  see  it ;  but  I  was  determined,  if 
it  did  occur,  that  I  would  see  it  if  possible.  Accordingly,  during 
the  movements  in  May,  I  sallied  out,  not  to  mingle  in  adventures, 
but  to  witness  them  ;  and  after  threading  many  a  dirty  street  and 
alley,  I  reached  a  crowded  part  of  the  city,  south  of  the  Boule 
vards,  between  the  streets  St.  Martin  and  St.  Denis,  where  all  the 
communications  are  narrow  and  crooked.  At  the  intersection  of 
four  of  these  streets,  I  found  a  party  of  men  busily  engaged,  some 
in  breaking  the  lanterns,  and  others  in  building  a  barricade  to 
stop  the  troops,  from  materials  furnished  by  a  house  which  ap 
peared  to  have  been  recently  demolished.  There  was  an  immense 
crowd  looking  on,  but  the  persons  actually  engaged  in  the  work 
did  not  exceed  forty,  all  of  whom  were  dressed  in  that  garment 
peculiar  to  the  Paris  workmen,  called  a  "blouse^  and  which  resem 
bles  the  hunting  shirt  I  have  often  worn  in  the  West,  and  which  1 


332  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

suppose  yet  retains  its  place  in  some  parts  of  that  vast  region— 
though,  perhaps,  like  the  buffalo,  in  whose  company  I  have  worn 
it,  it  has  crossed  the  Mississippi,  and  may  now  be  accompanying 
the  hunter  and  the  pioneer  towards  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

"  Seeing  these  men  thus  busily  engaged,  I  inquired  of  some  re 
spectable  looking  individuals,  what  their  object  was  ;  but  was  told, 
with  much  decision  and  apparent  frankness,  that  they  were  as 
ignorant  of  the  matter  as  I  was.     It  was  obvious,  from  occasional 
signs  and  movements,  that  some  associates  of  the  party  were 
placed  in  the  various  streets  to  give  notice  of  the  approach  of  any 
military  body  which   might   receive   information   of  the  illegal 
operations  in  progress.     After  some  time,  the  immense  crowd 
seemed  alarmed,  and  dispersed  themselves  in  all  the  neighboring 
alleys,  as  fast  as  the  impediments  occasioned  by  their  own  num 
bers  would  permit.     I  then  saw  a  detachment  of  regular  soldiers 
approaching  the  barricade,  and  when  they  got  near,  the  command 
ing  officer  formed  his  men  across  the  principal  street  along  which 
the  fugitives  were  fleeing.     I  did  not  suppose  that  it  required 
much  courage  to  remain,  for  I  was  sure  a  single  unarmed  man 
would  not  be  fired  upon ;  and  I  felt  satisfied  that  my  character  as 
a  stranger  would  protect  me  from  violence.     I  could  not,  indeed, 
'hang  out  the  banner  on  the  outer  wall,'  as  Mr.  Poinsett  did,  with 
such  decision  of  mind  and  firmness  of  purpose,  when  his  residence 
was  attacked  and  his  person  threatened  in  Mexico.     I  have  always 
considered  the  conduct  of  our  distinguished  countryman  upon  that 
occasion  as  furnishing  one  of  the  happiest  illustrations  of  the  effect 
of  decision  and  courage  upon  a  mass  of  excited  men,  freed  from 
legal  restraint,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  whole  history  of  popu 
lar  movements.     It  is  almost  the  personification  of  Virgil's  beau 
tiful  allusion  to  the  appearance  of  the  c  vinem  gravem  mcritis]  who 
presents  himself  to  the  enraged  crowd,  and  stills  the  tumult  of 
their  passions.     With  one  change,  rendered  necessary  by  the  cir 
cumstances  which  called  for  action,  not  for  words,  we  may  adopt 
the  last  line  of  this  highly  wrought  simile,  and  say  of  our  country 
man  what  the  Roman  poet  said  of  his  :  '  Hie  regit  dictis  animos  et 
pectora  mulcet?     Human  life  affords  no  prouder  moment,  than 
when  the  minister  threw  out  his  country's  flag,  and  when  he  and 
his  little  suite,  while  watching  the  stars  and  stripes  as  they  un 
folded  themselves,  beheld  the  effect  which  this  appeal — this  visible 
declaration,  '  sum  civis  AmericanmJ  produced  in  the  capital  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  333 

Montezuma,  and  upon  an  ignorant,  infuriated  multitude.  Our 
sister  republic  was  spared  the  commission  of  a  crime  which  would 
have  drawn  upon  her  the  execration  of  the  civilized  world. 

"  I  had  no  such  part  to  play,  and  most  assuredly,  if  I  had  had,  I 
could  not  have  played  it  so  nobly.  I  was  a  spectator  only,  and 
as  such  watched  the  proceedings  before  me.  The  officer  waved 
his  hand  to  the  people  who,  from  the  windows  of  the  neighboring 
houses,  were  regarding  the  proceedings,  intimating  to  them  to 
withdraw  from  the  approaching  danger.  He  then  directed  his 
command  to  aim,  and  the  guns  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  fly 
ing  crowd.  At  this  moment  I  stepped  up  to  the  officer,  and  told 
him  I  had  been  a  spectator  of  the  whole  occurrences  in  that  quar 
ter  for  some  time,  and  that  the  people  upon  whom  he  was  about 
to  fire  were  persons  who,  like  me,  had  not  been  engaged  in  the 
mischief,  but  had  been  led  by  curiosity  to  watch  its  progress.  I 
added,  that  those  who  were  really  guilty,  had  escaped  by  the 
lateral  alleys,  having  been  warned  in  time  of  his  approach  by  their 
spies.  The  officer  appeared  to  be  a  discreet  man,  and  opposed  to 
unnecessary  severity.  He  directed  his  men  to  bring  their  arms  to 
a  shoulder,  but  many  of  them  hesitated,  and  I  saw  him  strike  their 
pieces  with  his  sword,  before  they  were  withdrawn  from  the  posi 
tion  of  firing.  I  had  thus  the  evidence  of  my  own  eyes,  that  the 
assertions  respecting  the  infidelity  of  the  military,  and  their  indis 
position  to  support  the  government  in  a  moment  of  extreme  peril, 
were  false.  They  were  anxious  to  act,  and  to  act  efficiently." 

From  conversations  with  men  of  mark,  he  found  that  an  injuri 
ous  effect  had  been  produced  upon  the  European  estimate  of  our 
standard  of  morals  and  measures,  by  the  illiberal,  and,  in  many 
instances,  false  statements  of  British  travelers.  With  but  few  hon 
orable  exceptions,  most  of  them  were  mere  gossips  in  pantaloons 
or  petticoats,  who,  having  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  read  us  homilies 
upon  our  barbarous  usages,  returned  to  convince  their  willing 
countrymen  that  political  institutions  and  social  life  in  the  new 
world  offered  nothing  consolatory  to  the  observer.  Belied  so 
much,  had  we  been,  that  the  people  seemed  to  be  incapable  of  ap 
preciating  the  effect  of  events  in  public  or  private  life.  And  this 
obtuseness  was  not  confined  to  the  uneducated. 

"1  was  asked  a  day  or  two  since,"  says  the  diary,  "by  a  distin 
guished  diplomatist,  what  was  the  meaning  of  the  term  Inco-foco, 
in  our  party  politics.  How ;  thought  I  to  myself,  is  it  possible  that 


334  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

so  local  an  epithet  has  traveled  so  far!  But  on  my  return  home, 
the  difficulty  was  solved,  and  I  found  that  the  Journal  des  Debats, 
that  most  unfair  of  all  the  periodicals  of  France,  upon  every  topic 
connected  with  our  country,  had  been  reading  its  patrons  a  homily 
upon  the  critical  condition  of  the  United  States,  and  upon  the 
approaching  downfall  of  its  liberties.  The  temporary  delay  in  the 
organization  of  the  House  had  furnished  the  text,  and  the  imagin 
ation  and  ill-feeling  of  the  writer  had  supplied  the  commentary. 
And  truly  he  had  manufactured  a  most  respectable  '  raw-head-and- 
bloody-bones'  out  of  these  little  words,  i  loco-focoj  frightful  enough 
to  terrify  every  friend  of  liberal  opinions  in  the  eastern  hemis 
phere." 

Many  incidents,  daily  occurring  in  the  usual  walks  of  the 
Minister,  evidenced  how  ignorant  the  people  were  of  the  relations 
of  that  country  with  the  United  States,  or  of  the  individuality  of 
the  American  people.  Paris  was  France,  with  them,  and  so,  many 
of  them,  from  their  questions  and  remarks,  appeared  to  consider 
Washington  the  United  States. 

"I  have  scarcely  found  a  single  Frenchman,"  says  the  diary, 
"  who  knows,  or  knowing,  would  acknowledge,  the  magnitude 
and  injustice  of  the  warfare  which  the  Imperial  Decrees  waged 
upon  our  commerce.  And  one  may  travel  from  Lille  to  Mar 
seilles  without  meeting  a  single  person  who  appears  to  have  a 
true  conception  of  the  nature  of  our  demand  for  indemnification 
for  these  outrages,  which  led  to  the  famous  treaty  of  1831.  If 
you  explain  in  general  terms  to  a  well-informed  man,  the  ground 
of  our  pressing  instances  for  compensation,  and,  by  way  of  argu- 
mentum  ad  hominem,  remark,  that  in  a  report  to  the  Emperor, 
made  by  the  Minister  of  State,  I  think  in  1811,  the  amount  of 
those  injuries  for  which  it  was  admitted  the  French  government 
was  responsible,  was  estimated  at  more  than  double  the  sum 
recognized  by  the  Treaty  of  Indemnity,  your  auditor  shrugs  his 
shoulders,  and  does  not  believe  a  word  you  say,  but,  by  wray  of  a 
silent  retort  courteous,  he  thinks  all  the  harder  that  republics  are 
ungrateful,  and  that  a  clearer  proof  of  this  well  established  politi 
cal  axiom  can  not  be  found,  than  in  the  demand  which  the  United 
States  trumped  up  against  France,  after  the  aid  they  had  received 
from  her  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  For  my  part,  I  wonder 
the  treaty  was  ever  negotiated,  and  after  negotiation,  I  wonder  it 
was  executed.  But  to  an  illustration  of  the  preceding  remarks  : 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  335 

I  know  of  a  fellow-countryman  here,  who  had  ordered  some  arti 
cles  of  furniture,  but  finding,  when  they  were  brought,  that  they 
were  badly  made,  he  declined  receiving  them.  After  the  usual 
discussion  upon  these  occasions,  the  indignant  fdbricant,  rising  in 
the  majesty  of  his  nationality,  exclaimed  :  '  This  is  very  ungene 
rous  treatment,  after  France  has  given  to  your  country  twenty -five 
millions  of  francs.'  'The  powers  of  nature  could  no  farther  go  ! ' 
I  vouch  for  the  substantial  truth  of  this  anecdote." 

General  Cass  took  more  than  one  opportunity  when  there  was 
no  particular  public  business  demanding  his  attention,  to  travel 
through  France,  as  well  as  to  visit  some  of  the  adjacent  countries. 
One  observation  struck  him  as  making  characteristic  difference 
between  his  own  country  and  those  highly  improved  countries  of 
the  old  world.  Though  it  seems  not  to  have  attracted  the  atten 
tion  of  travelers,  it  still  forcibly  impressed  itself  upon  his  mind, 
and  that  is  the  almost  entire  want  of  forest  trees,  offences  and  of 
farm-houses,  which  form  so  marked  a  feature  in  the  American 
landscape.  Once  in  a  while,  at  rare  intervals,  a  district  is  found 
with  scattered  and  stunted  trees,  which  by  courtesy  is  called  forest, 
but  which  bears  little  resemblance  to  the  primitive  vegetation  of 
the  western  continent.  Hedges  and  other  kinds  of  enclosures  are 
occasionally  met  with,  but  the  great  body  of  the  country  is  unen 
closed,  stretching  off  like  a  prairie,  till  it  is  lost  in  the  distance. 
The  farming  population,  especially  upon  the  continent,  is  collected 
into  villages,  and  generally  upon  some  site  where  was  the  bar 
onial  castle,  affording  in  unquiet  times  the  means  of  protec 
tion.  There  is  now  the  church,  and  there  also  is  the  baker's  shop, 
and  the  other  places  of  supply  which  are  required  by  the  prevalent 
habits  of  life,  and  the  husbandmen  go  from  their  villages  to  their 
fields  in  the  morning  and  return  at  night.  A  state  of  things  like 
ours,  where  every  hundred  or  two  of  acres  has  its  owner  cultivat 
ing  his  farm,  living  in  a  neat  and  comfortable  house,  and  sur 
rounded  by  everything  desirable,  is  utterly  unknown  in  Europe. 
The  whole  country  presents  a  singular  aspect  of  nakedness  to  the 
traveler  from  America. 

General  Cass  also  visited  England,  and  with  the  same  mixed 
emotions  of  admiration  and  regret  which  its  scenes  of  magnifi 
cence,  of  poverty,  leave  upon  the  memory  of  our  countrymen. 
He  was  present  at  the  gorgeous  spectacle  of  the  coronation  of 
the  present  queen,  and  in  that  splendid  display,  the  incident 


336  LIFE  AXD   TIMES 

which  struck  him  with  most  force,  was  the  placing  of  the  crown, 
the  insignium  of  power  and  royalty,  upon  the  head  of  a  female 
barely  eighteen  years  of  age  ;  thus  recognizing  her  the  supreme 
authority  in  a  country  which  absolutely  excludes  women  from  all 
other  political  power  whatever.  Under  such  circumstances  of  sex 
and  age,  the  chief  magistrate  is  but  a  pageant,  and  contrivances 
out  of  the  Constitution  must  be  resorted  to,  to  do  the  work  of  the 
government 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  337 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

General  Cass  Visits  Italy,  Greece,  Syria,  Egypt — His  Tour — His  Memoranda— General  Reflections His 

Return  to  Paris. 

In  the  spring  of  1837,  General  Cass  found  that  the  business  of 
the  Legation  would  admit  of  his  absence  from  Paris  for  a  few 
months.  Availing  himself  of  this  opportunity,  he  took  occasion 
to  gratify  a  long-cherished  desire,  and  in  May  embarked  with  his 
family  at  Marseilles,  on  board  of  the  historical  ship,  the  Constitu 
tion,  bearing  the  flag  of  the  United  States,  Commodore  Elliott 
commanding,  on  an  excursion  to  the  east.  He  set  sail  for  E^ypt 
by  the  way  of  Constantinople.  As  this  vessel  was  to  touch  at  all 
the  principal  cities  along  the  coast,  it  afforded  the  American  Min 
ister  an  opportunity  of  visiting  them  consecutively,  without  unnec 
essary  delay,  and,  indeed,  this  was  the  reason  why  he  sought  this 
conveyance. 

He  saw,  at  last,  far-famed  Italy,  her  principal  cities,  and  the 
ruins,  which  constantly  reminded  him  of  her  former  greatness,  in 
all  that  wealth  and  learning  could  produce.  He  saw  what  was 
once  the  seat  of  the  Ca3sars,  and  the  villas  of  Cicero  and  Horace. 
He  wandered  among  the  dilapidations  of  time,  and  imagined 
congregations,  uproarious  with  pleasure,  crowding  and  jostling 
each  other,  at  the  plays  and  games  which  fill  the  classics.  He 
thought  of  armies,  whose  combats  had  shook  the  earth  ;  he  sur 
veyed  the  site  of  the  Senate  House,  of  the  Colliseum,  of  the  Forum 
—and  was  lost  in  wondering  at  the  grandeur  of  Rome,  and  the 
colossal  powers  which  made  her  mistress  of  the  world  !  He  rested 
upon  the  soil  where  the  deathless  oratory  of  antiquity  caught  its 
eloquence,  and  poetry  its  divinity  ;  and,  bowing  in  meekness  to 
the  Great  Giver  of  both,  hallowed  them  in  his  memory.  He 
wandered  in  silence  upon  the  banks  of  the  Illissus,  and  saw  in 
his  mind  those  academic  groves,  so  sacred  and  dear  to  every 
scholar.  He  traveled  along  the  barren  and  desolate  shores  of 
Greece  and  Turkey,  and  pondered  on  the  causes  which  once  cov 
ered  the  land  with  a  thousand  cities  of  commerce.  And  he  came 
22 


338  LIFE  AXD  TIMES 

to  tlie  conclusion  that  nothing  can  be  m<jre  useful  to  the  states 
man  than  such  a  journey,  or  better  fit  him  for  the  discharge  of 
the  highest  offices  of  the  State.  He  cruised  among  the  islands 
that  stud  the  ^Egean  Sea,  and,  charmed  with  delight,  looked  in 
upon  Sicily  and  Malta. 

General  Cass  visited  Attica,  and  from  thence  made  an  excur 
sion  farther  into  Greece.  He  paused  at  Eleusis — venerable  as  the 
scene  of  the  great  Pagan  mysteries.  Its  massive  monuments  at 
tested  the  sanctity  of  the  place  ;  and  as  he  roamed  among  them, 
these  silent  monitors  of  history  recalled  to  his  memory  the  deeds 
and  days  of  other  times.  Continuing  his  journey,  he  soon  reached 
the  mountainous  ridge  which  bounds  Attica  to  the  north,  and 
forms  a  barrier  broken  by  ravines,  admirably  adapted  to  defensive 
warfare  ;  and,  on  attaining  its  summit,  a  glorious  prospect  offered 
itself  to  his  eyes,  enriched  by  recollections  of  the  past,  and  im 
pressive  from  its  present  features. 

Before  him  was  the  great  plain  of  Boestia,  and  under  his  feet 
the  ancient  city  of  Platsea,  with  its  gigantic  walls  here  and  there, 
erect  or  prostrate,  looking  as  though  a  human  footstep  had  not 
disturbed  the  site  of  this  unfortunate  city  since  its  capture  and 
destruction,  so  vividly  described  by  Thucydides.  Near  by  was 
a  little  muddy  brook,  the  Asopus,  winding  its  way  through  the 
plain,  and  reminding  him  of  many  a  sluggish  stream  he  had  crossed, 
at  the  risk  of  his  neck,  in  the  Western  prairies  ;  and  upon  its 
bank  was  the  famous  field  where  Mardonius,  the  lieutenant  of  the 
great  king,  was  defeated.  In  the  distance  was  the  Acropolis  of  Thebes, 
so  renowned  in  history  and  fable,  and  between  him  and  the  city 
of  Cadmus,  was  the  battle-ground  of  Leuctra,  where  Epaminondas 
concpered  and  fell.  After  examining  the  environs  of  Platsea, 
and  endeavoring  to  comprehend  the  plan  of  operations  of  the 
contending  armies,  and  the  true  site  of  their  struggle,  he  at  length 
found  one  of  the  little  tumuli  described  by  Herodotus,  as  erected 
by  the  Greeks,  over  the  remains  of  their  countrymen  who  fell  in 
this  battle,  and  which  attested  the  veracity  of  the  historian,  and 
the  true  theater  of  the  conflict.  He  ascended  its  low  summit,  and 
thought  of  those  who  were  beneath  him,  and  looked  around  upon 
all  this  scene  of  precious  recollections,  with  feelings  difficult  for 
him  to  describe,  and,  of  course,  for  us  to  pen.  He  thought  of  the 
affecting  but  fruitless  appeal  which  the  inhabitants  of  this  devoted 
city  made,  three  generations  later,  when  they  invoked  the  memory 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  339 

of  these  parentalia,  to  turn  away  the  wrath  of  their  countrymen. 
The  story  is  told  by  Tlmcydides,  in  the  third  book  of  his  History 
of  the  War  of  the  Peloponnesus,  and  an  instructive  lesson  it  fur 
nishes  to  every  federative  people — a  lesson,  where  we  might  read 
our  own  fate,  had  we  not,  by  a  beautiful  political  constitution,  or 
ganized  our  system  of  government,  so  as  to  protect  the  States 
against  one  another  by  subjecting  each  to  all,  in  those  questions 
where  rival  communities  are  not  less  subject  than  individuals  to 
the  infirmities  of  human  passions. 

He  went  to  Athens,  and  mused  upon  its  past  glories.  Thence 
he  went  to  Marathon,  and  stood  upon  its  glorious  plain.  Sterile 
and  secluded,  it  yet  contained  that  lowly  mound,  where  the 
Athenians,  who  fell  in  the  great  day  of  Grecian  deliverance, 
found  a  tomb  and  a  monument.  It  had  survived  the  revolutions 
of  their  country,  and  out-lived  Turkish  domination.  When  Gen 
eral  Cass  visited  this  lonely  shrine,  everything  was  desolate.  No 
human  habitation  was  in  view.  The  little  bay  was  unruffled,  the 
plain  quiet  in  its  solitude,  and  the  mountain  impressive  in  its  rug 
ged  nakedness.  There  seemed  to  be  nothing  between  him  and 
Themistocles;  and  the  beautiful  remark  of  Pericles  in  his  funeral 
oration,  presented  itself  with  all  the  freshness  of  association,  and 
all  the  vigor  of  truth. 

"The  whole  earth,"  said  the  renowned  orator,  "is  the  tomb  of 
illustrious  men,  and  this  is  not  a  tomb,  known  in  one  place  only 
by  vain  inscriptions,  but  one  which  extends  itself  wherever  their 
glory  is  spread."  Yes,  a  world,  unknown  to  the  ancient  Greeks, 
has  arisen  since  their  sun  went  down,  and  yet  the  glory  of  their 
philosophers,  warriors,  and  patriots,  has  penetrated  its  recesses, 
and  General  Cass,  as  one  of  the  pilgrims  from  its  distant  shores, 
had  come  to  offer  his  tribute  to  their  memory. 

He  desired  to  visit  those  old  regions  so  interesting  from  their 
history  and  associations,  and  he  had  it  in  view  also  to  collect  and 
transmit  to  the  government  useful  information  respecting  the  con 
dition  of  that  portion  of  the  world,  and  the  means  of  facilitating 
our  commercial  and  political  intercourse  with  it. 

The  route — to  follow  the  itinerary  more  closely — lay  along  the 
Mediterranean,  and  some  of  it  within  sight  of  the  Alpine  scenery, 
to  Genoa,  known  as  the  "  city  of  palaces  " — an  epithet  it  well  de 
serves  from  the  magnificent  buildings  with  which  it  is  filled,  the 
remnant  and  memorial  of  the  proud  republic,  now  degenerated 


340  .     LIFE  AND  TIMES 

into  an  appendage  of  Sardinia,  whose  commercial  and  military 
fleets  once  carried  her  power  and  wealth  over  the  habitable 
globe.  From  Genoa  the  course  was  to  Leghorn,  where  the  party 
disembarked  and  traveled  by  Pisa,  renowned  for  its  leaning  tower, 
to  the  beautiful  city  of  Florence,  upon  the  Arno,  the  capital  of 
Tuscany.  Thence  they  set  out  for  Rome,  passing  through  the  old 
city  of  Sienna,  and  among  the  Appenines  by  Lake  Bolsena,  a  pla 
cid  body  of  wrater,  surrounded  by  volcanic  mountains.  All  this 
region  is  a  volcanic  one,  and  the  people  are  almost  as  primitive  as 
their  hills.  They  occupy  the  same  fastnesses,  and  preserve  the 
same  habits  as  in  the  days  of  Romulus  and  Remus.  An  Amer 
ican  gentleman  in  a  high  political  situation  abroad,  mentioned  to 
General  Cass  a  characteristic  incident  which  depicts  the  degraded 
condition  of  the  peasantry.  He  was  passing  a  short  time  at  the 
seat  of  one  of  the  Roman  aristocratic  families  in  this  broken  coun 
try,  delightful  in  a  warm  season.  Grapes  are  the  principal  objects 
of  cultivation,  and  they  are  raised  wherever  the  scanty  vegetation 
allows  the  vine  to  take  root.  The  lady,  the  head  of  the  family, 
was  walking  over  the  domains  with  this  gentleman,  pointing  out 
the  objects  worth  examining,  and  especially  the  modp  of  culture. 
The  laborers  were  busily  employed  in  the  vineyards,  and  some  time 
was  spent  in  looking  at  their  work.  The  lady  became  fatigued, 
and  beckoned  to  one  of  the  men,  who  immediately  approached, 
and  apparently  well  understanding  what  was  wanted,  dropped 
down  upon  his  hands  and  knees,  his  back  thus  forming  a  com 
fortable  seat,  which  the  lady  occupied  with  all  the  nonchalance 
possible.  After  she  was  sufficiently  rested,  she  rose;  her  footstool 
went  away  apparently  well  content  with  a  performance  of  its  duty. 
General  Cass,  wTith  his  family,  remained  at  Rome,  looking  at  all 
the  wonders,  both  ancient  and  modern,  of  the  eternal  city,  and 
thence  traversed  the  fatal  campagna,  to  Civita  Vecchia,  where 
they  re-embarked  on  board  of  the  Constitution,  and  sailed  for 
Palermo,  in  Sicily.  They  found  this  a  large  and  well  built  city, 
but  left  it  after  a  short  detention;  and  passing  around  the  southern 
and  western  coast  of  that  large  island,  and  often  within  sight  of 
it,  they  reached  Malta,  after  a  prosperous  voyage.  This  interest 
ing  island,  the  place  of  St.  Paul's  shipwreck,  is  but  a  few  miles  in 
circumference,  and  the  Constitution  merely  touched  at  it,  continu 
ing  almost  without  delay  her  route  to  the  east.  They  soon  came 
in  sight  of  Cape  Matapan,  the  southern  point  of  Greece,  and  soon 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  341 

reached  the  island  of  Syra,  the  most  commercial  place  in  Greece. 
Near  it  is  the  little  island  of  Delos,  renowned  as  the  birthplace  of 
Apollo,  which  is  now  destitute  of  permanent  inhabitants,  and 
where  General  Cass  found  only  a  few  laborers  engaged  in  making 
lime,  from  the  marble  relics  which  are  scattered  about.  It  requires 
a  strong  imagination  to  contrast  the  present  desolate  condition  of 
this  barren  islet  with  its  splendor  and  magnificence  in  the  days  of 
ancient  superstition.  From  Syra  the  gallant  ship  soon  reached 
the  Pireus,  the  well-known  port  of  Athens.  After  devoting  a 
short  time  to  the  examination  of  the  rich  monuments  of  the  city  of 
Theseus,  General  Cass  set  out  upon  an  expedition  through  Greece. 
He  went  first  to  Eleusis,  the  site  of  the  most  celebrated  mysteries 
of  the  old  world,  thence  across  Mount  Citheron  to  Plata^a,  the 
battle-ground  of  the  great  victory  gained  by  the  Greeks  over  the 
Persians,  and  from  there  to  Leuctra,  where  was  fought  the  battle 
between  the  Thebans  and  the  Spartans,  and  in  which  Epaminon- 
das,  the  Theban  General,  fell  gloriously,  after  the  overthrow  of 
the  hostile  army.  Nothing  remains  of  this  old  city,  and  the  trav 
elers,  devoting  but  a  brief  space  to  recollection  of  the  events  that 
give  it  interest,  continued  their  route  to  the  renowned  city  of 
Thebes.  Here,  too,  time,  the  great  destroyer,  has  swept  away  all 
vestige  of  former  magnificence,  and  a  miserable  village  is  all  that 
remains  to  mark  this  spot  so  celebrated  in  history.  The  journey 
was  continued,  passing  by  the  foot  of  Mount  Helicon,  once  the 
residence  of  the  Muses,  and  which  contained  the  cavern  known 
as  the  Cave  of  Trophonius  to  Chseronea,  the  birth-place  of  Plutarch, 
and  where  was  fought  the  battle  between  Philip  and  the  Boeotians, 
and  which  finally  led  to  the  subjugation  of  Greece.  An  interest 
ing  discovery  had  shortly  before  been  made.  The  two  armies  met 
in  a  narrow  plain,  bounded  by  rocky,  precipitous  hills,  at  the  foot 
of  one  of  which  was  the  city  of  Chseronea,  where  an  immense 
amphitheater,  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  yet  remains  to  show  the 
extent  of  its  population.  A  marble  lion  was  erected  not  long 
after  by  the  Thebans,  in  commemoration  of  their  countrymen  who 
lost  their  lives  there.  An  English  traveler,  reading  the  accounts 
of  the  ancient  historians,  and  comparing  them  with  the  ground, 
thought  that  a  slight  mound  in  the  plain  must  be  the  place  where 
this  marble  lion  was  buried.  He  opened  it,  and  found  this  mon 
ument  of  ancient  patriotism;  one  of  the  most  beautiful  works  of 
antiquity  which  had  been  buried  for  ages.  It  had  just  been  raised, 


342  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  our  travelers  gazed  at  it  with  emotions  almost  of  awe,  indi 
cating,  as  it  did,  the  site  of  one  of  the  most  decisive  battles  of  the 
old  world.  From  thence  the  journey  was  continued  to  Delphi,  the 
world  renowned  seat  of  the  ancient  oracle,  which  occupies  a  cleft 
in  Mount  Parnassus.  The  party  drank  of  the  famous  Castalian 
spring,  and  found  the  water  very  pleasant,  but  felt  no  inspiration 
from  the  draught.  We  submit  to  the  reader  the  following  reflec 
tions,  copied  from  an  address  delivered  by  General  Cass  since  his 
return  from  Europe  : 

"I  have  stood,"  said  the  speaker,  "  upon  the  cliffs  of  Parnassus, 
where  flourished  and  perished  the  city  of  Delphi,  the  renowned 
seat  of  ancient  heathen  superstition,  and  where  all  that  was  pow 
erful  and  great  and  learned,  in  the  old  world,  periodically  assem 
bled  to  implore  the  protection  of  the  gods  of  a  vile  mythology, 
and  to  ask  of  stocks  and  stones — the  works  of  man's  hands — what 
was  to  be  man's  destiny  in  that  untried  future  which  it  is  not  given 
to  created  beings  to  penetrate  or  direct.  Yes ;  the  mighty  and 
the  lowly;  the  warrior,  the  statesman  and  the  philosopher;  the 
Alexanders  and  the  Caesars  and  the  Ciceros,  all  yielded  to  the 
prevailing  credulity,  and  came  to  this  high  place  of  heathen  wor 
ship,  with  oblations  and  requests ;  with  gold  for  the  altar  and 
prayers  for  themselves ;  prayers  for  an  oracular  response  which 
should  shield  them  from  apprehended  misfortune,  or  crown  with 
success  a  contemplated  enterprise.  It  was  a  strange  chapter  in 
the  wayward  history  of  man — this  prostration  of  the  human  intel 
lect  in  many  a  bright  day  of  its  power ;  this  adoration  of  the  beings 
of  a  corrupt  imagination,  usurping  the  prerogatives  of  the  only 
true  and  living  God.  And  splendid  temples  and  palaces,  rich  in 
the  most  gorgeous  architecture,  studded  the  sides  of  the  mountain, 
sending  back,  in  glorious  effulgence,  the  bright  rays  of  a  Grecian 
sun  ;  and  votive  offerings  of  sovereigns  and  states  and  cities,  from 
the  pillars  of  Hercules  to  the  land  of  Ophir ;  monuments  of  the 
victories  of  Marathon  and  Thermopylae  and  Salarnis,  and  of  many 
a  hard  fought  battle  beside,  swelled  the  treasures  of  the  temple 
adorned  with  the  most  precious  works  of  ancient  art.  And  where 
are  they  now,  these  contributions  of  a  blind  superstition,  announc 
ing  at  once  the  wealth  and  weakness  of  its  votaries  ?  Where  are 
the  crowds  of  worshipers,  the  magnificent  processions,  the  impos 
ing  ceremonies,  the  gods  and  the  priests,  which  made  this  rocky 
precipice  the  holy  ground  of  the  ancient  world,  and  yet  sends  th& 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  343 

traveler,  even  from  our  own  distant  hemisphere,  to  explore  its 
recesses,  and  to  reflect  upon  human  folly,  where  the  triumphs  of 
folly  were  the  most  splendid,  and  where  its  reverses  are  now  the 
most  signal  ?  Where  are  they  ?  Gone.  The  oracle  is  silent,  the 
priestess  in  ashes,  the  city  in  dust,  and,  in  this  world  of  mutations, 
human  pomp  and  power  have  never  been  more  signally  rebuked 
than  by  the  desolation  which  has  overtaken  and  overwhelmed  this, 
the  proudest  spot  of  the  ancient  world.  Parnassus  indeed  is  there, 
with  the  clouds  resting  on  its  snowy  summit,  and  the  blue  waves 
of  the  gulf  of  Corinth  rolling  at  its  feet,  while  the  fountain  of  Cas- 
talia  issues  from  its  side,  in  a  stream  as  bright  and  clear  as  when 
its  waters  purified  the  persons  of  the  ministers  and  votaries  of  the 
temple,  but  could  not  cleanse  their  hearts  from  a  debasing  super 
stition.  But  these  are  the  works  of  God  which  mock  the  pride  of 
man  and  bid  defiance  to  his  power ;  witnesses  of  his  change, 
themselves  unchangeable." 

Embarking  upon  the  gulf  of  Lepanto,  the  party  proceeded  on 
their  voyage  to  Gorinth,  examining,  with  interest,  the  shores  of 
that  Grecian  Mediterranean,  renowned  for  scenes  and  events  of 
deathless  celebrity.  They  landed  at  Corinth,  near  the  head  of  the 
gulf,  and  from  which  it  anciently  derived  its  name.  In  the  neigh 
borhood  is  the  place  where  once  stood  Sicyon,  an  early  city  of 
power  and  importance,  but  which  was  in  ruins  fifteen  centuries 
ago.  Its  site  is  now  marked  only  by  broken  pieces  of  pottery— 
those  indestructible  materials  which  alone  remain  to  indicate  the 
places  where  once  were  populous  towns.  Corinth  is  remarkable 
for  its  fortified  hill,  or  Acropolis — a  rock  more  than  two  thousand 
feet  high.  Ascending  it,  the  Constitution  was  visible  on  the 
JEgean  gulf,  but  reduced,  by  the  distance,  from  a  noble  frigate  to 
a  "  cock-boat."  Crossing  the  Isthmus,  where  the  Isthmian  games 
were  formerly  celebrated,  and  which  connects  the  Peloponnessus 
with  the  other  portions  of  Greece,  the  travelers  were  glad  to  find 
themselves  in  comfortable  quarters,  under  the  flag  of  their  country. 
Events  were  wonderfully  compressed  in  ancient  Greece  ;  the  deeds 
and  men,  but  the  area  was  small.  The  whole  country,  indeed, 
was  not  larger  than  one  of  our  counties.  In  one  day  General  Cass 
passed  over  three  of  the  great  battle-fields,  familiar  to  us  from  our 
infancy,  as  household  words,  in  the  pages  of  the  ancient  historians. 
And  Salamis  and  Marathon  might  have  been  added  to  Platrca  and 
Leuctra  and  Cheronea,  in  the  twenty-four  hours.  After  sailing 


344  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

over  the  gulf  of  Salamis,  and  gazing  at  the  spot  where  Xerxes 
sat,  watching  the  progress  of  the  naval  fight  between  the  Greeks 
and  Persians,  the  party  proceeded,  in  the  Constitution,  to  Cape 
Colon  a,  and  thence,  after  surveying  the  ruins  of  the  celebrated 
temple  of  Minerva,  to  the  little  bay,  where,  in  the  words  of  Byron, 
"  Marathon  looks  on  the  sea."  That  great  combat,  looking  as  well 
to  the  circumstances  as  to  the  result,  .was  the  great  battle  of  the 
ancient  world.  No  American  can  approach  this  spot,  hallowed 
by  bravery  and  patriotism,  and  crowned  by  that  success  which  the 
efforts  of  liberty  deserved,  without  the  deepest  emotion.  But  the 
impression  is  the  work  of  association,  and  owes  nothing  to  scenery 
or  monument.  The  battle-field  is  a  narrow  dreary  plain,  lonely 
and  desolate,  shut  in  by  an  arm  of  the  sea  on  one  side  and  by 
rugged  precipitous  mountains  on  the  other.  Greek  and  Persian 
were  once  there  in  deadly  strife ;  but  no  one  is  there  now  to  break 
the  solitude  of  this  memorable  spot.  Nothing  remains  to  indicate 
the  occurrence  of  the  great  event  but  the  mound  or  burrow  in 
which  the  Athenians  deposited  their  dead. 

The  course  thence  was  across  the  ^Egean  sea,  by  Lemnos,  to 
Tenedos,  the  station  of  the  Grecian  fleet  during  the  war  of  Troy. 
These  are  classic  regions,  rendered  sacred  by  poetry  and  narrative 
by  the  history  of  Herodotus  and  by  the  lays  of  Homer. 

Tenedos,  though  it  may  have  been  a  great  dock-yard  for  the 
repair  of  the  fleet  of  Agamemnon,  is  a  small  island  with  a  scanty 
and  poverty-struck  population,  and  with  nothing  interesting  about 
it  but  the  recollection  of  what  it  has  been.  The  plain  of  the 
Troab,  once  the  scene  of  the  most  stirring  events,  if  the  story  of 
Troy  is  not  a  myth,  presented  to  the  travelers  an  interesting  object 
for  examination.  They  went  over  it,  but  like  their  predecessors 
in  this  inquiry,  found  it  impossible  to  reconcile  its  present  condi 
tion  with  the  narrative  of  the  Grecian  bard,  and  the  site  of  the 
city  may  well  be  considered  lost  to  modern  researches,  when  even 
Alexander  the  Great  was  unable  to  find  any  trace  of  it.  Some 
magnificent  remains  yet  exist  of  the  city,  founded  in  this  place  by 
the  Macedonian  conqueror.  From  the  Troab  the  passage  was  up 
the  resounding  Hellespont — now  the  Dardanelles — which  separate 
Europe  from  Asia.  The  tomb  of  Achilles,  being  a  mound  of 
earth  precisely  resembling  our  Indian  mounds,  yet  attracts  the 
gaze  of  the  traveler  on  his  way  through  the  Sea  of  Marmora  to 
Constantinople. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  345 

The  Constitution  had  been  authorized  by  a  firman  of  the  sultan 
to  visit  the  metropolis  of  his  dominions.  Without  such  a  permis 
sion  no  foreign  ship  of  war  can  enter  these  waters.  The  frigate 
anchored  in  the  beautiful  harbor  of  the  Golden  Horn,  where  she 
remained  a  few  days,  enabling  her  passengers  to  examine  this 
seat  of  Mahometan  power,  and  also  to  visit  the  Black  Sea.  From 
the  entrance  into  the  Bosphorus  to  the  mouth  of  the  Hellespont, 
this  great  channel  of  communication  between  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  Mediterranean  presents  objects  of  the  deepest  interest.  Its 
past,  its  present,  and  its  future  engage  the  attention  of  the  world. 
The  successor  of  Rome  in  sovereign  power,  nature  seems  to  have 
marked  the  site  of  Byzantium  or  Constantinople  for  the  capital  of 
a  great  empire,  and  the  contests  for  its  possession,  both  in  ancient 
and  in  modern  days,  testify  to  the  general  importance  attached  to 
it.  The  American  party  found  their  visit  a  deeply  impressive 
one,  and  General  Cass  has  recorded  his  reflections  at  the  sight  of 
one  of  its  monuments,  which  may  not  be  unacceptable  to  the 
reader. 

"  In  the  Hippodrome  of  Constantinople,  in  front  of  the  great 
Basilic  of  St.  Sophia,  now  desecrated  from  a  Christian  temple  to 
a  heathen  mosque,  is  the  tripod,  where  sat  the  Priestess  of  Delphi, 
when  she  delivered  her  oracular  responses  to  those  who  sought 
her  interventions  with  the  deities  of  the  shrines.  It  is  a  brazen 
pillar,  formed  by  three  serpents  intertwined  together,  and  it  was 
placed  over  the  fissure,  whence  issued  the  prophetic  exhalation 
which  shook  the  frame  of  the  Pitha  with  fearful  convulsions,  and 
conferred  upon  her  the  power  of  explaining  the  past  and  of  fore 
telling  the  future. 

"  This  interesting  memorial  was  carried  by  Constantino  to  his 
city  of  the  Bosphorus,  and  its  history  and  authenticity  are  placed 
beyond  doubt  by  the  learning  and  researches  of  Gibbon.  When 
Mahomet  subdued  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  entered  its  capital  at 
the  head  of  his  army,  he  struck  one  of  the  serpents  with  his  sword, 
and  the  mark  is  yet  there  to  attest  the  strength  of  the  conqueror, 
and  the  truth  of  the  narrative.  I  gazed  upon  it  with  uncontroll 
able  emotions,  recalling  its  history  and  the  part  it  had  borne  in 
the  splendid  pageantry  of  heathen  superstition.  It  may  have 
witnessed  the  pilgrimage  of  Alexander  to  implore  the  favor  of 
Apollo,  upon  the  great  enterprise  which  led  him  through  splendid 
triumphs  to  imperishable  renown  and  an  early  grave.  It  may 


346  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

have  heard  the  answer  of  the  priestess  to  the  demand  of  Miltiades, 
to  know  whether  the  liberties  of  Greece  would  perish  upon  the 
plains  of  Marathon.  Aye,  and  Socrates,  and  Plato,  and  Aristides, 
and  even  their  predecessors  in  Grecian  story  and  song!  Homer 
and  Hesiod  may  have  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal,  to  this  footstool  of 
a  false  inspiration,  and  mistaken  the  ravings  of  a  distempered 
imagination,  or  the  devices  of  human  craft,  for  the  decrees  of  the 
Almighty  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth.  The  golden  calf  which 
turned  the  hearts  of  the  Jews,  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  from  the 
God  of  their  fathers,  and  their  own  God,  was  but  the  type  of  his 
class,  one  of  that  vast  family  of  idols  which,  in  all  ages  and 
nations,  have  seized  upon  the  human  affections,  and  sent  men  to 
the  works  of  their  own  hands  for  objects  of  adoration,  and  for 
rulers  of  the  universe.  '  Up,  make  us  gods  which  shall  go  before 
us,'  demanded  the  Israelites  of  Aaron,  when  Moses  was  in  the 
mount.  But  it  is  also  the  demand  of  the  heart  of  man  in  all  times 
of  trial  and  trouble,  till  that  heart  is  touched  by  fire  from  the 
Altar  of  Jehovah,  and  quickened  by  the  Word  of  His  Son,  our 
Savior.  Human  nature  is  driven  instinctively  to  feel  its  depend 
encies  upon  some  unknown  cause.  To  feel  that  beyond  the  nar 
row  circle  of  visual  existence,  there  is,  and  must  be,  a  creating 
and  preserving  power,  which  brought  the  universe  into  being, 
and  may  leave  it  to  perish,  if  left  to  itself.  It  is  a  vast  field  of 
inquiry,  where  man  gropes  blindly  in  a  state  of  nature,  halting, 
hesitating,  seeking,  but  finding  not.  He  can  not  penetrate  the 
abyss.  Profound  darkness  rests  upon  it,  and  the  speculations  of 
the  highest  intellects  of  antiquity,  upon  the  moral  governments 
of  the  world,  and  upon  the  extent  and  duration  of  human  respon 
sibility,  would  provoke  our  contempt,  if  they  did  not  excite  our 
pity,  in  this  bright  day  of  Christian  knowledge.  There  was  not  a 
pantheon  in  the  old  world  whose  gods  were  not  clothed  with  the 
vilest  attributes,  nor  a  single  deity,  male  or  female,  whose  crimes 
would  not  insure  punishment  in  every  well  regulated  tribunal  in 
Christendom.  And  yet,  such  were  thy  gods,  O  Israel !  And 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  was  unknown,  because  unproved  ;  a 
conjecture,  asserted  and  denied,  but  exerting  no  influence  upon 
life  or  opinions,  because  taught  by  no  authority,  and  attended 
with  no  connection  between  our  conduct  here  and  our  fate  here 
after.  '  Son  of  man,'  said  Jehovah  to  his  prophet,  in  the  impress 
ive  vision  of  the  valley  of  the  dry  bones,  'son  of  man,  can  these 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  347 

dry  bones  live?  And  I  answered,  O,  Lord  God,  thou  knowest.' 
Yes,  He  alone  did  know,  but  blessings  upon  His  holy  name,  we 
now  do  know  that  these  dry  bones  shall  again  live,  that  this  mor 
tal  shall  put  on  immortality,  this  corruptibility  incorruption,  and 
that  death  shall  be  swallowed  up  in  victory.  Such  was  the  state 
of  darkness  and  of  doubt,  during  four  thousand  years  of  the 
history  of  the  world,  respecting  the  moral  condition  of  man,  and 
the  great  scheme  of  creation,  till  the  advent  of  the  Savior,  who 
came,  and  announcing  His  mission,  declared  in  these  sublime  terms, 
4 1  am  the  Kesurrection  and  the  Life.'  That  declaration  rent  in 
twain  the  veil  between  time  and  eternity,  and  opened  the  secrets 
of  the  prison  house  to  the  fallen  descendants  of  Adam.  The 
shadowy  creations  of  erring  man  were  struck  down,  his  doubts 
were  dispelled,  his  oracles  were  dumb,  his  faith  was  purified,  and 
he  began  to  comprehend  the  object  of  his  creation,  and  the  great 
plan  of  redemption.  There  is  not  a  child  in  our  land,  advanced 
beyond  the  age  of  infancy,  who  does  not  understand  his  relation 
to  God,  his  state  of  probation  here  and  of  existence  hereafter,  his 
duties  and  their  consequences,  if  fulfilled  or  neglected,  and  all 
that  is  necessary  to  be  known  on  this  side  of  the  grave  and 
beyond  it,  better  than  the  combined  intellect  of  the  ancient 
heathen  world." 

From  Constantinople  the  American  party  retraced  their  route 
to  the  ^Egean  sea,  and  thence  sailed  along  the  coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  passed  the  island  of  Metelin,  the  gulf  of  Smyrna,  and  the 
marshy  plain  of  Ephesus,  to  the  island  of  Scio.  This  beautiful 
spot,  once  the  gem  of  the  archipelago,  had  just  been  devastated 
by  the  Turkish  barbarians,  who  had  committed  deeds  of  atrocious 
cruelty  there,  almost  unprecedented,  even  in  their  bloody  history. 
The  island  had  been  made  a  waste,  and  more  than  half  of  its  pop 
ulation,  which  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  inhab 
itants,  had  been  murdered,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  remainder 
sold  into  slavery.  It  was  lamentable  to  witness  the  ruin  of  such 
a  delightful  spot.  Leaving  Scio,  the  Constitution  passed  various 
islands  of  the  group,  and  among  others,  Patmos,  the  scene  of  the 
revelation  of  St.  John;  and  Khodes,  renowned  in  history. 

It  was  on  the  twenty-ninth  July,  1837,  that,  emerging  from  the 
beautiful  group  of  the  Cyclades,  he  approached  Crete — now  Can- 
dia — the  ancient  kingdom  of  Minos.  He  had  run  down  from 
Constantinople  with  a  favoring  breeze  and  delightful  weather,  and 


348  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

had  passed  the  many  isles  and  islets  which  "  crown"  this  glorious 
"  deep,"  and  which  have  been  the  theater  of  events  that  will  for 
ever  render  them  celebrated.  All  of  them  are  small  specks,  hardly 
distinguishable  upon  the  map  of  the  world,  and  some  of  them  are 
mere  rocks  ;  but  there  is  a  deathless  interest  attached  to  them 
which  time  can  not  annihilate,  and  which  will  survive  all  the  rev 
olutions,  social  and  political,  they  are  destined  to  undergo.  It  was 
not  wealth  nor  power  nor  numbers  which  imposed  upon  the  imag 
ination.  It  was  none  of  these,  nor  the  memory  of  these,  which 
brought  the  trans-Atlantic  pilgrim  from  the  bustle  and  business 
and  enterprise  of  a  new  world,  to  contemplate  these  scenes  of 
former  civilization  and  of  present  decay.  ~No  I  he  rendered  his 
homage  to  a  nobler  idea — to  the  memory  of  genius,  industry, 
advancement  in  civilization,  progress  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  an^ 
the  cultivation  of  whatever  can  best  promote  the  interests  of 
human  nature. 

He  had  passed  by  Lamnos,  Tenedos,  Mitylene — the  ancient  Les 
bos — Scio,  Delos,  Syra  or  Syros,  Paros,  and  other  islands  which 
deck  those  seas,  and  stopped  at  several  of  them,  to  examine  their 
condition  and  to  run  over  their  interesting  remains.  The  com 
pression  of  scenes  and  events  within  a  narrow  compass,  and  the 
powerful  emotions  which  this  short  voyage  is  calculated  to  excite, 
may  be  appreciated  by  this  striking  fact,  that,  at  one  point  of  his 
passage,  he  had  in  view,  at  the  same  moment,  Syra,  Tinos,  Au- 
dros,  Delos,  Mycone,  Noxos,  Paros,  Antiparos,  Siphanto,  and 
Serpho.  He  had  passed,  in  the  distance,  the  island  of  Patmos,  the 
residence  of  St.  John,  and  if  not  the  scene  of  the  revelations  made 
to  him,  the  place  where  he  WTote  the  Apocalypse  which  recorded 
them. 

"  Our  own  internal  seas,"  says  General  Cass  in  his  itinerary, 
"  present  masses  of  water  as  large,  and  some  of  them  larger,  than 
this  'yEgean  deep,'  and  abound  with  picturesque  objects,  almost 
unrivaled  in  the  world.  The  entrance  into  Lake  Superior,  with 
the  shores  embosomed  in  woods,  the  highlands  gradually  opening 
and  receding  on  each  side,  and  the  water  as  clear  as  crystal,  ex 
tending  beyond  the  reach  of  the  eye,  forms  one  of  the  most  striking 
displays  of  natural  beauties  it  has  ever  fallen  to  our  lot  to  witness. 
And  a  scene  almost  equally  impressive,  though  of  a  different  char 
acter,  attends  the  traveler  who  crosses  the  small  arm  of  Lake 
Huron,  between  the  island  of  Michilimackinac  and  the  entrance 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  349 

of  the  Straits  of  St.  Marie,  which  communicate  with  Lake  Superior. 
One  bright  summer  morning  we  found  ourselves  making  this  pas 
sage,  and,  as  the  sun  displayed  his  disc  above  the  water  which 
surrounded  us,  we  were  surprised  by  a  singularly  interesting 
spectacle.  We  w^ere  accompanied  by  a  fleet  of  three  hundred 
Indian  canoes,  which  had  left  Michilimackinac  in  the  night,  in 
order  to  make  the  passage  before  the  wind,  which  strengthens  as 
the  day  advances,  should  render  the  voyage  dangerous  for  the 
frail  birch  vessels  in  which  they  navigate  the  rivers  and  lakes  that 
furnish  them  with  so  much  of  their  subsistence.  These  Indians 
had  made  their  usual  annual  visit  to  Michilimackinac,  to  sell  their 
peltries  and  procure  supplies  of  ammunition  and  clothing,  and  to 
talk  over  their  public  affairs  with  the  representative  of  the  govern 
ment  stationed  there.  They  were  returning  in  high  spirits,  having 
with  them  all  their  families,  as  is  the  usual  custom  of  the  Indians 
in  these  excursions,  and  having,  also,  a  supply  of  the  articles  most 
necessary  to  enable  them  to  contend  with  the  hardships  incident 
to  their  mode  of  life.  The  lake  was  perfectly  smooth,  the  Indians 
animated,  paddling  with  their  utmost  energy,  and  singing  their 
songs  with  a  strength  of  lungs  which  sent  these  far  over  the  water. 
The  whole  display  was  full  of  life,  and  we  recall  it  with  the  most 
pleasant  emotions.  But  these  scenes  upon  the  Indian  border, 
whether  still  or  animated,  are  feeble  in  their  effects  upon  the  human 
mind,  when  compared  with  the  impressions  produced  in  the  theater 
where  we  were  now  moving.  Distance,  however,  nowhere  '  lends 
enchantment  to  the  view'  more  than  here  ;  but  the  nakedness  of 
reality  comes  painfully  to  destroy  some  of  these  delusions  on  a 
near  approach.  All  these  islands  are  destitute  of  timber,  naked 
as  a  vast  prairie,  but  without  one  other  point  of  resemblance. 
They  are  generally  rocky,  broken  by  ravines,  and,  to  the  eye, 
nothing  can  appear  more  sterile.  The  mode  of  culture,  when  they 
are  cultivated,  is  slovenly,  the  inhabitants  indolent,  the  houses 
mean  and  dirty,  and  the  towns  and  villages-  in  a  state  of  decay, 
and  yet  we  visit  them  with  the  deepest  interest.  We  visit  them 
for  what  they  have  been  and  in  spite  of  what  they  are. 

"  One  of  the  most  renowned  is  the  little  islet  of  Delos,  or  rather 
the  two  morsels  of  rock  and  earth  known  under  that  name,  but 
separated  by  a  narrow  channel,  furnishes  the  most  striking  illus 
tration  of  these  remarks,  and  the  most  complete  picture  of  desola 
tion  which  even  these  regions  exhibit.  In  our  lonely  walk  amid 


350  LIFE  AtfD  TIMES 

its  ruins,  we  did  not  meet  a  single  human  being.  What  a  contrast 
between  this  almost  frightful  solitude  and  its  former  condition, 
when  it  was  filled  with  busy  crowds  which  inhabited  it,  or  which 
continually  flocked  to  it  to  worship  at  its  temples,  as  the  Jews 
went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  render  their  devotions  to  the  living  God ! 
The  sanctity  of  this  chosen  spot  is  one  of  the  facts  best  known  in 
the  history  of  ancient  manners.  It  was  the  birth-place  of  Apollo 
and  Diana,  and  its  thrice-famous  temples  were  dedicated  respect 
ively  to  the  brother  and  sister  and  to  their  mother,  Lutona.  Their 
ruins  yet  attest  the  extent  and  splendor  of  these  edifices.  The 
island  was  holy  ground — a  place  of  refuge — where  even  enemies 
were  friends  when  they  met  upon  it.  Livy  relates  an  interesting 
anecdote  upon  this  subject :  A  commission  of  Roman  deputies, 
going  to  Syria  and  Egypt,  were  compelled  to  stop  at  Delos,  where 
they  found  a  number  of  galleys,  belonging  to  the  kings  of  Mace 
donia  and  Purgamos,  at  anchor,  although  these  two  princes  were 
then  at  war.  The  historian  adds,  that  the  Romans,  Macedonians, 
and  Pergamians  met  and  conversed  in  the  temple,  as  though  they 
had  been  friends.  The  sanctity  of  the  place  suspended  all  hostil 
ities.  And  in  this  island,  thus  venerated,  I  saw,  not  the  marbles 
actually  in  the  process  of  being  burnt  into  lime,  but  the  pits  where 
the  lime  had  been  made,  and  where,  perhaps,  some  of  the  most 
beautiful  works  of  antiquity  had  been  prepared  to  form  the  mortar 
for  a  miserable  cottage.  It  is  said  that,  heretofore,  the  inhabitants 
of  My  cone  rented  this  island  from  the  Turkish  government,  at  the 
annual  price  often  crowns  !  Such  a  picture  admits  no  other  trait. 
"  As  the  last  island  of  the  ./Egean  group  sunk  in  the  horizon,  Crete 
rose  before  us,  extending  east  and  west,  and  presenting  its  diver 
sified  shores  to  our  view.  The  aspect  was  rugged,  and  the  coast 
precipitous  and  iron-bound  ;  while,  in  the  interior,  arose  a  range 
of  mountains,  upon  whose  summits  the  clouds  w^ere  resting.  We 
steered  for  the  Bay  of  Suda,  and  entered  it  without  accident,  moor 
ing  our  noble  frigate  in  its  quiet  waters.  This  bay  is  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  ports  in  the  world,  stretching  inland  about  six 
miles,  with  a  breadth  of  three,  capacious  enough  to  contain  the 
most  powerful  navy,  and  with  sufficient  depth  of  water  for  any 
vessel  that  floats.  Its  entrance  is  narrow,  and  divided  by  two 
small  islands,  on  one  of  which  is  a  little  fortress,  completely  com 
manding  the  approach.  We  were  told  that  the  commanding  officer 
was  a  Ion  vivant,  who  loved  wine  better  than  the  koran  ;  and  that 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  351 

the  captain  of  one  of  our  armed  vessels,  who  was  desirous  of  enter 
ing  the  harbor,  but  who  was  prevented  by  the  new  quarantine 
regulations  which  Mehemet  Ali  has  recently  adopted,  found  his 
way  to  the  Egyptian's  heart  through  a  bottle  of  champagne ;  who, 
disregarding  the  fear  of  the  Pasha,  dispensed  with  the  sanitary 
precautions,  and  admitted  his  new  friend  to  pratiqiie  without 
hesitation.  Whatever  doubt  may  be  entertained  respecting  the 
progress  of  the  Turks  in  the  manners  of  the  western  Europeans  in 
other  respects,  there  is  none  in  this — that  the  higher  classes  are 
fast  acquiring  the  habit  of  drinking  wine,  and,  some  of  them,  a 
much  stronger  liquid.  ThQ penchant  of  the  late  sultan  for  this 
indulgence  was  well  known  through  the  empire,  and  could  not  fail 
to  produce,  by  its  example,  a  powerful  influence.  Ibrahim  Pasha 
is  a  confirmed  toper;  and  if  we  should  use  a  harsher  word,  we 
should  convey  a  still  more  just  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  he  carries 
this  habit.  In  Damascus,  we  found  the  table  of  the  Governor- 
General  of  Syria  loaded  with  wine ;  and  his  confidential  friend 
and  physician — a  French  gentleman — observed,  significantly  and 
jocosely,  that  his  patron  had  fifteen  thousand  books  in  his  library. 
We  did  not  need  the  arch  look,  which  accompanied  these  words, 
to  enable  us  to  correct  the  errata :  for  books  read  bottles  of  wine. 

"  Still  this  practice  is  not  altogether  general  nor  public,  and  we 
found  that  much  prejudice  was  excited  against  those  who  indulge 
themselves  too  freely  and  openly. 

"  The  entrance  to  the  bay  of  Suda  is  from  the  east,  and  beyond 
is  a  high  projecting  point,  which  completely  shelters  it  from  the 
sea.  To  the  north  and  south  are  rugged  hills,  but  to  the  west  the 
break  between  the  ridges  continues  and  forms  a  level  valley, 
which  opens  in  about  two  miles  at  the  city  of  Canea.  There  are 
two  small  villages  upon  the  bay,  occupying  the  declivity  of  the 
southern  range  of  hills.  The  scenery  is  not  uninteresting,  re 
lieved  by  little  orchards  of  olive  trees,  that  precious  gift  of  Pro 
vidence,  wrhose  production  is  so  essential  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
east.  The  plain  leading  to  Canca  is  covered  with  a  light  sandy 
soil,  and  abounds  in  water,  which  might  be  used  for  the  purpose 
of  irrigating  the  crops,  but  which  is  almost  wholly  neglected. 
There  are  some  villages  upon  the  route,  and  traces  of  a  consider 
able  population.  Canea  occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient  Cydonia 
—  the  mother  city  of  the  island  —  renowned  for  its  power  and 
opulence,  and  which  was  the  theater  of  many  interesting  events 


352  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

in  the  history  of  Crete.  The  harbor  is  small  and  obstructed  by 
reefs,  and  not  safe  in  a  northern  gale.  The  buildings  are  old, 
and  in  a  state  of  decay,  and  every  thing  shows  that  the  hand  of 
oppression  has  weighed  heavily  upon  the  wretched  population." 

From  the  bay  of  Suda,  General  Cass  sailed  down  the  coast, 
passing  Retimo — the  third  city  in  importance — after  Candia  and 
Canea.  Standing  upon  a  low  cape,  with  a  poorly  sheltered  har 
bor,  and  the  mole  that  formed  it  almost  destroyed,  and  the  channel 
nearly  filled  up  with  the  accumulation  of  sand,  vessels  drawing 
more  than  thirty  tons  could  not  enter,  while  those  of  a  larger  ton 
nage  were  compelled  to  remain  in  an  open  roadstead.  When  he 
arrived  at  Candia — the  capital  of  the  island — he  found  Mehemet 
Ali  there,  with  a  part  of  his  fleet  anchored  before  the  town.  As 
the  American  minister  had  visited  a  suspected  port,  he  would  be 
under  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  quarantine  regulations,  if  he 
stopped  ;  and  not  having  at  his  disposition  the  time  necessary  to 
procure  admission,  he  abandoned  the  island  and  bore  up  for  the 
Holy  Land.  He,  however,  committed  to  paper  his  impressions  of 
the  island  from  the  water. 

"  The  city  of  Candia  presents  rather  an  imposing  aspect  from 
the  sea.  In  its  rear  is  a  range  of  mountains  which  extend  through 
the  island,  and  from  amid  which  the  snow-covered  top  of  Ida  is 
prominently  distinguishable  from  the  rest  of  the  chain.  In  the 
distance,  the  city  is  thrown  with  beautiful  effect  against  this  ridge, 
though  in  fact  it  is  surrounded  by  a  considerable  plain.  The 
mountains,  however,  diminish  much  in  hight,  and  the  chain  is 
almost  interrupted,  so  that  the  gaps  furnish  convenient  routes 
for  traversing  the  island  from  north  to  south.  The  plain  extends 
to  the  base  of  the  ridge  from  which  Ida  projects." 

This  plain,  he  goes  on  to  say,  once  productive,  then  presented 
one  scene  of  desolation.  It  formerly  abounded  in  Olive  trees,  but 
the  ruthless  Turks  had  cut  down  a  large  portion  of  them — being 
of  slow  growth' — the  work  of  centuries,  and  thus  not  only  inflicted 
vengeance  upon  the  present,  but  extended  it  to  succeeding  gen 
erations. 

It  seems  from  the  memoranda  of  General  Cass,  that  the  first  act 
of  oppression  in  the  East,  is  to  cut  down  the  olive  trees  around 
a  village,  and  then  the  labor  of  destruction  is  complete,  for  the 
miserable  hovels  are  not  worth  the  trouble  of  demolition.  He  cites 
as  a  fearful  case  in  point,  the  plain  from  Athens  to  Piraeus,  which 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  353 

was  once  a  magnificent  olive  orchard,  but  that,  when  he  was  there, 
its  superb  trees  had  almost  disappeared  :  and  he  was  told  at 
Athens  of  the  curious  division  of  property,  by  which,  frequently, 
the  ground  belonged  to  one  man,  the  trees  to  another,  and  the 
product  to  another.  He  says  also  that  it  is  a  cardinal  principle  in 
Mahometan  faith,  that  all  the  people  they  subdue,  have  justly 
forfeited  their  lives  ;  and  that  whether  these  shall  be  spared  or 
not,  is  simply  a  question  of  expediency  from  time  to  time.  When 
the  conquered  Rayahs  are  freed  from  military  execution,  this  ex 
ertion  of  Mussulman  mercy  is  not  a  pardon,  but  a  reprieve.  The 
penalty  always  hangs  over  them,  and  is  ransomed  from  year  to 
year  by  a  tax,  constituting  a  considerable  item  in  the  Turkish 
budget.  Every  person  in  the  Turkish  empire,  not  a  Mahometan, 
pays  this  yearly  contribution,  under  the  pretense  of  its  being  due 
to  the  sultan  for  his  clemency  in  permitting  the  infidel  dog  to  live 
under  the  shadow  of  his  throne  during  another  year. 

As  to  intermarriages  betwreen  Moslems  and  Christians,  that  was 
impossible,  because  every  such  union  was  punishable  with  death  : 
and  in  courts  of  justice  the  statement  of  the  latter  was  valueless. 
But,  after  all,  it  seems  that  the  condition  of  the  Greeks,  in  the 
island  of  Crete,  especially,  was  better  than  that  of  the  Mahome 
tans.  The  latter  were  generally  poor,  whilst  the  former,  relieved 
from  some  of  the  oppressions  that  weighed  them  down,  and  find 
ing  their  industry  better  rewarded,  and  their  acquisitions  better 
protected,  are  gradually  advancing  in  improvement.  An  intelli 
gent  informant  told  General  Cass,  that,  four  years  previous  to  that 
time,  scarcely  a  house  was  standing  on  the  whole  island,  or  a  field 
cultivated  ;  but  that  then  the  signs  of  prosperous  industry  met 
the  eye  of  the  traveler  in  every  direction. 

General  Cass  continuing  his  journey  across  the  Mediterranean, 
left  the  frigate  at  Jaffa — the  ancient  Joppa — the  seaport  of  Jerusa 
lem,  from  which  it  is  distant  about  forty  miles.  He  imme 
diately  with  his  family  traveled  across  the  plain  of  Sharon  to 
Ramla,  and  through  the  hill-country  of  Judea  to  Jerusalem. 

The  annihilation  of  space,  occasioned  by  the  introduction  of 
steam  into  navigation,  is  in  nothing  more  wonderfully  exemplified 
than  in  the  time  within  which  it  is  possible  to  travel  from  JSrew 
York  to  Jerusalem.  Any  person  favored  by  circumstances,  may 
reach  Mount  Calvary  within  thirty  days,  and  perhaps  twenty- 
five  days,  after  leaving  Broadway.  Ten  or  thirteen  days  may 
23 


354  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

take  him  to  Liverpool  or  Bristol,  one  or  two  to  Paris,  one  to  Mar 
seilles,  eight  or  ten  to  Syra,  four  to  Jaffa,  and  one  from  there  to 
Jerusalem.  And  the  French  steamboats,  plying  upon  the  Medi 
terranean  to  Syra,  to  Alexandria,  to  Greece,  to  Smyrna,  and  to 
Constantinople,  are  safe  and  pleasant  vessels,  and  well  found,  in 
all  respects. 

From  Jerusalem,  an  excursion  was  made  to  Bethlehem,  the 
birth  place  of  the  Savior — and  into  the  country  around  Jerusalem, 
And  the  party  made  the  necessary  preparations,  and  traveled  by 
the  way  of  Bethany  to  Jericho,  the  Jordan  and  the  Dead  Sea. 

Returning  to  Jerusalem,  preparations  were  soon  made  for  a 
journey  to  Damascus.  The  ladies  of  the  party  rode  in  a  primi 
tive  manner,  two  of  them  counter-balancing  each  other  in  a  bas 
ket,  slung  across  a  mule,  and  led  by  an  Arab.  They  were  often 
struck  with  the  devotion  manifested  by  their  faithful  guard,  wrho 
three  times  n  day  stopped,  and  in  conformity  with  the  injunction 
of  the  Koran,  turned  to  Mecca  and  recited  his  prayers  with  much 
apparent  sincerity.  Everything  required  for  the  comfort  of  the 
party  was  taken  along,  and  the  only  drawback  was  the  intense 
heat  of  the  weather.  The  country  was  quiet  under  the  stern  gov 
ernment  of  Mehemet  Ali,  and  when  General  Cass  mentioned,  in 
Alexandria,  to  that  despotic  ruler,  that  a  traveler  could  pass  as 
safely  through  his  dominions  as  through  any  part  of  Europe,  he 
seemed  very  much  pleased  with  the  remark.  The  Pacha  of  Jeru 
salem  furnished  the  party  with  an  Egyptian  captain  to  accompany 
them,  to  obviate  any  difficulties  which  might  occur.  This  man 
wras  a  fit  representative  of  his  master,  and  his  conduct  but  too 
well  proved  the  miserable  subjugation  to  which  the  country  was 
reduced.  For  the  slightest  cause  of  offense,  sometimes  without 
any,  he  was  unsparing  in  his  blows,  and  at  Nazareth  he  drove 
away  the  villagers  from  their  w^ell,  because  they  did  not  yield 
their  places  to  the  strangers  with  such  promptitude  as  he  required. 

The  route  from  Jerusalem  was  to  Nablouse,  formerly  Sichen, 
where  the  travelers  encamped  at  Jacob's  well,  and  thence  to 
Nazareth  and  Cana,  and  to  the  city  of  Tiberias,  which  had  just 
been  reduced  to  desolation  by  an  earthquake,  and  to  the  sea  of 
Galilee,  and  from  there  by  Saffed,  the  sacred  city  of  the  Jews,  by 
the  waters  of  Merom,  and  by  Jacob's  Bridge  across  the  Jordan  to 
Damascus. 

This  ancient  city  existed  in  the  days  of  Abraham.     It  is  at  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  355 

foot  of  the  great  chain  of  Anti  Lebanon,  on  a  plain  watered  by 
the  beautiful  streams,  the  Parphar  and  Abama  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  the  plain  stretches  off  until  it  is  lost  in  the  interminable 
sand y  desert,  'T  is  rich,  fertile  and  highly  cultivated.  A  day  or 
two  was  employed  in  the  examination  of  the  city  and  its  environs, 
-but  no  ancient  monument  remains  to  point  out  the  site  of  any 
particular  event.  General  Cass  visited  those  old  regions  neither 
in  a  weak  spirit  of  credulity  which  believes  everything,  nor  of 
rigid  incredulity  which  believes  nothing.  Some  of  the  tradition 
ary  stories  are  mere  idle  legends,  unworthy  of  serious  considera 
tion,  while  others  are  probable  and  well  deserving  of  confidence. 
The  sites  of  the  most  interesting  cities,  Jerusalem,  Tyre,  Sidon, 
Damascus  and  others,  are  fixed  beyond  controversy,  arid  the 
events  which  made  them  remarkable  passed  within  such  narrow 
spaces,  that  the  pilgrim  may  well  be  satisfied  he  is  near  or  upon 
them — near  enough  for  the  indulgence  of  that  power  of  associa 
tion  which  enables  us  to  overlook  the  present,  and  connects  us 
with  days  and  deeds  forever  memorable  in  history. 

From  Damascus  the  journey  led  across  Anti  Lebanon  to  Baal- 
bee,  celebrated  for  the  magnificent  Temple  of  the  Sun,  one  of  the 
most  imposing  structures  which  have  come  down  to  us  from 
antiquity,  and  thence  across  Lebanon  by  Eden  and  the  Cedars, 
well  known  spots  in  the  mountain  ridge  described  by  many  trav 
elers,  and  on  to  Tripoli  in  Syria.  There  the  Constitution  was 
found,  which  conveyed  the  party  to  Beyroot,  whence  they  pro 
ceeded  along  the  coast  to  the  city  of  Sidon.  The  prophecies  of 
the  Scripture  are  literally  fulfilled  in  the  destruction  which  has 
fallen  upon  this  city  and  upon  her  renowned  neighbor,  Tyre.  Our 
travelers  actually  saw  the  fishermen  drying  their  nets  upon  the 
ruins  of  this  old  capital  of  the  Phoenicians. 

From  Sidon  General  Cass  made  an  excursion  into  the  chain  of 
Lebanon,  upon  a  visit  to  Lady  Hester  Stanhope  and  to  the  Emir 
Besheir,  the  prince  of  the  Druses,  the  rather  mysterious  aborigi 
nal  population  of  the  Lebanon  chain.  He  found  Lady  Hester 
Stanhope,  the  niece  of  the  younger  Pitt,  and  the  granddaughter 
of  the  great  Earl  of  Chatham,  occupying  a  stone  hovel  upon  the 
top  of  one  of  the  most  arid  hills  in  Syria.  This  eccentric  lady,  if 
she  had  not  actually  embraced  the  Mahometan  faith,  certainly  in 
clined  to  favor  it.  Some  years  before,  she  had  sought  the  society 
of  the  Arabs,  taking  with  her  much  wealth  which  she  freely 


356  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

distributed,  and  by  this  means  acquired  great  influence  over  the 
\vild  tribes.  She  was  hailed  by  them  Queen  of  Palmyra,  and  a 
word  from  her  to  the  proper  chiefs  was  a  safeguard  to  the  traveler 
seeking  that  distant  city.  But  she  gave  till  she  had  nothing  more 
to  give,  and  as  her  wealth  disappeared,  her  influence  diminished, 
and  she  finally  abandoned  them  in  disgust,  and  took  refuge  among 
the  precipitous  hills,  a  few  miles  from  Sidon.  The  party  found 
her  there,  dressed  in  a  Turkish  robe,  with  a  turban  on  her  head, 
and  smoking  a  long  pipe.  Her  conversation  was  wild  and  some 
what  disconnected,  but  still  interesting,  for  she  had  seen  much  of 
life  both  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  her  communications  were  free, 
and  her  comments  upon  men  and  things  were  without  much  re 
straint.  Her  visitors  left  her  with  melancholy  impressions,  from 
her  changed  circumstances  and  lonely  condition. 

Deir  El  Kamar  is  the  residence  of  the  Emir  Besheir  and  the 
seat  of  the  Druse  sovereignty.  This  prince  holds  his  authority 
from  the  sultan,  while  at  the  same  time  he  is  the  hereditary  ruler 
of  his  people.  He  occupies  a  very  splendid  residence,  where  the 
party  passed  the  night,  and  returned  the  next  day  to  Sidon,  and 
continued  their  journey  to  Tyre.  The  day  was  intensely  hot,  and 
shortly  before  arriving  at  the  city,  the  travelers  stopped  and  took 
refuge  from  the  weather  in  an  old  stone  tomb.  After  some  time 
they  heard  the  distant  sound  of  military  music,  and  looking  out, 
they  perceived  a  party  approaching.  It  proved  to  be  a  detach 
ment  of  the  garrison  of  Tyre,  led  by  the  governor,  as  swarthy  a 
negro  as  Ethiopia  ever  sent  forth.  He  had  come  out  to  do  honor 
to  the  American  Minister,  who  had  been  commended  by  the  gov 
ernment  to  the  authorities  in  Syria  and  Palestine.  The  governor 
was  invited  to  take  a  glass  of  champagne,  which  he  tasted  without 
the  slightest  Mahometan  prejudice,  following  the  example  of  the 
reigning  sultan.  After  a  short  time  a  procession  was  formed,  and 
the  negro  governor  with  his  detachment  marched  in  front,  followed 
by  the  American  party,  and  thus  they  entered  the  old  city  of  Tyre 
across  the  causeway  by  which  Alexander  joined  the  island  to  the 
continent.  What  a  contrast  between  the  entrance  of  the  Mace 
donian  conqueror  and  the  strangers  from  the  Western  wrorld,  led 
by  such  a  governor,  followed  by  such  troops. 

After  some  time,  General  Cass  wishing  to  make  a  return  for  the 
politeness  he  had  received,  sent  a  messenger  to  the  Pasha's  resi 
dence  to  inquire  where  he  could  wait  upon  the  great  man.  He 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  357 

received  for  answer  from  the  secretary,  that  his  master  was  drunk 
and  asleep,  and  that  as  soon  as  he  should  be  awake  and  sober, 
General  Cass  should  be  informed,  so  that  he  could  make  his  call. 

From  Tyre  the  journey  was  continued  through  Acre,  and  over 
Mount  Carmel,  and  by  Cessarea  to  Jaffa.  There  the  Constitution 
received  the  travelers,  and  sailed  for  Cyprus,  the  island  of  Venus, 
and  disembarked  them  at  the  port  of  Larneca.  After  looking 
around  its  neighborhood,  an  expedition  was  planned  into  the  in 
terior  of  the  island,  and  the  party  visited  the  capital,  Nicosia,  the 
seat  of  government  and  the  last  position  surrendered  by  the  Vene 
tians  to  the  Turkish  power.  The  remains  of  the  haughty  republic 
are  every  where  visible,  and  the  fortifications  are  yet  furnished 
by  the  artillery  that  she  surrendered.  The  Pasha  was  a  Turk  of 
the  old  school.  He  did  not  wear  the  Fez  cap  nor  the  other  cos 
tume  prescribed  by  the  sultan.  His  full  turban  and  his  flowing 
robes  showed  that  in  his  feelings  he  belonged  to  a  past  age,  and 
from  the  remoteness  of  his  position,  he  did  not  much  trouble  him 
self  about  his  responsibility.  Wherever  General  Cass  had  previ 
ously  come  in  contact  with  the  Turkish  authorities,  he  had  been 
treated  with  much  deference  and  attention  ;  and  afterwards,  even 
Mehemet  Ali  rose  from  his  divan,  and  advanced  to  meet  him  as 
he  entered  the  apartment.  But  the  Pasha  of  Cyprus  attempted 
to  play  another  part.  He  sat  still  without  inviting  his  guest  to 
take  a  seat  beside  him.  But  General  Cass  met  and  rebuked  his 
incivility  by  a  prompt  movement.  The  large  chamber  of  audience 
was  filled  with  Turkish  officers  and  attendants,  and  General  Cass, 
as  soon  as  he  perceived  the  part  the  Pasha  intended  to  play,  re 
placed  his  hat  upon  his  head,  which  he  had  removed,  and  walked 
up  to  the  divan,  and  coolly  took  his  seat  beside  the  governor. 
This  step  answered  the  purpose,  for  pipes  and  coffee,  the  evidence 
of  Turkish  hospitality,  were  immediately  introduced,  and  the  in- 
terviewr  passed  off  very  agreeably. 

From  Cyprus  the  voyage  was  continued  to  Egypt,  and  the  Con 
stitution  came  to  anchor  in  the  port  of  Alexandria.  Mehemet  Ali 
was  then  at  that  city,  and  General  Cass  had  an  interview  with 
him.  He  was  an  able  man,  and  had  raised  himself  by  his  own 
exertions  to  the  throne  of  the  Pharaohs  and  the  Ptolemys.  He 
conversed  with  much  freedom,  and  his  manners  were  polished. 
He  had  the  most  prodigious  white  beard,  perhaps,  to  be  found  in 
the  east,  of  which  he  was  evidently  proud.  There  are  not  many 


358  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

existing  objects  around  Alexandria  worthy  of  attention.  What 
there  are  were  looked  at  by  the  party,  who  there  embarked  on 
board  a  boat  and  passed  through  the  canal  to  the  Nile.  They 
entered  that  river  and  ascended  it  to  Cairo.  It  is  a  prodigious 
stream,  running  almost  two  thousand  miles  without  a  tributary, 
a  fact,  as  Humboldt  says,  without  example  in  the  hydrography  of 
the  globe.  It  resembles  the  Missouri,  for  its  current  is  equally 
strong  and  the  water  turbid,  boiling  and  eddying  in  its  course, 
almost  an  object  of  fear.  Cairo  and  its  vicinity  furnish  many 
objects  of  interest,  and  these  were  not  neglected  by  the  party. 
Among  others  was  Heleopolis,  or  On,  in  the  land  of  Goshen, 
where  one  of  those  massive  columns,  covered  with  hieroglyphics 
peculiar  to  Egyptian  architecture,  is  yet  standing  in  a  deserted 
spot,  the  sole  memorial  of  departed  greatness. 

A  journey  to  the  Pyramids  was  of  course  not  neglected.  These 
massive  structures  have  so  often  been  described,  as  render  any 
peculiar  reference  to  them  unnecessary.  General  Cass  ascended 
the  great  pyramid  of  Cheops,  and  there  explored  its  various 
chambers,  together  with  its  subterranean  grottos  beneath.  These 
prodigious,  but  apparently  useless  works,  for  ages  have  excited 
the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  will  hereafter  continue  to  do  so, 
for  they  may  bid  defiance  to  the  effects  of  time.  From  Alexan 
dria  the  homeward  voyage  to  Toulon,  by  the  way  of  Minorca, 
where  quarantine  was  performed,  was  prosperous,  and  the  party 
landed  upon  the  shores  of  France,  without  a  single  untoward 
accident. 

From  the  above  itinerary  it  will  be  at  once  seen  how  interesting 
an  outline  is  presented  for  the  observations  of  our  distinguished 
tourist,  and  the  contemplation  of  the  reader.  The  limits  of  this 
work  will  not  permit  us  to  follow  him  minutely  in  his  path,  and 
we  must  be  content  with  presenting  a  few  of  his  memoranda, 
because  they  are  descriptive  of  interesting  scenes  and  incidents 
that  occurred  as  he  passed  along  the  route. 

He  states  that  the  Nile,  in  its  general  features,  bears  a  strong 
resemblance  to  the  Missouri.  The  water  has  the  same  thick,  tur 
bid  appearance,  bringing  down  with  it  an  immense  quantity  of 
the  soil  of  the  upper  regions,  carried  off  by  the  rains  or  fallen  from 
the  banks,  undermined  by  the  action  of  the  current.  It  is  lighter 
colored  than  the  water  of  the  Missouri,  but  equally  impervious  to 
the  view,  it  being  impossible  to  discern  an  object  in  either  stream 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  359 

an  inch  below  the  surface.  "  The  strength  of  the  two  currents  we 
should  judge  to  be  about  the  same,  equaling,  certainly,  five  or  six 
miles  an  hour ;  and  both  exhibit  that  turbulent,  agitated  appear 
ance  indicative  of  great  depth  and  velocity,  and  wThich  can  not  be 
regarded  without  awe.  The  Nile,  where  the  Mahmondieh  canal 
enters  it,  must  be  a  mile  broad  ;  and,  when  it  is  considered  that 
the  Damietta  branch,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Delta,  is  of  equal 
size,  and  that  there  are  a  number  of  other  passages,  which  convey 
that  water  either  to  the  sea  or  to  the  lakes,  which  are  filled  during 
the  inundation,  we  may  form  some  conception  of  this  great  Abys 
sinian  outlet.  We  ascended  it  at  the  hight  of  the  inundation.  At 
Cairo,  the  minimum  of  this  hight,  above  low  water,  is  six  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  fifty-seven  metres  ;  its  medium  seven  thousand 
four  hundred  and  nine  metres  ;  and  its  maximum  seven  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  sixty-one.  To  this,  if  we  add  the  general  depth 
of  the  stream  at  low  water,  equal  to  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  thirty  metres,  we  shall  have  nine  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
ninety-one  metres  for  the  depth  at  the  period  of  the  greatest  ele 
vation.  It  preserves  this  altitude,  or  nearly  so,  for  many  days  ; 
because,  as  it  approaches  or  recedes  from  it,  its  changes  are  slow; 
and  all  this  immense  mass  of  water  is  furnished  by  the  regions 
south  of  Egypt.  For  a  thousand  miles  there  is  not  only  no  tribu 
tary  stream,  but  evaporation,  the  aridity  of  the  soil,  and  the 
purposes  of  agriculture  are  continually  diminishing  the  volume. 
From  the  earliest  period  it  has  rolled  down  this  mighty  mass  with 
the  certainty  and  precision  of  the  revolving  seasons,  generally  with 
a  quantity  sufficient  to  irrigate  the  soil,  and  to  prepare  it  for  its 
destined  crop,  but  sometimes,  indeed,  with  a  diminished  supply, 
followed  by  periods  of  scarcity  or  famine,  like  that  recorded  in  the 
history  of  Joseph,  '  when  the  famine  was  very  sore  ;  that  the  land 
of  Egypt  and  all  the  land  of  Canaan  fainted  by  reason  of  the 
famine.'  The  Nile  had,  no  doubt,  failed  to  attain  the  necessary 
elevation,  and  sterility  and  want  wrere  the  consequences." 

General  Cass  visited  Ibrahim  Pacha,  and  found  him  a  heavy 
looking  man,  exhibiting  decided  effects  of  dissipation  ;  and  it  was 
a  well  known  fact  that  he  habitually  indulged  in  intoxication.  lu 
the  Morea  and  in  Syria  he  had  exhibited  military  skill,  but  sullied 
by  the  most  atrocious  cruelty.  As  to  protection  from  oppression, 
the  word  was  not  known  in  all  his  viceroyalty.  No  man's  person  or 
property  was  safe  for  a  day.  The  Imperial  Manslayer,  was  one  of 


360  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

the  titles  of  the  Grand  Seignor,  and  was  not  a  barren  one.  But, 
as  all  governments  have  some  practical  check,  so,  in  this  case,  the 
royal  butcher  was  restricted  to  forty  victims  a  day.  In  like  man 
ner,  the  Captain  Pasha  has  the  right  to  put  to  death  the  persons 
of  his  suite,  and,  jwrhaps,  the  marines  serving  his  fleet.  General 
Cass  understood  that  this  high  officer  had  recently,  when  at  Con 
stantinople,  lost  a  favorite  diamond  aigrette,  given  to  him  by  the 
Sultan  ;  and  not  being  able  to  find  it  at  a  moment  when  he  desired 
to  visit  his  master,  in  a  fit  of  passion  he  threw  one  of  his  servants 
into  the  Bosphorus,  and  blew  out  the  brains  of  another  with  a 
pistol. 

The  conduct  of  the  Egyptian  government,  in  the  excavation  of 
the  Mahmondieh  canal,  furnished  another  illustration  of  the  reck 
less  disregard  of  human  rights  and  human  life.  Instead  of  a  just 
and  systematic  arrangement  for  the  employment  and  subsistence 
of  the  necessary  laborers,  the  miserable  Fellahs  were  literally 
driven  from  their  villages,  and  compelled  to  work  on  this  canal. 
It  was  computed  that  not  less  than  three  hundred  thousand  were 
thus  seized,  of  whom,  at  least,  twenty -five  thousand  perished  from 
hunger,  fatigue,  and  the  hardships  incident  to  want  and  exposure. 
They  were  furnished  with  no  instruments  of  labor,  but  the  earth 
was  dug  with  their  hands,  and  carried  away  in  the  miserable  rags 
which  barely  covered  their  nakedness.  Fortunately,  in  one  respect, 
for  them  at  least,  the  soil  was  alluvial,  and  without  a  stone  on  the 
whole  route.  The  country  was  almost  a  dead  level,  and  there  was 
not  a  lock  upon  the  canal.  There  is  a  sluice  at  each  end,  to  regu 
late  the  admission  and  escape  of  the  water,  but  no  means  for  the 
passage  of  boats.  The  work,  in  fact,  is  a  large  ditch,  without 
science  in  the  plan  or  skill  in  the  execution.  It  is  so  crooked  that 
the  distance  is  probably  increased  one  third,  without  the  slightest 
necessity  for  this  deviation  from  a  direct  line,  and,  apparently, 
because  chance  assigned  to  the  laborers  their  stations.  Traveling, 
though,  was  perfectly  safe,  and  the  police  admirable.  All  the 
agents  of  the  government,  from  the  Pasha  down,  are  possessed  of 
unlimited  power,  arid  everything  gives  way  before  its  use  and 
abuse.  At  Boulah,  the  port  of  Cairo,  he  saw  police  officers 
impress  a  crew  for  the  boats  which  had  been  assigned  him,  by 
pushing  into  a  crowd  with  a  long  rope,  and  sending  on  board  all 
who  were  encircled  in  it,  without  the  slightest  regard  to  any 
arrangements  for  their  pay  or  subsistence.  General  Cass?  however^ 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  361 

in  this  instance,  saw  to  it,  that  they  had  their  pay  and  whole 
some  fare  on  that  voyage  up  the  Nile  in  a  canga,  wafted  either 
by  the  wind  or  slowly  dragged  by  the  boatmen. 

But  the  Egyptian  police  fulfilled  this  duty  in  their  own  peculiar 
way.  The  government  ordered  them  to  render  the  pilgrims  from 
the  far  west  to  the  shrines  of  the  east,  any  assistance  that  might 
be  necessary  for  the  objects  of  their  voyage.  There  was  a  crowd 
upon  the  shore,  gazing  on  the  strangers  and  their  preparations. 
Two  turban ed  agents  seized  the  ends  of  a  rope,  and,  passing  rap 
idly  into  the  assembly,  enclosed  within  it  a  sufficient  number  for 
the  purpose,  serving  this  Mahometan  writ  as  coolly,  and  with  as 
little  resistance,  as  would  attend  the  proceedings  of  a  constable  in 
this  country,  who  should  summon  a  man  before  a  justice  of  the 
peace,  for  a  debt  of  five  dollars. 

He  passed  over  the  site  of  Memphis.  Here  there  were  no  ruins 
—no  food  for  the  senses ;  all  belongs  to  the  imagination.  One 
monument  only  survives  to  tell  the  traveler  where  this  proud 
capital  of  the  ancients  stood.  Some  years  before,  a  huge  statue 
was  discovered  in  this  place,  and  had  fortunately  escaped  the 
hunters  of  curiosities.  It  was  a  landmark,  and  little  doubt  exists 
that  it  was  placed  there  by  Sesostus,  in  front  of  the  temple  of 
Yulcan,  in  Memphis.  By  the  conoscenti  it  is  considered  an  admi 
rable  specimen  of  ancient  art,  and  to  him  even,  having  no  claims 
to  virt^  it  presented  a  most  interesting  spectacle.  It  lies  with  its 
face  downwards,  and  is  nearly  perfect  to  the  knees.  It  is  forty- 
five  feet  in  hight. 

"  Memphis,"  says  the  General,  "  is  situated  in  what  we  should 
call  a  'bottom^  running  from  the  Libyan  highlands  to  the  Nile. 
The  position  must  have  been  a  low  one,  and,  we  should  suppose, 
insalubrious.  It  is  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Pyramids, 
which  are  erected  upon  a  ridge,  putting  out  from  the  main  chain, 
and  much  lower.  We  counted,  at  Saccarah,  seventeen  within 
view,  of  different  magnitudes,  and  in  every  state  of  decay.  Near 
Saccarah,  I  visited  the  tombs  of  the  birds — among  the  most  curious 
and  interesting  objects  in  Egypt,  not  so  much  in  themselves  as 
through  the  illustration  they  afford  of  the  character  of  the  ancient 
inhabitants  and  their  superstitions.  The  superstitious  veneration 
exhibited  by  the  ancient  Egyptians  for  certain  animals  while  alive 
and  for  their  remains  when  dead,  is  among  the  most  extraordinary 
facts  recorded  of  the  waywardness  of  man.  We  should  be  tempted 


362  LIFE  AXD  TIMES 

to  doubt  the  accounts  which  have  come  down  to  us  had  not  irre 
fragable  evidence  of  their  veracity  come  down  with  them  in  these 
Necropoles.  The  ancient  historians  tell  us  that  killing  an  ibis  or 
hawk  was  a  crime  punished  with  death ;  that  cats  were  salted  and 
buried  in  the  city  of  Bubastes;  that  bitches  and  ichneumons  were 
buried  in  consecrated  chests,  where  they  happened  to  die ;  that 
hawks  were  removed  to  the  city  of  Butes,  and  ibises  to  Hermopo- 
lis ;  that  others  were  venerated  ;  and  that  fishes,  eels,  and  serpents 
were  buried  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter.  What  a  picture  of  human 
weakness  !  And  immense  receptacles  were  prepared  under  ground 
to  contain  the  carcasses  of  these  animals.  Their  extent  exceeds 
all  conception.  The  remains  are  found  in  earthen  jars,  and  piled 
in  immense  layers,  one  upon  another.  I  went  to  the  door  of  one 
of  these  catacombs,  but  thus  far  shalt  ihou  go  and  no  further  was 
proclaimed  to  me  by  a  latitude  which  prohibited  all  passage 
through  the  narrow  entrance,  except  to  those  who  had  been  more 
ascetic  than  myself.  I  left  to  my  smaller  companions  to  penetrate 
into  these  chambers  of  Egyptian  superstition,  while  I  amused  my 
self  in  the  sand  on  the  outside,  during  ^pleasant  day  in  September, 
under  an  African  sun,  in  examining  the  jars  and  their  contents. 
I  was  struck  here,  as  elsewhere,  with  the  character  of  indestructi 
bility  which  seems  to  attach  to  the  rude  pottery  of  the  ancients. 
Whether  it  be  the  nature  of  the  manufacture,  or  the  state  of  the 
climate,  which  confers  such  durability  upon  this  apparently  fragile 
material,  I  know  not.  Perhaps  both  contribute  to  the  result." 

The  memorable  journey  of  the  children  of  Israel  has  furnished 
a  theme  for  criticism  and  examination  for  critics  and  commenta 
tors,  from  the  earliest  period  of  the  church.  Our  distinguished 
traveler  found  insurmountable  difficulties  in  tracing  the  exact 
route  of  this  large  caravan,  and  in  identifying  the  site  of  each 
encampment,  as  they  proceeded,  day  by  day,  on  their  immortal 
pilgrimage.  A  cycle  of  four  thousand  years  had  passed  since  the 
wonderful  event.  Nations  had  risen  and  decayed  in  the  mean 
time.  The  face  of  the  country  had  changed.  Many  a  fountain 
had  been  choked  by  the  sands  of  the  desert,  and  many  a  fertile 
spot  laid  waste.  The  only  wonder,  indeed,  is,  that  so  much 
remains  to  attest  the  truth  of  a  narrative,  written  forty  centuries 
before.  It  was  true  the  Red  Sea  remained  ;  Mount  Sinai  was 
there,  and  so  were  the  mountains  of  Seir.  The  face  of  the  coun 
try  remained,  with  its  sands  increased  and  its  oasis  diminished — 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  363 

the  necessary  consequence  of  the  loss  of  its  population  and  agri 
culture  —  but  with  its  general  features  unchanged  ;  and  also 
remained  as  unchanged  as  any  of  these,  the  character,  manners 
and  customs  of  the  nomadic  tribes,  who  then,  as  now,  roved  over 
the  country  with  their  flocks  and  herds. 

"  '  Would  to  God  we  had  died  in  the  land  of  Egypt,'  was  the 
emphatic  declaration  of  the  moving  multitude,"  says  the  General, 
in  his  memoranda.  During  their  whole  route,  whenever  any 
difficulty  occurred,  they  contemned  the  injunctions  of  their  divine 
guide,  and  the  remonstrances  of  their  faithful  leader,  whose  task, 
looking  at  the  nature  of  the  regions  he  traversed,  and  the  number 
and  temperament  of  his  countrymen,  was  one  of  the  most  irksome 
and  responsible  on  record;  and  they  longed  for  the  "flesh,"  and 
the  "fish,"  and  the  "cucumbers,"  and  the  "melons,"  and  the 
"leeks,"  and  the  "onions,"  and  the  "garlics"  of  Goshen.  And, 
by  the  by,  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  how,  in  these  instances,  as  in  so 
many  others,  the  Scripture  narratives  are  corroborated  by  the 
existing  habits  and  manners  of  the  eastern  nations.  Every  trav 
eler  in  Egypt  must  have  observed  the  immense  quantity  of  these 
vegetables  which  are  consumed  there,  and  the  large  proportion 
which  they  furnish  of  the  subsistence  of  the  inhabitants.  And  it 
is  thus  we  every  day  receive  some  new  confirmation  of  the  truth 
of  the  oldest  and  most  authentic  record  of  human  history. 

When  General  Cass  was  approaching  Jerusalem,  the  city  whose 
associations  are  as  imperishable  as  the  eternal  hills  that  environ 
it,  he  says  his  impressions  were  somewhat  different  from  Ameri 
can  and  English  travelers  who  had  preceded  him.  He  thought 
that  the  difference  in  these  pictures  of  impressions  was  not  owing 
solely  to  the  difference  in  the  constitutions  of  the  artists  who  drew 
them.  "  Jerusalem  is  upon  an  inclined  plane,  opening  to  the 
north-east,  and  presents  its  fairest  prospects  to  the  traveler  ap 
proaching  it  upon  the  road  from  Damascus.  But,  from  the  south 
the  eye  meets  the  higher  part  of  the  city,  and  rests  almost  exclu 
sively  upon  its  bleak  hill  and  upon  its  dark  and  naked  wall.  It 
is  indeed  no  longer  '  fretted  with  golden  pinnacles,'  but  neither 
did  it  strike  me  to  be  so  utterly  disconsolate  in  its  appearance,  as 
some  have  said.  Tradition  has  marked  the  spot  of  every  interest 
ing  incident  which  the  Scriptures  record  as  having  occurred 
within  its  walls.  Credulity  and  skepticism  have  equally  exam 
ined  and  discussed  these  legendary  tales.  But  probably  not  one 


364  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

stone  of  ancient  Jerusalem  remains  in  its  place.  The  guides  point 
to  a  part  of  the  foundation  of  the  walls  facing  the  valley  of  Jehos- 
haphat,  where  are  some  large  blocks,  apparently  of  an  earlier  age 
than  the  rest  of  the  structure,  and  consider  these  as  the  relics  of 
the  ancient  city.  But  this  is  a  mere  conjecture,  resting  upon  no 
established  proof.  Jerusalem  has  been  swept  with  the  besom  of 
destruction.  The  imprecations  against  her  have  been  fulfilled. 
The  Assyrian,  the  Greek,  the  Koman,  the  Crusader,  the  Turk,  the 
Egyptian,  have  marched  over  its  walls,  and  established  their 
camps  in  its  holy  places.  Superstition,  fanaticism,  revenge,  have 
conspired  to  sweep  away  its  monuments,  and  to  make  it  desolate. 
The  great  features  of  its  topography  no  human  power  can  change. 
They  have  been  imperishably  marked  out  by  an  Almighty  hand. 
Its  site  occupies  the  projecting  point  of  a  high  hill,  bounded  on 
the  east  by  a  deep,  narrow  valley,  successive  portions  of  which 
were  called  the  valley  of  Kedron,  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  of  Siloam, 
in  the  bottom  of  which  flows  the  brook  Kedron,  and  on  the 
south-west  and  south,  by  the  valley  of  Sihon,  where  trickles  the 
little  stream  called  Gihon.  These  rivulets  unite  a  short  distance 
below  the  pool  or  spring  of  Siloam,  and  wind  their  way  among 
broken  mountains  to  the  Dead  Sea.  On  the  north-west  the  city 
joins  the  table  land  of  the  country,  and  it  is  in  this  direction  that 
it  has  been  successively  enlarged  and  contracted,  as  prosperity  or 
adversity  augmented  or  diminished  its  population.  And  although 
it  has  been  said  that  the  ancient  city  extended  across  the  valley 
of  Gihon,  yet  the  conjecture  has  been  advanced  solely  to  render 
the  legendary  sites  of  some  of  the  miraculous  events  which 
occurred  within  its  walls,  consistent  with  Scripture  narrative,  and 
is  contradicted  by  the  nature  of  the  ground;  for  it  is  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  advantage  of  a  strong  position  would  be  aban 
doned  by  enclosing  a  deep  valley,  when  there  was  space  enough 
on  the  table  land  for  indefinite  extension.  Whoever  visits  these 
traditionary  sites,  should  do  so  without  investigating  too  narrowly 
the  evidence  by  which  they  have  been  established.  He  can  not 
be  far  wrong,  for  the  compass  within  which  the  facts  occurred,  is 
but  a  narrow  one.  And  there  is  an  indefinite  sentiment  of  awe 
and  veneration,  in  believing  we  are  standing  upon  the  very  spot 
where  our  Savior  was  judged,  crucified,  and  buried.  If  there  were 
no  idle  mummeries  around  one,  this  feeling  would  be  deeper  and 
holier;  but  it  is  impossible  wholly  to  abstract  ourselves  from  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  365 

circumstances  with  which  superstition  has  invested  these  places. 
Still,  the  moment  when  he  stands  upon  the  hill  of  Zion  is  an  era 
in  the  life  of  any  man,  and  he  feels  more  concentration  of  exist 
ence  at  that  instant,  than  is  given  to  him  to  experience  upon  any 
other  spot  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"Without  the  circuit  of  Jerusalem,  uncertainty  ceases.  The 
Mount  of  Olives,  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  Mount  Gihon,  the 
Mount  of  Evil  Counsel,  the  pools,  the  fountains,  the  brooks,  all 
Z'emain  as  in  the  brightest  days  of  Bible  history ;  deprived,  in 
deed,  of  all  their  monuments,  constructed  when  Solomon  made 
silver  to  be  in  Jerusalem  as  stones,  and  when  cedars  were  as  syca 
more  trees  in  the  vale  for  abundance ;  but  impressive  and  inter 
esting  in  their  desolation.  And  he  -who  can  roam  among  these 
solitary  places,  without  feeling  his  faith  strengthened  and  his  heart 
touched,  has  none  of  the  true  characteristics  of  a  pilgrim,  and 
will  find  himself  a  stranger  in  the  "  Holy  Land." 

The  Mount  of  Olives,  which  overlooks  Jerusalem,  derives  its 
name  from  the  trees  growing  there,  and  existing  from  the  earliest 
ages.  General  Cass  found  eight  olive  trees>  bearing  every  mark 
of  extreme  age  :  and  the  tradition  among  the  people  invests  them 
with  a  sacred  character,  as  cotemporaries  of  the  life  and  death  of 
Jesus  Christ.  At  the  foot  of  the  mount,  divided  from  it  by  the 
brook  Kedron,  is  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  forever  memorable 
as  the  scene  of  the  passion  of  our  Savior.  As  is  well  known,  the 
principal  product  of  the  olive  tree  is  oil ;  but  General  Cass  found 
in  his  travels,  that,  in  many  places,  its  fruit  was  an  acceptable 
substitute  for  meat,  and  that  in  Greece,  a  few  olives,  with  bread, 
constituted  the  ration  of  the  soldier.  The  tree  approaches,  if  it 
does  not  equal,  the  cedar  in  longevity.  There  is  a  plantation  yet 
bearing  at  Terni,  in  Italy,  which  is  said  to  be  composed  of  the  same 
trees  described  by  Pliny  as  growing  there  in  the  first  century. 

General  Cass  had  too  much  of  the  true  spirit  of  a  pilgrim  not 
to  visit  Jericho,  the  Jordan,  and  the  Dead  Sea.  "A  more  dreary- 
looking  region,"  he  says,  "he  never  saw  but  once,  and  that  was  upon 
the  Eiver  Ontonagon,  wrhich  enters  Lake  Superior  upon  its  south 
ern  side,  and  which  for  barrenness  and  desolation  may  have  a  rival, 
but  certainly  can  have  no  superior  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Arid 
to  those  who  know  the  acuteness  of  the  Indians,  in  directing  their 
course  through  the  forest,  it  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  nature  of 


366  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

this  district  to  say,  that  an  active  Chippewa,  who  was  with  me, 
was  unable  to  thread  his  way  out  of  this  labyrinth. 

"From  Jerusalem  to  the  precipitous  cliffs  overlooking  the  plain 
of  the  Jordan,  the  country  offers  a  succession  of  high  sharp  hills, 
without  trees  or  any  kind  of  verdure,  and  covered  with  black, 
rugged  rocks.  The  narrow  path  winds  its  way  amongst  those 
stupendous  masses,  following  the  gullies  worn  by  the  water-courses, 
until  it  attains  the  brow  of  the  ridge,  looking  down  upon  the  val 
ley,  the  river,  and  the  lake.  And  a  quiet-looking  sheet  of  water 
it  is  ;  but  oh  !  how  different  from  those  beautiful  reservoirs  which 
our  own  beloved  country  spreads  out,  embosomed  among  green  and 
fertile  hills,  and  variegated  by  all  that  can  render  them  pleasant 
and  useful.  Within  this  vale  there  are  no  trees,  no  vegetables, 
no  inhabitants,  no  domestic  animals,  for  a  few  miserable  Arabs 
are  not  enough  to  form  an  exception.  Neither  is  there  any  soil  to 
minister  to  the  wants  of  man  ;  for  a  saline  incrustation,  deposited 
by  the  fogs  of  the  sea,  covers  the  earth,  and  is  destructive  to 
vegetable  life.  The  descent  of  the  mountain  is  so  precipitous, 
that  great  care  is  necessary  to  prevent  accidents.  When  I  made 
this  journey,  the  faithless  guides  were  desirous  I  should  pass  the 
night  at  the  miserable  residence  of  the  Shieck  on  the  ruins  of 
Jericho  ;  but  knowing  the  dirt  and  worse  than  dirt  of  an  Arab 
village,  I  determined  to  avoid  it.  I  was  told,  there  would  be  dan 
ger  from  some  of  the  wild  tribes,  if  I  stopped  short ;  but  I  put 
my  faith  in  the  terror  inspired  by  the  name  of  Mehemet  Ali,  and 
slept  soundly  and  safely  at  the  spring  of  Elisha,  and  blessed  the 
prophet  for  his  miraculous  intervention,  which  had  converted  the 
saline  waters  of  this  lovely  fountain  into  as  pleasant  a  draught  as 
ever  delighted  a  thirsty  traveler.  If  this  is  not  the  fountain  of 
the  palm  trees,  where  the  Christian  knight  and  the  Saracen  Emir 
kept  truce  together,  after  the  combat  recorded  in  '  The  Talisman,1 
I  know  not  where  to  seek  it.  The  topography,  indeed,  of  this 
region  is  not  in  strict  keeping  in  this  most  interesting  romance  ; 
but,  though  false  to  fact,  it  is  true  to  nature.  If  the  pilgrimage  of 
the  Scottish  crusader  led  him  to  the  convent  of  Santa  Caba,  in  the 
desert  of  Saint  John,  his  visit  to  the  Dead  Sea  was  a  work  of  su 
pererogation  to  himself,  but  most  acceptable  to  the  reader,  who 
finds  in  the  description  of  this  detour,  some  of  the  most  powerful 
delineations  of  natural  objects,  and  some  of  the  most  striking 
incidents,  which  we  owe  to  the  genius  of  Scott. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  367 

(i  The  reverberation  of  the  sun's  rajs  gave  (o  the  vale  of  Siddrin 
an  equatorial  heat  in  the  month  of  August,  and  I  raised  myself 
from  the  fount  of  Elisha,  and  resumed  the  route  to  the  Dead  Sea, 
before  the  dawn  of  day,  to  avoid,  as  much  as  possible,  the  noon 
tide  sun.  I  traversed  much  of  the  space  between  Jericho  and  the 
shore  of  the  lake  in  the  night,  and  a  most  impressively  mournful 
ride  I  had  of  it :  over  barren  sands,  covered  here  and  there  by 
low,  stunted  bushes,  every  now  and  then  striking  us  in  the  face, 
to  warn  us,  as  it  were,  that  the  home  of  the  wild  Arab  was  around 
us.  And,  as  the  streaks  of  morning  light  dawned  over  the  moun 
tain  of  Moab,  a  most  extraordinary  spectacle  presented  itself  to 
our  eyes.  An  army  appeared  upon  the  dreary,  deserted  sand,  be 
tween  us  and  the  dark  water,  which  stretched  away  beyond  the 
view,  lost  in  the  high  ridges  which  overhung  it.  No  deception 
was  ever  more  complete  ;  for  long  ranks  of  soldiers  seemed  drawn 
up,  marching  and  counter-marching  in  all  directions,  with  great 
regularity.  It  looked  as  if  the  genius  of  the  place  had  embodied 
his  forces,  to  bar  all  access  to  his  gloomy  dominions.  And  it  was 
only  as  the  day  advanced,  and  as  we  approached  the  shore,  that 
our  formidable  enemy  assumed  the  peaceable  shape  of  countless 
flocks  of  birds,  of  the  heron  species,  who,  the  Arabs  say,  come  to 
pass  the  night  upon  the  sand,  and  in  the  day  seek  their  food 
among  the  reptiles  in  the  mountains.  The  immensity  of  their 
numbers  exceeded  all  imagination  :  and,  if  the  regions  of  Pales 
tine  are  fertile  in  nothing  else,  they  must  be  most  prolific  in 
snakes,  if  the  Arab  natural  historian  may  be  trusted.  And  this 
is  the  Dead  Sea,  and  below  these  dark  waters  are  the  sites,  per 
haps  the  ruins,  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  such  as  'when  the 
smoke  of  the  country  went  up  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace.'  There 
is  a  tale,  that  nothing  living,  not  even  a  bird,  can  ever  cross 
this  sea. 

"  But  there  is  no  need  of  imaginary  stories  to  Lighten  the 
desolation  of  the  scene,  and  I,  as.  well  as  others,  can  testify  to  its 
inaccuracy,  by  my  own  observation.  I  believe,  however,  that  its 
waters  are  unfavorable  to  animal  life  ;  and,  though  a  shell  or  two 
may  be  occasionally  picked  up  upon  the  shore,  yet  these  have 
been  probably  brought  down  by  the  Jordan.  The  water  is  exces 
sively  bitter  and  nauseous  ;  and,  if  additional  evidence  were 
wanting,  I  could  also  testify  to  its  great  gravity,  and  to  the  buoy 
ancy  of  the  human  body  when  immersed  in  it.  It  is  only  by 


368  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

much  exertion,  and  for  a  very  short  time,  that  any  one  can  get 
and  remain  below  the  surface. 

"  I  went  from  here  to  the  Jordan,  and  struck  the  river,  where, 
tradition  says,  the  children  of  Israel  passed  over  when  they  first 
entered  the  Land  of  Promise.  On  the  west  side  is  a  low  bottom, 
and  on  the  east  side  a  high  sandy  bluff,  and  the  shores  of  the  river 
are  covered  with  aquatic  bushes.  The  water  was  thick  and  tur 
bid,  and  the  current  rapid,  and  too  deep  to  be  sounded,  '  for  Jor 
dan  overflowed  all  his  banks,  all  the  time  of  harvest.'  Arid  here 
crossed  the  Jewish  nation,  over  this  turbulent  stream,  'on  dry 
ground,  until  all  the  people  were  passed  clean  over  Jordan.'  And 
I  followed  their  route  to  Jericho — the  frontier  city  of  the  Canaan- 
ites — where  'the  people  shouted  with  a  great- shout,  that  the  wall 
fell  down  flat,  so  that  the  people  went  up  into  the  city,  every  man 
straight  before  him,  and  they  took  the  city.'  There  is  no  city  now 
to.  take,  nor  are  there  any  walls  now  to  fall.  There  are  a  few  mis 
erable  hovels,  made  of  rude  stones  and  mud,  and  the  ruined  walls 
of  a  building  of  the  middle  ages,  where  the  wretched  Arabs  bur 
row,  rather  than  live.  Jericho  has  disappeared  as  completely  as 
her  rival  cities,  which  sunk  before  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty. 
And  it  requires  an  effort  to  be  satisfied,  that  here  the  great  miracle 
which  attended  the  entrance  of  the  Jews  into  Canaan,  was  per 
formed,  thougli  the  truth  of  the  denunciation  is  before  the  eyes  of 
the  traveler  ;  '  cursed  be  the  man  before  the  Lord,  that  raiseth  up 
and  buildeth  this  city  of  Jericho.' " 

General  Cass  wended  his  way  across  the  hills  of  Judea,  and 
over  the  plains  of  Galilee ;  and  he  felt  as  if  he  was,  in  truth, 
treading  upon  sacred  ground.  He  followed  the  path  often  trod  by 
the  Savior  and  his  lowly  disciples,  and  was  enraptured  with  the 
association  of  ideas  that  —  coming  from  far  —  crowded  upon  his 
mind.  He  was  in  Sidon,  situate  on  the  sea  coast,  and  in  a  state  of 
misery  and  decadence.  It  was  originally  an  open  roadstead,  fur 
nished  with  an  artificial  mole,  the  remains  of  which  he  beheld. 
He  did  not  tarry  there  long,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  succeed 
ing  day  after  his  entrance,  he  put  its  miserable  walls  behind  him, 
and  found  himself  straightway  on  the  sandy  beach  of  the  sea. 
After  traveling  this  some  two  miles,  he  began  to  ascend  the  head 
of  a  small  stream,  deriving  its  sources  from  the  Ridges  of  Leba 
non  :  for  he  was  on  his  way  to  see  Lady  Stanhope.  He  soon  left 
this  stream — lined  with  fig  and  mulberry  trees,  and  interminable 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  369 

vines — and  traversed  a  very  rugged  and  inhospitable  country,  as 
cending  and  descending  hill  after  hill,  each  composed  almost 
wholly  of  rock,  till  he  came  in  sight  of  the  little  insulated  moun 
tain,  where  the  lady  had  established  her  lonely  dwelling.  Almost 
conical,  it  was  separated  by  a  deep  valley  from  the  other  hills. 
He  toiled  up  its  precipitous  sides  by  a  narrow  winding  path,  en 
joying  the  full  benefit  of  a  Syrian  mid-day  sun.  When  on  the 
top,  he  stopped  a  moment  for  rest,  and  to  survey  the  prospect. 
Steep  valleys  on  every  side  seemed  to  enclose  similar  hills.  Near 
was  one  having  on  its  top  a  Greek  convent,  and  others  in  the  dis 
tance  spotted  with  villages,  Greek,  Arab,  and  Druse.  His  eyes 
scanning  the  soil,  fell  upon  nothing  that  indicated  fertility:  and 
upon  the  very  top  of  the  hill,  the  self-expatriated  Lady  Stanhope 
had  established  her  residence.  He  found  the  cluster  of  houses 
built  in  the  Arab  manner,  low,  irregular,  and  quite  detached,  of 
stone,  rudely  constructed,  and  surrounded  with  a  stone  wall. 
There  were  some  fig  and  pomegranate  trees,  vines  and  flowering 
shrubs,  cultivated  with  care,  and  furnished  with  water  brought 
from  some  distant  spring  in  the  valley  below,  for  the  hill  itself 
was  as  destitute  of  water  as  the  deserts  of  Arabia. 

He  had  taken  the  precaution  before  leaving  Sidon,  to  transmit, 
by  a  messenger,  his  card  and  letter,  stating  his  desire  to  have  an 
interview  with  her  ladyship.  He  had  understood,  when  in  Da 
mascus,  from  the  French  consul,  who  had  been  for  some  years  her 
physician,  that  she  was  not  always  accessible,  and  was  advised  to 
give  her  previous  notice  of  the  visit.  When  he  reached  her 
house,  General  Cass  found  that  she  had  not  risen,  for  among  her 
peculiar  habits  was  one,  it  seems,  which  converted  day  into  night. 
She  had,  however,  it  appeared,  given  orders  for  his  hospitable  re 
ception,  and  an  invitation  to  dine  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
when  she  would  receive  him.  As  he  wished  to  visit  the  Emir 
Besheir,  the  prince  of  the  Druses,  who  was  about  seven  hours' 
ride  beyond,  in  the  midst  of  the  Ridges  of  Lebanon,  General  Cass 
excused  himself  to  her  ladyship  for  not  waiting,  promising  to 
make  his  visit  to  the  Emir  that  evening,  and  to  return,  so  as  to 
present  himself  there  again  by  noon  of  the  next  day.  To  this 
arrangement  she  assented,  and  he  continued  on  his  journey  with 
out  then  seeing  her.  The  same  uninviting  country  met  his  view, 
until  he  crossed  some  steep,  rocky  ridges,  and  struck  a  pretty 
stream,  which  discharged  itself  into  the  Mediterranean,  between 
24 


370  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Sidon  and  Beyroot.  It  was  the  one  in  which  the  Emperor  Barba- 
rossa  was  drowned,  while  engaged  in  a  crusade.  He  traveled  up 
this  stream  to  its  source,  and,  after  dark,  reached  the  residence  of 
the  Emir,  one  of  the  most  romantic  spots  he  had  seen.  The  Druses 
— a  singular  people — occupied  these  mountains.  They  have  pre 
served  a  species  of  independence,  and  were  governed  by  their  own 
princes.  He  was  received  and  treated  with  true  Arab  hospitality. 
The  palace  was  by  far  the  most  magnificent  building  in  Syria,  and 
more  than  four  times  the  size  of  the  President's  house.  General 
Cass  understood  that  the  Emir  kept  a  thousand  servants ;  and, 
during  this  day's  journeying,  he  saw,  for  the  first  time,  those  horns 
alluded  to  in  the  Scripture,  which  are  worn  by  the  women.  They 
were,  at  least,  fifteen  inches  long,  and  rise  over  the  forehead, 
covered  by  a  veil,  and  most  uncouth  looking  objects  they  were. 
He  was  back  to  Lady  Stanhope's  by  the  hour  indicated,  the  next 
day,  and  was  introduced  into  her  private  apartment.  He  found 
her  sitting,  dressed  like  an  Arab,  clothed  in  a  robe,  with  a  turban 
upon  her  head,  and  smoking  a  long  pipe.  She  was  tall  and  spare, 
with  a  wan  and  sickly  complexion,  and,  apparently,  about  sixty- 
five  years  of  age.  There  was  a  settled  melancholy,  which  added 
to  the  interest  of  her  appearance,  and  the  recollection  of  what  she 
had  been,  contrasted  with  what  she  was,  produced  a  powerful  im 
pression  upon  her  visitor.  Engaged,  in  early  life,  to  Sir  John 
Moore,  he  looked  for  those  traits  which  might  be  supposed  to  have 
attracted  this  great  captain.  But  the  remains  were  not  to  be  found. 

General  Cass  had  an  interesting  interview  with  his  eccentric 
hostess,  although  she  had  so  far  lost  her  command  of  the  English 
language  as  to  be  driven  occasionally  to  have  recourse  to  the 
Arabic.  She  spoke,  with  vivacity,  of  many  of  the  distinguished 
compeers  of  her  uncle — William  Pitt.  She  had  traversed  almost 
all  the  country  between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Mediterranean,  and, 
by  her  conduct  and  her  largesses,  acquired  an  extraordinary  influ 
ence  over  the  Arabs.  She  was  even  saluted  Queen  of  Palmyra, 
amid  the  interesting  ruins  which  attest,  on  a  small  oasis  in  the 
middle  of  the  desert,  the  former  power  of  Zenobia.  But  she  had 
found  the  Ishmaelites  poor  pillars  for  a  throne  to  stand  upon — a 
foundation  as  unstable  as  their  own  sandy  ocean.  They  cried 
"more!  more!"  till  the  lady's  treasury  was  nearly  exhausted. 

And  General  Cass  was  in  Tyre.  "  How  changed,"  he  writes, 
"  is  this  Turko-Egyptian- Arabic  town — dirty  and  disgusting  as  it 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  371 

is,  and  filled  with  all  manner  of  abominations — from  the  mighty 
Tyre  of  antiquity,  the  Queen  of  Nations!  Surely  has  the  male 
diction  of  the  Almighty  fallen  upon  her,  and  the  prophecy  of 
Ezekiel  been  fulfilled,  that  the  world  would  lament  over, c  saying, 
What  city  is  like  Tyre — like  the  destroyed  in  the  midst  of  the  sea?' 
It  is,  at  present,  a  small  place,  situated  on  the  shores  of  the  Medi 
terranean,  and  upon  an  extensive  plain,  now  sterile  and  unculti 
vated,  but  once  rich  and  productive.  The  Ridges  of  Lebanon 
diminish  here  much  in  hight,  and  recede  from  the  sea,  so  as  to 
leave  an  extent  of  country  beautiful  to  the  eye,  but  desolate  and 
dreary.  The  town  contains  about  twenty-five  hundred  inhabitants, 
and  it  is  the  very  picture  of  misery.  The  buildings  are  old,  mean, 
and  dilapidated;  the  streets  are  narrow,  dirty,  and  crooked,  and 
with  all  the  disgusting  appendages  of  a  Turkish  town.  The  inhab 
itants  are  in  the  last  state  of  destitution.  The  Governor  is  a  negro, 
who  came  out  with  his  Egyptian  troops  to  do  me  honor,  and  gave 
us  a  salvo  from  a  rusty  piece  of  ordnance,  calculated  to  terrify  his 
friends  more  than  his  enemies.  Never  did  the  uncertainty  of 
human  pomp  and  power  strike  me  with  more  force  than  when  I 
passed  under  the  rude  portal  of  that  city,  and  contrasted  our 
entree,  preceded  by  a  few  miserable  Turkish  troops,  led  by  a  negro, 
and  surrounded  by  a  crowd  as  wretched  as  even  Syria  could  fur 
nish,  with  the  splendid  processions  which  had  many  times  traversed 
the  same  route,  with  all  'the  pomp  and  circumstance'  of  eastern 
pageantry.  I  went  to  the  house  of  a  person  calling  himself  the 
American  Consul — an  American  Arab.  The  consulates  in  this 
region  are  desirable  situations,  not  for  their  emoluments,  but  be 
cause  they  confer  valuable  privileges  and  immunities  upon  the 
possessor.  They  are  preceded  in  public  by  two  persons,  carrying 
long  staves,  with  silver  heads,  and  they  enjoy  an  entire  exemption 
from  all  impositions,  and  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  local  author 
ities.  After  some  refreshment  and  repose — for  the  day  was  a 
burning  one — I  proposed  to  return  the  visit  of  our  Ethiopean 
friend,  but  was  told,  quite  frankly  and  without  hesitation,  by  the 
consul,  that  he  was  too  intoxicated  to  see  us ;  and  I  sat  still,  wait 
ing  the  happy  moment  of  his  excellency's  return  to  sobriety." 

General  Cass,  returning  to  France,  arrived  in  Paris  in  Novem 
ber,  1837,  after  an  absence  of  eight  months.  He  had  seen  many 
of  the  most  celebrated  objects  of  nature  and  art  in  the  East,  and 
returned  from  them  disappointed,  with  but  three  exceptions.  St. 


372  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Peter's,  at  Kome,  fulfilled  and  surpassed  all  previous  conceptions  ; 
and,  after  all  that  had  been  written  upon  the  monuments  of  anti 
quity,  he  believed  that  superb  basilic  was  fitted  to  produce  more 
powerful  impressions  upon  the  spectator  than  any  other  building 
ever  constructed  by  human  hands.  The  ruins  of  Baalbec  was 
another,  and  might  be  approached  with  similar  convictions;  and 
the  traveler,  however  highly  wrought  might  be  his  expectations, 
would  leave  its  columns,  its  porticos,  and  its  enormous  masses  of 
hewn  stone,  with  sentiments  of  wonder  and  admiration.  The  river 
Nile  was  the  third  object  that  surpassed  his  most  sanguine  antici 
pations. 

The  most  interesting  relic  of  the  ancient  vegetable  creation  he 
found  upon  one  of  the  Kidges  of  Lebanon,  not  far  from  the  renowned 
temple  of  Baalbec.  It  consisted  of  twelve  gigantic  cedars,  the 
remains  of  the  primitive  forest  which  once  covered  that  great 
mountain  chain  of  Syria,  and  which  yet  rear  their  heads,  prodigies 
of  vegetation,  and  each  surmounted  with  a  dome  of  foliage  over 
shadowing  the  spectator,  as  in  the  time  of  biblical  story.  One  of 
them  is  forty-five  feet  in  circumference,  and  all,  both  in  size  and 
hight,  tell  of  the  long  ages  that  have  swept  over  them.  If  these 
mute  monuments  of  the  past  could  rehearse  the  scenes  that  have 
transpired  in  the  shadow  of  their  foliage,  what  lessons  might  they 
not  teach,  in  the  long  interval  that  has  elapsed  since  these  hills 
resounded  with  the  noise  of  the  workmen  preparing  the  timber  for 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  to  the  solitude  which  establishes  its  dwell 
ing  place  wherever  the  Moslem  plants  his  standard. 

He  saw  the  pyramids,  mounds  of  earth,  and  tumuli,  often  spoken 
of  by  tourists  and  travelers,  but  he  did  not  survey  them  with 
superstitious  awe.  Like  the  aboriginal  structures  and  mounds  of 
his  own  country,  he  easily  solved,  in  his  own  mind,  their  origin 
and  use.  Judging  from  the  social  condition  and  institutions  of 
any  people,  civilized  or  barbarous,  there  are  but  three  objects,  in 
his  opinion,  to  which  they  could  have  been  applied.  These  are 
defense,  religious  worship,  and  inhumation  of  the  dead.  Accord 
ing  to  the  nature  of  their  construction,  they  have  all  served  for 
one  or  other  of  these  purposes  ;  and,  perhaps,  some  of  them,  prob 
ably  the  most  extensive,  may  have  been,  at  the  same  time,  fortresses, 
temples,  and  cemeteries.  •  He  has  found  them  in  every  situation  ; 
in  the  lowest  valleys  and  on  the  highest  hills ;  in  positions  almost 
inaccessible,  as  well  as  in  those  where  defense  would  seem  to  be 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  373 

hopeless,  according  to  any  system  of  warfare  known  to  us ;  sup 
plied  with  water  and  wholly  deprived  of  it ;  and  of  every  form 
and  extent,  from  a  small,  isolated  enclosure  to  works  covering  a 
large  extent  of  space,  and  presenting  great  variety  in  their  size 
and  in  the  distribution  of  their  component  parts. 

But,  in  traveling  through  the  desolation  and  solitude  of  the 
countries  he  had  visited,  he  had  learned  to  appreciate  the  flag  of 
his  country.  The  star  spangled  banner  never  appeared  to  him 
more  beautiful  than  when  the  winds  unrolled  its  folds  over  his  tent 
in  the  desert ;  and  he  did  not  recollect  that  he  ever  had  a  prouder 
hour  than  when  he  entered,  with  a  party  of  his  countrymen,  into 
the  ancient  city  of  Damascus,  which  existed  in  the  days  of  Abra 
ham,  and  which  yet  constitutes  the  lean  ideal  of  an  eastern  city, 
as  painted  in  the  Arabian  tales,  preceded  by  the  flag  of  his  coun 
try,  which  attracted  the  gaze  of  the  wondering  Moslems.  "  If 
there  is  a  dissatisfied  American,"  says  he,  "  I  trust  I  need  not  say 
that  I  do  not  allude  to  our  comparatively  little  internal  differences 
of  policy,  but  to  the  great  principles  of  our  government,  and  their 
practical  operation — let  him  examine  the  condition  of  other  nations, 
and,  if  he  does  not  return  a  better  citizen  and  a  more  contented 
man,  I  will  agree  to  forfeit  all  claim  to  the  gift  of  divination.  This 
love  of  country  is  a  mysterious  sentiment.  Dormant  under  ordi 
nary  circumstances,  it  is  awakened  and  becomes  intense  as  we 
recede  from  our  own  shores,  till,  when  half  the  globe  is  interposed 
between  the  pilgrim  and  his  home,  the  love  of  that  home  is  the 
absorbing  passion  of  his  existence." 


374:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  XXIY. 

General  Cass  resumes  his  Official  Duties — Ilis  Position  at  Court — Intimacy  with  the  King— Jealousy  of 
England — His  Memoranda  relative  to  Louis  Phillippe,  his  Court  and  Government — The  Reasons 
for  Publication — Charges  made  against  General  Cass  Examined — Their  Refutation. 

General  Cass  returned  to  France  with  improved  health  and 
vigor.  Valuable  as  his  journey  had  been  to  himself  personally, 
in  improving  his  health  and  increasing  his  stock  of  general 
information,  he  also  had  an  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted 
with  the-  defects  and  faults  of  the  consular  system  of  the  United 
States,  and  with  their  commercial  and  diplomatic  interest  in  those 
remote  countries.  He  communicated  the  result  of  this  tour  to  the 
Department  of  State,  disclosing  many  important  improvements, 
and  some  day  they  may  be  instrumental  in  the  foundation  of  a 
new  theory  of  trade  and  intercourse  with  the  decaying  and  decayed 
nations  he  visited. 

Every  minister  at  a  foreign  court  performs  a  duty  of  no  slight 
import  to  his  country,  in  endeavoring,  in  all  ways  fit  and  honor 
able,  to  excite  towards  himself  the  personal  good  will  and  esteem 
of  the  government  to  which  he  is  accredited,  and  of  the  people 
where  he  resides.  It  tends  to  give  him  influence  and  power  per 
sonally,  and  attaches  more  consideration  to  his  diplomacy.  Such 
always  has  been  the  aim  of  every  prudent  and  sagacious  ambas 
sador  of  all  civilized  countries,  and  such  is  invariably  the  rule  of 
conduct  suggested  in  the  official  instructions.  And  especially  so 
had  been  the  policy  pursued  by  American  ministers  at  the  court 
of  St.  Cloud.  It  was  this  far  more  than  any  other  known  efficient 
means,  that  enabled  Franklin  and  his  colleagues  to  get  the  ear 
of  Louis  XYIth.  Jefferson,  if  his  own  recollections  are  to  be 
credited,  had  the  entree  at  the  French  court,  and  was  on  the  most 
intimate  terms  of  social,  unofficial  intercourse  with  the  sovereign 
and  family,  and  his  own  country  has  had  the  benefit  of  it. 

Louis  Phillippe  was  not  a  stranger  to  the  United  States  or  their 
institutions.  He  had  in  other  days,  as  an  exile  from  his  beloved 
France,  wandered  in  many  climes,  mingled  with  the  people,  and 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  375 

was  conversant  with  their  character  and  sentiments.  He  had  not 
always  been  limited  in  his  peregrinations  to  the  palace  yard.  He 
had  had  other  companions  than  flatterers  and  courtiers,  and  was 
accustomed  to  the  rough  usages  of  the  world  that  moves  outside 
of  the  circle  of  the  throne.  Years  before  the  time  of  which  we 
write,  had  he  explored  the  woods  and  rivers  of  the  United  States. 
He  was  familiar  with  that  portion  where  the  American  Minister 
had  spent  so  much  of  his  life,  and  having  acquired  an  affable 
demeanor  whilst  at  the  foot  of  the  throne,  he  did  not  interdict  it 
when  clothed  with  the  robes  and  sovereign  attributes  of  royalty. 
Besides,  General  Cass  had  been  too  long  on  the  stage  of  public 
life,  had  been  a  leading  actor  in  too  many  of  the  great  transactions 
of  government,  not  to  be  well  known  in  a  town  so  enlightened, 
and  comparatively  so  near,  as  that  of  Paris.  He  was  found,  upon 
near  acquaintance,  to  possess  a  fund  of  anecdote,  and  apparently 
an  exhaustless  stock  of  information  in  all  that  related  to  his  coun 
try,  its  history,  condition,  and  men  of  note  in  every  locality.  As 
for  the  aborigines  of  the  western  continent,  it  was  difficult  to  put 
a  question  that  he  could  not  intelligently  answer.  The  various 
tribes,  with  all  their  sub-divisions,  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and 
from  the  sea  coast  to  the  base  of  the  Eocky  Mountains,  he  could 
locate  and  describe.  He  knew  their  manners  and  customs,  their 
disposition  and  life — for  he  had  summered  and  wintered  with 
them,  in  peace  and  in  war. 

To  the  traveler  in  Europe  who  has  visited  the  salons  of  learning 
and  philosophy,  it  is  unnecessary  to  say,  that  no  topic  is  suggest 
ive  of  more  interest  than  the  nomadic  nations  of  the  earth.  And 
strange  would  it  have  been  if  the  American  Minister's  knowledge 
of  those  that  inhabited  his  own  country,  had  not  attracted  atten 
tion.  The  king  of  the  French  was  delighted  with  his  society;  of 
his  own  accord,  in  token  of  his  high  esteem,  tendered  the  hospi 
talities  of  the  court,  that  the  Minister's  sojourn  might  be  agreeable, 
and  on  no  occasion  omitted  the  respect  which  he  felt  to  be  due  to 
so  eminent  a  republican,  and  to  so  powerful  a  republic  as  that 
which  he  had  the  honor  to  represent.  England  and  Austria  were 
competitors  for  supremacy  at  the  court  of  Louis  Phillippe,  each  in 
turn  striving  to  undermine  the  other  in  official  influence.  They 
stood  at  the  head  of  diplomacy  in  the  French  capital,  but  ere  two 
years  had  elapsed,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  they  became  jealous 


376  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  the  United  States,  and  turned  their  attention  to  that  quarter  of 
the  diplomatic  circle. 

General  Cass,  as  was  his  duty,  sought,  as  honorably  he  might, 
to  strengthen  the  influence  of  his  government,  and  on  suitable 
occasions  availed  himself  of  opportunities  thrown  in  his  way,  to 
cultivate  the  acquaintance  of  the  king  and  his  family.  If  this 
would  create  intimacy,  intimacy  would  create  influence.  Pos 
sessed  of  stores  of  knowledge  beyond  mere  politics,  he  had  a  better 
groundwork  for  statesmanship  than  if  his  mind  was  only  filled 
with  current  politics.  Where  the  mind  thus  imbued  is  practical, 
as  with  General  Cass,  we  have  materials  for  statesmanship  of  the 
first  order.  The  liberalizing  influence  of  letters  is  well  calculated, 
in  a  country  where  political  passions  are  so  fierce  as  in  ours,  to 
soften  the  asperities  of  strife,  and  stop  party  from  running  into 
extremes.  As  the  spheres  of  duty  increase  with  such  men,  new 
and  higher  qualities  are  ever  apt  to  be  developed.  So  it  was  with 
General  Cass  when  transferred  from  the  home  service  to  the  court 
of  France. 

The  cabinets  of  London  and  Vienna  became  alarmed  at  the 
rising  influence  of  the  American  Minister.  There  were  many 
grave  questions  to  be  considered  and  settled  in  the  code  of 
nations,  and  to  hold  Russia,  it  was  necessary  to  retain  paramount 
influence  in  France.  And  England  would,  if  she  could,  interpo 
late  her  restriction  on  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  The  king  of  the 
French  was  flatteringly  spoken  of  by  her  youthful  queen,  and  by 
her  lords  and  commons.  But  it  was  necessary  to  break  that 
mysterious  cord  of  friendship  evidently  existing  between  the 
king  and  the  American  Minister.  A  series  of  moves  upon  the 
diplomatic  chess-board  were  projected,  and  passed  to  the  joint 
execution  of  the  British  and  Austrian  ambassadors  at  Paris,  and 
intrigue  was  now  rampant.  The  nerves  of  the  American  repre 
sentative  remained  steady,  and  he  continued  the  duties  of  a  mis 
sion,  fast  becoming  of  the  highest  importance  to  his  country,  with 
circumspection  and  undisturbed  serenity.  His  personal  influence 
at  court  was  constantly  in  the  ascendant.  Despite  all  efforts,  the 
stars  and  stripes  which  waved  over  the  legation,  commanded 
from  the  authorities,  both  high  and  low,  more  respect  than  ever. 
What  was  to  be  done?  John  Bull  grew  surly,  and  wondered  how 
such  an  insignificant  salary  could  support  so  proud  a  mission.  It 
was  necessary  to  change  tactics,  and  undermine  the  vigilant 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  377 

Minister  in  his  own  country,  and  the  intrigue  was  transferred  to 
"Washington.  The  chief  magistracy  of  the  United  States  was  to 
pass  into  new  hands,  and,  perhaps,  with  a  new  representation,  the 
tone  of  the  court  of  St.  Cloud  might  change. 

It  so  happened  that  General  Cass  had  improved  many  of  his 
leisure  hours  in  writing  for  the  periodicals  of  his  country,  his  off 
hand  impressions  of  manners  and  customs,  as  he  found  them  in 
the  old  world.  This  he  did  to  gratify  the  publishers,  and  acquaint 
his  fellow-countrymen  with  what  he  had  seen,  for  their  gratifica 
tion.  And,  among  others,  when  he  had  nothing  else  to  do,  he 
had  written  out  a  variety  of  anecdotes,  descriptions  and  reflec 
tions,  of  France,  its  king,  court,  and  government.  He  did  "  noth 
ing  extenuate,  or  set  down  aught  in  malice,"  and  when  written, 
as  it  was  at  intervals,  he  had  no  intention  of  publishing  them  in 
the  form  of  a  book.  But  when  his  sagacity,  ever  vigilant,  pene 
trated  the  British  diplomacy,  he  concluded  it  would  be  well  to 
make  these  memoranda  public,  supposing  that  in  some  way  or 
other  they  would  come  under  the  eye  of  the  king.  -There  was 
not  a  line  adverse  to  the  rightful  preference  of  the  government  of 
his  own  country  over  all  other  forms,  but  just  the  contrary  again 
and  again.  But  the  larger  portion  of  these  memoranda  was 
devoted  to  personal  anecdotes  of  Louis  Phillippe  and  his  family, 
and  of  his  journey  in  America  forty  years  before. 

John  Bull,  however,  thought  it  would  be  a  capital  hit  to  ma 
lign  the  patriot  of  fifty  years'  standing,  with  being  a  courtier,  and 
cite  these  memoranda  as  evidence  of  the  charge.  In  England,  the 
people  at  large  read  but  little,  and  such  was  supposed  to  be  the 
case  in  the  United  States.  If,  therefore,  this  charge  was  rung 
well  by  his  pampered  minions  scattered  through  the  States,  the 
common  people  would  believe  it,r  a  public  sentiment  would  be 
created  against  the  Minister,  and,  in  his  resignation,  the  British 
government  would  be  rid  of  him  and  his  influence.  In  all  this,  it 
was  destined  to  disappointment. 

General  Cass  a  courtier  !  lie,  who  had  paddled  his  birch  canoe 
thousands  of  miles,  on  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  the  west ;  lie,  who 
had  worn  his  hunting-shirt  in  company  with  the  buffalo,  cut  his 
piece  of  venison  rib  from  the  stake,  and  roasted  it  in  the  woods  ; 
the  identical  Lewis  Cass  who  was  soused  in  Sciota  Salt  Creek, 
saddle-bags,  horse,  blanket  and  all,  when  a  young  man,  practic 
ing  law  in  Ohio  and  Western  Virginia,  and  making  his  supper  of 


378  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

bear's  meat,  that  he  should  turn  courtier  sounded  odd  to  the 
millions  of  pioneers  who  had  grown  up  with  the  country.  Lyn- 
chas  was  transformed  into  a  rock,  and  the  eyes  of  Argus  into  a 
peacock's  train,  but  the  strangest  metamorphosis  of  all,  would  be 
General  Cass  into  a  courtier !  He  was  about  the  same  sort  of 
courtier  while  Minister  in  France,  as  he  was  when  he  was  succeed 
ing,  by  sterling  sense  and  sagacity,  in  the  negotiations  of  good 
treaties  for  his  country  with  the  Indians.  A  man  of  his  mold 
knows  as  well  how  to  deal  with  courts,  and  kings,  and  queens,  as 
with  the  red  men  of  our  forests. 

As  these  remarkable  memoranda  give  much  information,  we 
will  transcribe  a  few  for  the  double  purpose  of  giving  the  reader 
an  insight  into  them,  to  know  them  as  they  are,  and  for  the 
accurate  knowledge  they  may  contain  of  traits  in  French  mind 
and  manners. 

In  one,  we  find  the  following  :  "  If  an  American  first  sees  the 
king  when  making  an  excursion,  the  impression  is  a  painful  one. 
He  and  his  cortege  generally  occupy  three  carriages,  in  the  first 
of  which,  drawn  by  eight  horses,  is  the  king,  with  such  of  his 
family  as  accompany  him.  They  are  preceded  by  an  outrider  in 
the  royal  livery,  (red,)  and  by  two  dragoons,  who  always  keep 
themselves  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  main  body,  and 
who  take  care  that  the  road  is  clear.  These  are  followed  by  a 
detachment  of  dragoons  immediately  in  front  of  the  royal  carriage; 
and  on  each  side,  and  close  to  the  doors,  ride  the  aides-de-camp 
and  orderly  officers  who  attend  the  king  ;  and  then  succeeds 
another  detachment  of  dragoons.  After  this  come  the  two  other 
carriages,  each  drawn  by  six  horses,  and  preceded  by  an  outrider, 
which  are  occupied  by  the  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  the  court.  The 
spectacle  itself  is  a  brilliant  one,  from  the  beauty  of  the  horses, 
the  neatness,  as  well  as  the  splendor,  of  the  liveries  of  the  outrid 
ers,  and  from  the  arms  and  uniforms  of  the  military.  As  the 
procession  always  sweeps  by  at  a  rapid  rate,  it  seems  to  exhibit 
itself  and  disappear  like  the  pageants  in  a  theater.  But  the  spec 
tator  asks  himself  how  is  it  that  the  life  of  the  king  is  exposed  to 
perpetual  attacks,  and  that  the  chief  of  one  of  the  most  polished 
nations  in  the  world  can  not  venture  into  the  streets  of  his  capital, 
without  .being  surrounded  by  a  physical  force  sufficiently  strong 
to  prevent  all  access  to  the  royal  person  ?  The  guards  who  attend 
the  king  of  the  French,  whenever  he  leaves  the  walls  of  his  palace 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  379 

are  not  in  the  performance  of  a  vain  ceremony,  like  those  with 
which  many  of  the  European  sovereigns  are  accompanied  ;  but 
they  are  in  the  execution  of  a  necessary  duty,  and  without  their 
presence,  the  life  of  the  monarch  would  not  be  worth  a  day's 
purchase.  What  is  the  cause  of  this  deplorable  state  of  things  ? 
Is  it  the  fault  of  the  king,  or  of  his  subjects,  or  of  the  government  ? 
Is  the  root  of  the  evil  in  the  state  of  society,  or  in  the  course  of 
political  measures  followed  or  rejected  ? " 

In  another,  speaking  of  Napoleon,  "  I  have  often  questioned  the 
old  military  veterans  of  the  Hotel  des  Invalids,  those  living  remains 
of  Jena,  and  Wagram,  and  Austerlitz,  and  of  a  hundred  other 
fields,  respecting  their  General,  Consul,  and  Emperor,  and  it  was 
easy  to  see  by  their  sudden  animation,  and  by  their  eager  narra 
tive,  how  proud  they  were  to  recount  any  little  incident  which 
had  connected  them  with  him.  His  visit  to  their  guard  fire,  and 
his  acceptance  of  a  piece  of  their  campaign  bread,  constituted 
epochs  in  their  lives  to  be  lost  only  with  the  loss  of  reason  or 
existence.  I  am  satisfied  that  circumstances  have  not  been  favor 
able  to  a  just  appreciation  of  the  whole  character  of  Napoleon,  in 
the  United  States.  While  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  nation,  we 
surveyed  him  very  much  through  the  English  journals,  and  we 
imbibed  all  the  prejudices  which  a  long  and  bitter  war  had 
engendered  against  him  in  England.  To  be  sure,  his  military 
renown  could  not  be  called  in  question,  but  of  his  civic  talents,  a 
comparatively  humble  estimate  was  formed.  I  have  since  learned 
to  correct  this  appreciation,  particularly  after  I  heard,  at  the  hos 
pitable  table  of  General  Dumas,  a  discussion  concerning  the  com 
parative  merits  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth  and  of  Napoleon,  as 
legislators  and  administrators. 

"  I  had  a  conversation  not  long  since  with  a  retired  statesman, 
heretofore  a  prime  minister,  and  who  was  an  active  member  of 
the  Council  of  State  when  the  Code  of  Napoleon,  that  lasting 
monument  of  legislative  wisdom,  was  under  preparation  and  dis 
cussion.  He  told  me  the  Emperor  was  punctual  in  his  attendance 
at  all  the  meetings,  and  careful  in  the  consideration  of  the  various 
subjects  which  occupied  them.  His  zeal  did  not  flag  during  all 
the  progress  of  these  labors,  and  thei%  was  great  freedom  of  dis 
cussion  ;  it  being  ardently  the  desire  of  the  Emperor  that  all  the 
important  points  should  be  subjected  to  profound  examination. 
I  asked  my  informant,  how  the  question  of  acceptance  or  rejection, 


380  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

as  the  several  chapters  came  up  for  consideration,  was  determined; 
and,  like  a  true  American,  I  inquired  if  they  were  put  to  the 
vote.  He  smiled,  and  said  there  was  no  voting  in  the  Council  of 
State  upon  those  topics, — that  the  Emperor  listened  patiently  to 
all  that  was  said,  and  then  gave  his  own  opinion,  and  thus  ter 
minated  the  subject.  He  had,  indeed,  too  often  an  iron  will  and 
a  heavy  hand,  and  a  grasp  of  ambition  that  seemed  to  augment 
as  kingdoms  gave  way  before  him.  His  fall  was  a  salutary  lesson, 
and  useful  to  the  world,  though  the  pride  of  the  country  was 
humbled,  and  its  wishes  disregarded  in  the  new  transfer  of  power. 
But  if  he  was  ambitious,  he  was  ambitious  for  France:  if  he  loved 
glory  and  power,  he  loved  his  country  more :  and  he  finally  fell 
because  he  would  not  consent  to  reduce  her  extent,  and  to  deprive 
her  of  the  fruits  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  victories.  But  his 
successor  at  the  Tuilleries  could  not  participate  in  this  feeling, 
and  it  seemed  as  though  it  were  his  wish  to  annihilate  the  mem 
ory  of  all  that  France  had  done  and  earned  after  his  expatriation. 
Consolidating  the  two  reigns  of  Louis  the  Eighteenth  and  Charles 
the  Tenth,  into  one,  we  have  a  period  the  most  remarkable,  per 
haps,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  for  the  want  of  adaptation  of  the 
measures  of  the  government  to  the  circumstances  around  it.  There 
was  a  continued  effort  to  approximate  the  epochs  of  1789  and  of 
1815,  as  though  the  intervening  events  could  be  erased  from  the 
annals  of  mankind,  and  their  effects  from  the  memory  and  feelings 
of  the  French  nation. 

"How  different  the  conduct  of  Louis  Phillippe.  He  has  as 
sociated  himself  with  the  glories  of  his  country.  A  new  order  of 
things  was  substituted  for  the  past,  and  a  new  dynasty  called  to 
sit  upon  the  throne.  But  this  period  of  change  was  necessarily  a 
period  of  excitement.  All  but  the  advocates  of  exploded  princi 
ples  put  their  hands  to  the  great  work  of  restoration,  though  with 
expectations  as  different  as  the  various  shades  of  opinion  which 
divided  them.  This  state  of  feeling  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
phrases  then  so  much  in  vogue,  and  which  seemed  to  embody  the 
opinions  of  a  great  portion  of  the  community,  c  a  monarchy  with 
republican  institutions.'  The  thought  was  new  and  the  expression 
was  epigrammatical,  and  it*  took  forcible  hold  of  the  public  ima 
gination.  Every  one  knew  what  a  republic  was,  and  every  one 
knew  what  a  monarchy  was;  but  a  monarchical  republic,  or  a 
republican  monarchy,  was  something  new  under  the  sun,  and 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  381 

every  one  was  left  free  to  give  to  it  such  attributes  as  agreed  best 
with  his  own  political  views.  And  in  this  latitude  of  expectation, 
no  doubt,  many  warm  and  honest  partizans  belonging  to  differ 
ent  shades  of  opinion,  saw  in  the  new  government  the  very  ~beau 
ideal  they  had  formed  for  themselves  in  their  political  reveries. 
A  monarch  called  to  administer  a  government  under  these  cir 
cumstances,  becomes,  in  fact,  the  representative  of  the  various 
parties  contributing  to  the  work,  and  each  expects  that  the 
measures  to  be  adopted  will  be  in  conformity  with  the  programme 
he  has  formed  for  himself." 

And  on  another,  speaking  of  emeutes:  "There  are,  at  all  times, 
in  these  old  countries,  many  desperate  adventurers,  desiring  a 
change  in  the  actual  establishments,  in  the  hope  of  finding  some 
personal  advantages  in  the  confusion.  And  it  is  difficult  for  an 
American  to  conceive  an  idea  of  the  true  state  of  the  working 
class,  upon  whose  passions  these  men  continually  operate.  Per 
haps  thirty  cents  a  day,  or  a  little  more,  may  be  the  average  price 
of  labor  throughout  France,  and  out  of  this  the  workman  must 
clothe  and  feed  himself.  And  then  come  the  seasons  of  interrup 
tion,  when  work  is  almost  discontinued,  and  when  the  starving 
mechanics  are  thrown  upon  the  community,  to  seek  the  support 
of  life  as  they  can.  With  us,  every  honest,  industrious  man  can 
reasonably  expect  to  provide  something  in  the  meridian  of  life  for 
its  decline.  By  emigrating  westward  he  can  procure  a  piece  of 
land,  and  close  his  days  surrounded  by  his  family.  But  such  an 
occurrence  in  Europe  would  be  little  short  of  a  miracle  ;  and  in 
this  reasonable  expectation  of  an  eventual  acquisition  of  property 
in  our  country,  with  the  moral  stimulus  which  accompanies  it,  and 
in  this  despair  of  the  future  which  seems  almost  inseparable  from 
the  condition  of  a  European  laborer,  I  trace  one  of  the  most  strik 
ing  distinctions  between  a  new  society  and  an  old  one,  and  one  of 
our  surest  guarantees  for  the  perpetuation  of  our  institutions. 

"  An  illustration,  confirmatory  of  this  state  of  things,  is  furnished 
by  the  law  of  conscription.  By  this  law  every  young  man,  after 
the  age  of  twenty  years,  is  liable  to  serve  in  the  army.  He  draws 
for  his  chance  of  enrollment,  and  is  then  called  as  his  number  and 
the  exigencies  of  the  public  service  may  require.  He  serves  seven 
years,  precisely  at  the  time  of  life  when  he  ought  to  be  forming 
himself  for  his  eventful  duties,  and  laying  the  foundation  of  any 
respectability  he  may  hope  to  acquire.  It  is  precisely  the  period 


382  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

which,  with  us,  if  lost,  would  be  lost  irreparably.  The  average 
annual  demand  of  conscripts  in  France,  to  keep  the  army  at  its 
requisite  number,  is  eighty  thousand,  and  this  immense  amount  is 
every  year  drawn  from  the  class  of  the  population  in  the  very 
spring-time  of  life,  to  be  returned — such  of  them,  indeed,  as  have 
the  luck,  good  or  bad,  as  it  may  be,  to  return — seven  years  after, 
without  any  preparation  for  eventual  usefulness.  But  the  most 
remarkable  fact,  in  all  this  institution,  is  the  pay  which  these 
forced  soldiers  receive — a  pay  which,  after  making  the  deductions 
that  go  to  the  government  for  indispensable  supplies,  amounts  to 
one  cent  a  day,  twenty-five  dollars  and  a  half  for  seven  years'  ser 
vices  !  And  yet  this  process  of  military  supply  seems  firmly 
established  and  engrafted  on  the  habits  of  society ;  nor  have  I 
seen,  among  all  the  propositions  with  which  the  public  has  been 
excited  since  my  residence  here,  for  the  melioration  of  the  existing 
institutions  of  the  country,  a  single  allusion  to  this  greatest  of  all 
practical  oppressions.  And  I  can  not  account  for  this  apparent 
indifference  to  a  subject  which  strikes  every  American  with  aston 
ishment,  unless  it  results  from  the  conviction  that  a  bare  support 
is  all  the  laboring  classes  can  procure  by  the  most  fortunate  exer 
tion,  and  that  it  may  as  well  be  in  the  army  as  elsewhere.  One 
circumstance,  however,  renders  this  arrangement  more  acceptable 
than  it  would  otherwise  be,  and  that  is  its  perfect  equality.  It 
operates  upon  all  with  the  same  severity,  and  is  executed  with  the 
most  rigid  impartiality." 

And  from  another,  speaking  of  the  existence  of  secret  societies, 
and  their  machinery  and  principles:  "Their  organization  appears 
to  have  been  well  adapted  to  the  ulterior  designs  of  the  party. 
Candidates  were  admitted  with  prescribed  ceremonies,  tending  to 
produce  a  powerful  impression  upon  their  imaginations.  They 
were  blindfolded,  accompanied  by  a  guide,  who  made  the  neces 
sary  answers,  and  took  an  oath  of  secrecy  and  obedience.  A 
poniard  was  placed  in  their  hands,  as  a  symbol  of  the  power  of 
the  society  over  its  members,  and  they  invoked  its  employment  in 
the  event  of  their  infidelity.  The  members  were  not  known  by 
their  actual  names,  but  each  received  a  nom  de  guerre.  They 
were  required  to  propagate  their  principles;  to  make  no  confes 
sions  if  interrogated  by  the  authorities;  to  execute,  without  reply, 
the  orders  of  their  chiefs;  to  furnish  themselves  with  arms  and 
ammunition;  and  carefully  to  avoid  writing  upon  the  subject  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  383 

the  association.  At  the  initiation  a  series  of  questions  and  an 
swers  passed  between  the  president  and  the  candidate,  which 
discloses  the  objects  of  the  association,  and  the  means  it  proposed 
to  employ.  This  political  catechism  is  a  mixture  of  the  wildest 
fanaticism  and  of  the  most  frightful  cruelty;  and  reveals  a  state 
of  feeling,  and  an  aberration  of  principle — and  I  might  almost 
add,  of  reason  —  wholly  unknown  in  our  calmer  and  happier 
country. 

One  or  two  of  the  questions  and  answers  will  serve  to  give  a 
general  notion  of  the  new  light  which  is  to  break  in  upon  the  can 
didate,  when  the  moral  blindness  that  obstructs  his  mental  vision 
shall  be  removed,  as  the  natural  light  will  strike  his  organs  of 
sight  when  the  bandage  which  covers  them  shall  fall : 

Question. — Is  a  political  or  social  revolution  necessary? 

Answer. — A  social  revolution.  The  social  state  being  gan 
grened,  to  arrive  at  a  state  of  health  requires  heroic  remedies;  the 
people  will  have  need  during  some  time  of  a  revolutionary  power. 

Question. — Who  are  now  the  aristocrats'? 

Answer. — They  are  the  men  of  property,  bankers,  furnishers, 
monopolists,  large  proprietors,  brokers,  in  a  word  (exploiteurs) 
landholders,  who  fatten  at  the  expense  of  the  people. 

Question. — Those  who  have  rights,  without  fulfilling  duties,  like 
the  aristocrats  of  the  present  clay,  do  they  make  part  of  the 
people  ? 

Answer. — They  ought  not  to  make  part  of  the  people;  they  are 
to  the  social  body  what  the  cancer  is  to  the  natural  body. 

The  first  condition  of  the  return  of  the  social  body  to  a  just 
state,  is  the  entire  annihilation  of  the  aristocracy — or  in  more 
direct,  though  not  in  plainer,  terms,  the  death  of  all  who  possess 
property. 

A  novel  republicanism  is  this  !  Resting  upon  such  a  platform, 
the  blessings  of  government  would  not  fall,  like  the  dew  of  Heaven, 
upon  all  alike." 

From  another  memoranda,  the  following  is  extracted,  "  Our 
system  of  newspaper  subscription  is  very  little  known  in  this  coun 
try.  With  us,  subscribers  and  advertisements  support  the  journals, 
and  he  must  be  poor  indeed  who  is  not  upon  the  subscription  list 
of  some  newspaper  printer.  But  here  there  are  almost  no  adver 
tisements,  the  price  preventing  their  insertion;  for  the  charge,  in 
cluding  the  tax,  is  from  thirty  to  forty  cents  a  line  of  between 


384:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

thirty-five  and  fifty  letters.  And  the  general  subscription  price 
of  a  newspaper  is  sixteen  dollars,  and  this  newspaper  not  resem 
bling  one  of  our  formidable  sheets,  but  presenting  a  latitude  and 
longitude  indicative  of  a  great  change  of  climate  in  this  depart 
ment  of  public  information.  It  is  in  the  cafes  and  reading  rooms, 
and  places  of  public  resort,  that  all  the  journals  of  the  day  are  to 
be  found.  These  places  are  frequented  by  regular  subscribers,  as 
well  as  by  other  persons.  They  pay  two  sous — a  little  less  than 
two  cents  each  ;  and  for  this  sum  the  readers  can  remain  in  the 
reading  rooms  as  long  as  they  please,  and  peruse  at  their  leisure 
all  the  papers  of  the  day.  There  are  places  where,  in  addition  to 
this  mental  enjoyment,  more  substantial  comfort  is  sold,  in  the 
guise  of  a  cheap,  meager,  red  wine  ;  and  here  the  lounger  seats 
himself,  with  his  favorite  journal  and  his  glass  of  vin  ordinaire, 
and  seems  to  laugh  at  the  world,  while  he  assuages  his  carnal  and 
mental  appetite  at  the  same  time.  The  French  are  both  a  frugal 
and  a  temperate  people,  and  their  peculiar  system  of  personal 
comfort  is  well  adapted  to  these  principles  of  their  social  life." 

M.  Leon  Foucher,  in  his  criticisms  of  M.  Guizot's  translation  of 
the  work  of  Sparks,  containing  the  biography  and  writings  of 
Washington,  had  taken  occasion  to  ascribe  the  American  Revolu 
tion  to  the  high  intellects  of  the  country,  and  that  it  was  not  pop 
ular  with  the  inferior  classes,  as  he  termed  them  :  and  General 
Cass  remarks,  "In  his  self-complacency,  as  an  author  and  a  French 
man,  it  never  occurs  to  him,  that  what  he  calls  the  different  prin 
ciples  of  those  two  great  revolutions,  or,  in  other  words,  the  state 
of  excitement  and  terrible  crimes,  which  marked  the  progress  of 
the  one  event,  and  of  firm  resolution  and  continued  exertion,  des 
titute  of  all  political  fanaticism,  which  distinguished  the  other, 
drew  their  origin  from  the  characters  of  the  respective  people 
pushed  to  those  struggles,  and  not  from  any  peculiar  political 
opinions  of  either  of  them,  regarding  the  foundation  of  their 
rights,  or  the  duty  of  resistance.  The  Frenchman  might  have 
considered  the  prospect  of  future  oppression  not  worth  the  imme 
diate  exertion,  while  upon  his  ardent  temperament  a  single  wound 
may  have  required  the  propitiation  of  the  fall  of  Bastile.  But 
most  assuredly  the  Americans  did  not  want  a  visible  signal  to 
push  them  on  :  and  he  who  should  have  displayed  a  bloody  shirt 
for  that  purpose,  would  have  been  followed  by  the  contempt  of  the 
spectators,  and  saluted  with  stones  by  every  idle  boy  in  the  streets. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  385 

It  must  be  remembered  in  all  attempts  to  analyze  the  views  of  the 
French  writers  upon  our  country  and  government,  that  there  is 
one  peculiar  fact  to  be  kept  in  view,  of  the  utmost  importance  in 
its  bearing  here,  but  which  has  not  the  slightest  point  of  resem 
blance  to  anything  in  the  institutions  of  the  United  States.  In  all 
questions  of  national  opinion  and  of  political  movement,  Paris  is 
France.  From  the  first  explosion  in  1789  to  the  last  •emeute  in 
May,  1839,  not  a  single  popular  effort  has  overturned,  or  serious 
ly  threatened  to  overturn,  the  existing  government,  which  has 
not  originated  in  the  capital.  And  a  very  slight  knowledge  of 
the  elements  of  the  society  which  compose  its  mass  of  a  million 
of  inhabitants,  is  sufficient  to  explain  how  this  multitude  may  be 
excited,  and  how  a  ~bloody  shirt  may  perform  an  important  part  in 
the  revolution  of  a  kingdom.  But,  God  be  praised  !  we  have  no 
Paris,  with  its  powerful  influence  and  its  inflammable  materials. 
He  who  occupies  the  lowliest  cabin  upon  the  very  verge  of  civil 
ization,  has  just  as  important  a  part  to  play  in  the  fate  of  our 
country,  as  the  denizen  of  the  proudest  city  in  the  land.  There  is 
no  tocsin  from  a  tower,  nor  any  rappel  from  a  guard-house,  which 
can  announce  to  the  defenders  of  our  institutions,  that  they  are  in 
danger.  A  drum  or  a  bell  whose  roll  or  whose  peal  could  reach 
the  hundredth  part  of  those  upon  whose  affections  our  political 
edifice  rests,  will  never  be  made  by  mortal  hands.  Such  a  sound 
will  be  heard  but  once  by  the  human  race." 

And  then,  casting  about  to  see,  if  he  could,  what  had  produced 
such  a  false  impression  and  imperfect  knowledge,  in  European 
mind,  of  the  American  standard  of  morals  and  measures,  he  at 
tributes  it  to  the  observations  of  British  travelers.  He  says, 
"  There  are  a  few  honorable  exceptions  in  this  class  of  writers,  but 
most  of  them  are  mere  gossips  in  pantaloons  or  petticoats,  who 
have  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  read  us  homilies  upon  our  barbarous 
usages,  and  who  have  returned  to  convince  their  willing  country 
men  that  political  institutions  and  social  life  in  the  new  world 
offer  nothing  consolatory  to  the  observer."  And  he  then  proceeds 
to  say,  "  When  I  first  arrived  in  Europe,  I  was  so  forcibly  struck 
with  the  many  outlandish  things  I  saw  and  heard,  that  I  com 
menced  a  kind  of  common-place  book,  in  which  I  entered  the 
most  prominent  of  these  aberrations  from  the  true  standard  of 
civilization,  as  the  code  is  taught  by  the  English  travelers  who 
visit  the  United  States.  I  entitled  my  collection  of  curiosities, 
25 


386  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

-'  Trollopiana,  or  things  I  have  seen  in  Europe,  to  be  appended  to 
the  next  edition  of  Trollope,  Hall,  Hamilton,  ed  it  genus  omne,? 
The  task,  however,  was  not  to  my  taste,  and  I  soon  abandoned  it. 
But  I  will  give  you  a  specimen  of  the  nature  of  these  collections 
and  recollections,  to  show  how  easily  national  recriminations  may 
be  found  for  national  criminations.  My  object  is  to  prove  the 
palpable  iniquity  of  our  traducers  by  showing  the  bearing  of  the 
principles  they  have  adopted  when  applied  to  their  own  country, 
a  country  whose  moral  standard  is  high  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world,  and  to  which  we  can  look  with  pride  as  the  birth-place  of 
our  ancestors  ;  and  a  country,  too,  with  which  we  have  many  as 
sociations  to  bind  us  in  lasting  friendship.  Now  to  my  argu- 
menta  ad  Jiomines.  1  will  tell  what  I  have  seen,  read,  and 
heard  : 

"  I  saw  the  door-keeper  of  the  House  of  Lords,  on  the  twenty- 
first  of  Jane,  1838,  in  a  state  of  intoxication  upon  his  post,  and 
exhibiting  a  disgusting  spectacle  to  every  observer. 

"  I  have  seen  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  guilty  of 
that  most  abominable  of  all  vices,  and  heretofore  described  as  a 
peculiarly  American  one,  sitting  with  their  feet  raised  and  resting 
on  the  benches  before  them. 

"  I  saw  the  passengers  on  board  an  English  steamboat,  from 
London  to  Antwerp,  called  the  '  City  of  Hamburgh,'  on  the  first 
of  July,  1838,  being  almost  all  English,  seat  themselves  at  table 
without  being  called,  and  take  possession  of  almost  all  the  places, 
there  awaiting  the  dinner ;  and  I  saw  three  or  four  Americans 
help  some  of  the  ladies  to  seats,  while  many  others  were  compelled 
to  wait  for  a  second  table. 

"  I  have  seen  the  published  report  of  a  trial  in  which  the  Pre 
mier  Baron  of  England,  Lord  DeRoos,  was  convicted  of  cheating 
at  cards  ;  and  one  of  the  witnesses,  a  gentleman  of  high  family,- 
avowed  that  he  examined  the  cards  and  found  them  marked,  and 
afterwards  played  with  DeRoos  and  visited  him,  and  that  he,  (the 
witness,)  made  card-playing  his  principal  occupation. 

"  And  another  witness,  a  commander  in  the  navy,  acknowl 
edged  that  he  had  gained  ten  thousand  pounds  by  play,  and 
another,  an  officer  in  the  army,  that  he  had  played  with  DeRoos 
after  the  cheating. 

"  And  another,  a  baronet,  who,  though  he  had  seen  DeRoos 
cheat  four  years  before,  was  unwilling  to  mention  it,  because 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  387 

DeEoos  was  popular,  and  a  favorite  with  the  club,  '  and  then  he 
was  a  Peer,  too ! ' 

"  And  another,  Lord  Bentick,  who  confessed  he  played  with 
DeRoos  after  he  knew  he  cheated. 

"  And  another,  George  Payne,  who  played  with,  and  betted 
on  him. 

"  I  have  seen  that  an  impostor,  calling  himself  Sir  William 
Courtenay,  pretended  to  divine  inspiration,  and  that  he  selected 
for  the  theater  of  his  performances,  the  Archiepiscopal  See  of  the 
Primate  of  all  England.  And  this  man,  claiming  to  be  the  Savior 
of  the  world,  collected  around  him  many  disciples,  and  finally, 
resisting  the  civil  authority,  perished,  with  many  of  his  followers 
and  opponents,  in  the  effort  to  establish  his  power.  And  crowds 
of  people  flocked  to  see  him  after  his  death,  and  large  sums  of 
money  were  given  for  locks  of  his  hair,  and  for  his  clothes,  and 
for  rags  dipped  in  his  blood. 

"  I  have  seen  an  English  marquis,  Waterford,  engaged  in  a 
disgraceful  contest  with  Norwegian  police  officers,  and  rendering 
himself  contemptible,  for  what  we  should  call  blackguard  breaches 
of  the  peace,  wherever  he  went. 

"  I  have  seen  an  earl,  Roscommon,  fined  for  being  drunk  and 
unable  to  take  care  of  himself  in  the  street. 

"  I  have  seen  a  marquis,  Huntley,  declared  a  bankrupt. 

"  I  have  seen  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  accuse  the 
committee  of  elections  of  perjury  ;  and  I  have  seen  a  distin 
guished  Review,  the  Edinburgh,  fortify  the  accusation,  by  asking 
what  would  be  thought  if  committees  of  Congress  were  stained 
with  a  hundredth  part  of  the  suspicions  under  which  the  election 
committees  of  the  House  of  Commons  labor? 

"  I  have  seen  the  following  speech  of  Mr.  Bradshaw,  Member 
of  Parliament,  at  a  public  dinner  :  c  I  hope  Sir  Robert  Peel  and 
the  Duke  of  "Wellington  will  purge  the  court  of  the  filth  which 
offends  the  nostrils  of  all  but  those  whose  sense  is  so  vitiated  that 
they  do  not  know  vice  from  virtue,  or  purity  from  impurity. 
Innocence  is  confounded  with  guilt.  Yirgin  innocence  is  ban 
ished  from  the  palace,  while  vice  riots  rampant  at  the  royal  board.' 

"  I  have  read  a  paragraph  in  a  speech  of  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  charged  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
Sir  Robert  Peel  with  being  anxious  to  place  their  friends  about 
the  queen  for  the  purpose  of  compassing  her  death. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  I  have  read — and  who  has  not  ? — the  history  of  the  affair  of 
Lady  Flora  Hastings.  If  such  an  event,  with  its  accompanying 
incidents,  had  happened  in  the  mansion  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  it  would  have  furnished  a  mass  amply  sufficient  to 
glut  even  twenty  Trollopes. 

"  I  have  seen  the  attacks  growing  out  of  this  affair,  contained 
in  the  English  journals,  charging  and  retorting  against  the  great 
est  names  of  England,  not  the  usual  ebullitions  of  party  and 
political  rancor,  but  imputations  upon  moral  character,  and  alle 
gations  of  the  violation  of  the  decencies  of  life,  and  these  distinctly 
specified  in  the  face  of  the  country  and  the  world,  in  terms  which 
I  shall  not  repeat.  Among  these  names  were  those  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  Lord  Melbourne,  Lord  Lyndhurst,  the  Marquis  of 
Hertford,  Lord  Ellenborough,  Lord  Palmerston,  and  others  which 
have  escaped  my  recollection,  and  which  I  have  no  disposition  to 
seek  and  record. 

"  The  Journal  des  Debate,  in  quite  a  recent  number,  that  of  Jan 
uary  18th,  1840,  which  has  appeared  since  the  above  was  written, 
has  come  out  with  a  full  exposition  of  this  extraordinary  warfare, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  continental  scandal-mongers,  and  has  added 
to  it  some  remarks  not  devoid  of  interest,  which  I  shall  here 
insert. 

"  After  a  full  account  of  the  publications  upon  this  subject,  the 
Journal  des  Debats  thus  proceeds  :  '  The  discussion  is  continued 
for  some  time  in  the  same  tone.  We  have  seen  the  moment  when 
the  Standard  was  about  to  demand  a  jury  of  matrons.  Truly,  we 
begin  to  believe  that  the  iron  window-shutters  of  Apsley  House 
have  not  been  placed  there  as  a  protection  against  the  insults  of 
the  populace,  but  rather  as  a  sort  of  discreet  leaf,  destined  to 
mask  the  statue  not  over  bashful,  which  the  fair  daughters  of 
Albion  have  elevated  to  their  Achilles  opposite  to  his  house,  and 
which  they  have  inhumanly  exposed  to  all  the  rigors  of  the 
weather  of  Hyde  Park.  Alas !  the  warrior  who  is  honored  by  all 
England,  after  so  many  campaigns  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  after 
so  many  palms  gathered  under  all  suns,  after  so  many  crowns 
received  upon  his  white  head,  could  he  have  expected,  at  the  end 
of  a  career  so  well  tried,  and  well  filled,  to  see  added  to  all  those 
palms,  and  to  all  those  laurels,  a  last  crown  of  orange  flowers  ? ' 

"  I  have  seen  the  following  beauties  of  the  English  periodical 
press  : 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  389 

"  The  Times — ;  O'Connell,  an  ungrateful  hypocrite,  has  been 
making  a  rabid  howl.  ...  A  miscreant,  the  worthless,  bas 
tard  progeny  of  the  Dublin  newspapers.' 

"The  Ilerald—'The  impertinent  coxcombry  of  Lord  Melbourne's 
letters.' 

"The  Standard— '  The  most  shabby  of  all  shabby  adminis 
trations.' 

"  The  Courier — '  Is  there  any  thing  to  which  Lord  Melbourne 
will  not  sink  for  money  ? ' 

"  The  Globe,  speaking  of  bare-faced  calumnies  in  the  Standard, 
says  :  c  The  scoundrels  who  put  forth  such  insinuations.' 

"The  Post,  speaking  of  Lord  Melbourne,  says  :  'The  man  who 
could  write  this  letter,  deserves  to  be  spit  upon  by  every  mother's 
son  in  the  three  kingdoms.' 

"  The  Morning  Chronicle — '  To  environ  royalty  with  falsehood. 
and  to  infuse  it  into  her  very  soul,  is  the  aim  of  toryism.' 

"  The  Chronicle — '  The  Quarterly  comes  out  with  an  elaborate 
article  to  prove  the  queen  is  a  liar.' 

"The  Waterford  Chronicle — 'This  is  the  only  one  of  the  enor 
mous  lies  of  our  sanctimonious  cotemporary.  There  are  not  such 
liars  in  the  world  as  some  of  these  High  Church  Tory  organs.' 

"  The  Times — '  The  lying  Premier,  and  his  Home  Secretary.' 

"  The  Times — '  The  Whigs  are  irrevocably  spavined,  glandered, 
broken-winded,  and  doomed  to  slaughter.' 

"  It  is  obvious  in  perusing  the  extracts  I  have  given  from  the 
French  acte  of  accusation  above  referred  to,"  continues  General 
Cass,  "  and  which  exhibits  the  creed  of  the  persons  engaged  in 
efforts  to  overturn  the  government,  that  the  object  is  not  confined 
to  a  change  of  political  institutions,  to  the  substitution  of  a  re 
public  for  a  monarchy,  but  that  it  extends  to  the  fundamental 
basis  of  society,  seeking  the  destruction  of  private  rights,  and  of 
all  the  barriers  which  defend  property  and  order.  Undoubtedly, 
in  these  crowded  regions  of  the  old  world,  there  is  much  misery, 
and  the  comforts  of  life  are  very  unequally  distributed.  He  who 
depends  for  existence  upon  public  chanty,  or  he  who,  by  constant 
labor  and  continual  privations,  barely  supports  life  without  be 
coming  a  mendicant,  may  be  easily  taught  to  look  upon  the  prin 
ciples  to  which  he  attributes  all  these  evils,  as  equally  unjust  in 

their  foundation,  and  oppressive  in  their  operation There 

is  no  problem  in  human  society  fraught  with  more  important 


390  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

consequences  than  that  which  seeks  to  combine  the  happiness  of 
the  greatest  number  with  the  necessary  principles  of  public  order 
and  private  rights.  Visionary  men,  feeling  right,  but  thinking 
wrong,  may  declare  war  against  the  existing  institutions  of  society, 
and  talk  about  the  evils  and  selfishness  of  riches,  and  the  justice 
of  an  equal  partition  of  all  the  products  of  industry:  and  Uto 
pian  politicians  may  dream  of  some  far-off  regions  where  there 
is  neither  wealth  nor  poverty,  where  each  labors  for  one  and  for 
all,  and  where  self  is  lost  in  an  indiscriminate  benevolence.  But 
such  regions  must  be  sought  on  another  globe  than  this.  If  the 
curse  of  labor,  the  first  fruit  of  disobedience,  descended  upon 
mankind,  it  was  accompanied  by  the  stimulus  of  necessity,  and 
by  the  passion  of  acquisition.  Without  this  selfish  hope,  and 
without  the  barriers  which  fence  around  whatever  can  minister  to 
it,  what  would  become  of  the  nations  of  the  world  ?  Who  would 
labor  from  the  morning  of  life  till  its  close,  with  hand  or  head, 
and  toil  in  any  of  the  innumerable  spheres  of  action,  which  in 
their  ensemble  constitute  the  aggregate  of  society,  if  the  reward 
he  hopes  to  find  in  the  product  of  his  industry  may  be  wrested 
from  him  by  the  first  lawless  invader  who  chooses  to  appropriate 
to  himself  what  he  pleases  ?  And  between  the  unlimited  power 
of  acquisition  and  enjoyment,  and  the  indiscriminate  abandon 
ment  of  all  to  all,  human  ingenuity  has  yet  found  no  practicable 
medium." 

But  General  Cass,  in  the  memoranda  from  which  we  transcribe 
so  liberally,  in  order  that  the  reader  may  see  for  himself  what 
they  are,  passes  from  the  grave  topics,  to  others  of  a  lighter  cha 
racter,  and  thus  speaks  of  the  personality  of  the  king  of  the 
French. 

"  The  king,  Louis  Phillippe,  is  now  about  sixty-six  years  of  age. 
His  constitution,  however,  is  vigorous,  and  there  are  no  marks  of 
declining  years  about  him.  His  frame  is  large,  but  there  is  much 
ease  in  his  movements,  and  his  whole  carriage  is  marked  by  that 
happy  address  which  good  taste,  and  the  polished  society  where 
he  has  moved,  have  enabled  him  to  acquire.  His  countenance  is 
striking  and  expressive,  and  displays  the  possession  of  great  intel 
lectual  power.  He  belongs  to  that  small  class  of  men,  the  indi 
viduals  composing  which  you  can  not  meet  in  a  crowd,  or  pass  in 
the  street,  without  turning  round  to  regard  them,  and  involuntarily 
asking  yourself,  who  they  are.  All  the  engravings  representing 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  391 

him  give  a  likeness  more  or  less  just,  because  his  is  one  of  those 
faces  which  the  painter  can  not  well  mistake.  He  speaks  and  writes 
English  as  fluently  as  any  Englishman  or  American;  and  I  under 
stand  he  possesses  as  familiar  a  knowledge  of  most  of  the  modern 
languages.  He  is  very  ready  in  conversation,  and  displays  great 
tact  and  judgment  in  his  observations.  His  education  was  most 
complete  and  careful,  and  superintended  by  the  celebrated  Ma 
dame  de  Genlis.  It  is  said  to  have  been  eminently  useful  and 
practical,  and  he  was  thus  fortunately  the  better  prepared  for  those 
adverse  circumstances  with  which  his  early  life  was  chequered. 
In  his  domestic  relations,  he  is  eminently  happy;  and  as  a  hus 
band,  brother,  and  father,  he  is  without  reproach.  In  the  execu 
tion  of  his  public  duties,  he  is  said  to  be  prompt  and  attentive; 
and  in  illustration  of  his  conscientious  application  to  his  functions, 
I  will  mention  an  anecdote,  upon  the  truth  of  which  you  can  de 
pend.  Mr.  Stevenson,  our  Minister  in  England,  had  heard  a 
report,  coming  from  a  distinguished  French  statesman,  that  in  all 
questions  affecting  the  life  of  a  man,  the  king  was  exceedingly 
scrupulous,  and  made  a  point  of  examining  the  papers  with  re 
markable  fidelity.  Some  extraordinary  occurrence  called  this 
gentleman  to  the  palace  at  a  late  hour  in  the  night — as  late,  in 
deed,  I  think,  as  two  o'clock — when  he  found  the  king  in  his 
cabinet,  examining,  with  his  usual  caution,  the  case  of  a  man  con 
demned  to  execution.  Mr.  Stevenson,  in  the  course  of  conversa 
tion  with  the  king,  alluded  to  this  circumstance,  and  found  the 
statement  substantially  correct.  He  afterwards  ascertained,  and 
from  another  quarter,  that  the  king  keeps  a  register,  in  which  is 
recorded  the  name  of  every  person  condemned  to  capital  punish 
ment,  together  with  the  decision,  and  the  reasons  which  led  to  the 
confirmation  of  the  sentence,  or  to  its  remission.  In  the  still  hours 
of  the  night,  the  king  performed  the  painful  task  of  investigating 
these  cases,  with  the  just  sentiments  of  a  man  upon  whom  weighs 
the  responsibility  of  the  question  of  the  life  or  death  of  a  fellow- 
creature.  And  he  records,  himself,  the  circumstances  which 
influence  his  decision.  It  is  a  noble  example,  and  one  which 
ought  to  be  followed  by  all  magistrates,  monarchical  or  republican, 
called  to  fulfill  this  painful  duty. 

"It  is  difficult  for  an  American  to  form  a  correct  notion  of  the 
labor  which  devolves  upon  a  king  of  France.  With  us,  the 
political  tendency  is  to  sub-divide  power,  and  to  cause  it,  as  much 


392  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

as  possible,  to  be  executed  in  the  various  localities  which  its  exer 
cise  concerns.  But  here  a  contrary  tendency  manifests  itself :  and 
a  spirit  of  centralization  pervades  the  system  of  government, 
which,  while  it  adds  strength  to  the  general  administration, 
greatly  augments  the  royal  duties.  In  our  country,  such  a  course 
of  procedure  would  be  intolerable  were  it  practicable,  and  im 
practicable  were  it  tolerable.  How  far  the  extent  to  which  it  is 
carried  in  France  is  expedient,  I  do  not  suffer  myself  to  pronounce. 
Recollect  that  the  kingdom  contains  twice  as  many  inhabitants  as 
the  United  States,  and  that  here  there  is  one  legislature  and  one 
chief  magistrate  to  execute  the  duties  which  are  performed  in  our 
country  by  thirty  legislatures  and  thirty  chief  magistrates,  as  well 
Federal,  as  State  and  Territorial ;  and  that,  besides  these  duties, 
common  to  both  nations,  there  is  a  great  variety  of  others,  which 
in  France  are  reserved  to  the  government,  while  with  us  they  de 
pend  upon  municipal  or  local  authorities.  And  in  addition  to 
this  marked  difference  of  political  organization,  there  is  a  great 
number  of  acts  whose  direction  and  control  are  within  the  sphere 
of  public  power  in  this  country,  which  in  ours  are  altogether  free, 
and  without  the  domain  of  legal  and  administrative  regulation. 
It  would  surprise,  and,  perhaps,  amuse,  had  I  time  to  give  even  a 
catalogue  raisonnee  of  these  restraints  upon  what  we  consider 
national  liberty;  but  as  I  can  not  do  this,  I  will  take  a  few  extracts 
from  royal  ordinances  signed  by  the  king,  which  will  furnish  a 
general  notion  of  the  extent  of  the  executive  duties  in  France. 

"Are  authorized. — Le  Sieur  George,  to  keep  in  operation  his 
flouring  mill  upon  the  river  Blaise,  commune  de  Sainte  Liviere. 

u  Le  Sieur  Mathelin,  to  convert  into  a  flouring  mill  his  plaster- 
mill  upon  the  rivulet  de  Taulay. 

"  Le  Sieur  Boisset,  to  add  to  the  forge  du  Maillet  he  owns  upon 
the  river  de  Loire,  &c.,  a  furnace  to  melt  iron  ore,  a  board  washing 
place  for  the  preparation  of  the  mineral,  and  a  pounding  mill  for 
the  dross. 

"  Les  Sieurs  Pillion,  Destombs,  and  their  associates,  to  transfer 
to  the  commune  of  Mauberge  the  iron  manufactory  they  were  au 
thorized,  by  the  ordinance  of  December  12th,  1837,  to  establish  in 
the  commune  of  Saint  Riney — Mai.  Bati.  This  last  ordinance  is 
repealed. 

"  Les  Sieurs  Dupont  and  Dreyfus,  to  construct  a  second  furnace 
near  that  which  they  possess  in  the  commune  of  Apremont" 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  393 

General  Cass  glances  at  court  ceremonials,  and  contrasts  Eng 
land  and  France  :  and  states  that  the  Court  of  Louis  Phillippe 
is  far  superior  to  that  of  George  the  Third  in  moral  worth  and 
dignity.  In  the  internal  economy  of  the  former,  menial  offices 
are  executed  by  servants,  and  the  dignity  of  the  recipient  is  not 
permitted  to  change  the  character  of  the  service,  and  to  exalt  the 
station  of  him  who  renders  it.  He  agrees  with  Mr.  Burke,  who 
said,  "  that  it  is  not  proper  that  great  noblemen  should  be  keepers 
of  dogs,  though  they  were  the  king's  dogs."  "  But  so  does  not 
think  Lord  Kinnaird,"  continues  the  General,  "for  a  London  paper 
of  the  previous  week  said  that  Lord  Kinnaird,  the  new  master 
of  her  Majesty's  buck-hounds,  had  just  taken  for  four  months  Col 
onel  Cavendish's  mansion  at  St.  Leonard's,  within  about  ten  miles 
of  Windsor,  for  the  purpose  of  being  within  the  immediate  neigh 
borhood  of  the  place  of  his  official  duties.  His  official  duties  in 
deed  !  A  peer  of  England,  a  hereditary  judge  of  the  court  of  the 
last  resort,  a  keeper  of  the  queen's  dogs!  " 

"  But,"  he  adds,  "  a  most  instructive  as  well  as  amusing  chapter 
might  be  written  upon  the  history  of  these  court  ceremonials, 
existing  and  extinct,  which  have  heretofore  controlled,  in  a  greater 
or  less  degree,  the  destinies  of  nations.  I  have  been  told,  that, 
when  Marie  Antoinette  entered  the  French  Court,  she  manifested 
a  mixed  feeling  of  dislike  and  contempt  for  the  rigid  etiquette 
which  prevailed  there  ;  and  sought,  in  the  gayety  of  her  heart,  to 
withdraw  herself  from  its  observance.  I  can  well  appreciate  her 
feelings  in  desiring  to  walk  abroad  into  nature,  out  of  the  artificial 
atmosphere  in  which  she  lived.  But  I  must  confess,  that  I  sur 
veyed  with  surprise  one  place  associated  by  tradition  with  her 
name,  and  which  assuredly  I  should  have  thought  presented  the 
last  scene  a  young,  beautiful,  and  accomplished  woman  would  de 
sire  to  visit.  This  was  a  stone  bench  in  the  catacombs  under  the 
city  of  Paris,  which  our  guide  told  us  had  been  constructed  for  the 
temporary  repose  of  the  queen  and  the  gay  and  gallant  Count 
d'Artois,  when  I  was  examining  that  impressive  repository  of  the 
mortal  remains  of  many  generations  which  have  died  in  this 
great  city. 

"  In  the  absurdity  of  these  observances,  truth  is  stronger  than 
fiction.  When  Marie  Antoinette  arrived  on  the  frontiers  of 
France  to  espouse  the  Dauphin,  she  was  divested  of  all  her  clothes, 
in  a  tent  pitched  for  that  purpose,  and  then  habited  in  a  French 


394:  LIFE  AND  TIMES     . 

suit.  Even  Napoleon  was  led  away  by  his  penchant  for  these  tri 
fles  to  re-establish  their  observance  at  his  court ;  and  it  is  well 
known  that  at  the  coronation  of  the  Empress  there  was  quite  a 
family  scene,  because  he  insisted  that  her  train  should  be  borne 
by  his  crowned  sisters. 

"  Under  the  ancient  regime,  the  right  to  have  both  folding-doors 
thrown  open,  or  to  sit  upon  a  tabouret,  which  is  a  cushioned  stool, 
was  one  of  the  greatest  honors  a  subject  could  aspire  to,  and  ex 
cited  more  sensation  than  many  a  political  event  affecting  the 
prosperity  of  the  kingdom.  On  particular  days  the  king  dined  in 
public,  when  the  principal  personages  of  the  court  and  the  king 
dom  were  seen  standing  at  his  chair,  holding  plates  and  towels  un 
der  their  arms  and  in  their  hands. 

"  Lord  Talbot  failed  in  his  efforts  at  reform  at  the  English 
court,  '  because  the  turnspit  in  the  king's  kitchen  was  a  member 
of  Parliament.'  I  do  not  know  if  the  importance  of  this  office 
has  diminished  since  that  day,  but  as  I  find,  that  even  in  the  Red 
Book  for  1840  the  Chief  Cook,  the  First  Master  Cook,  the  Second 
Master  Cook,  and  the  Third  Master  Cook,  are  all  designated  '  Es 
quires,'  I  may  presume  it  is  yet  considered  sufficiently  honorable 
for  a  member  of  Parliament  to  turn  the  king's  spit.  In  Scotland, 
Sir  "W.  Anstruther,  a  baronet,  is  hereditary  carver,  having  the 
right,  standing  at  the  side-table,  to  cut  up  the  meats ;  and  Sir 
James  Carnegie  is  hereditary  cup-bearer,  to  wait  upon  the  king 
when  he  desires  to  drink.  I  find  one  appointment  in  the  Red 
Book  which  I  trust,  during  the  reign  of  a  queen,  and  for  the  sake 
of  conjugal  happiness,  will  be  a  sinecure,  that  of  'leather  breeches 
maker '  to  her  Majesty." 

And  now  we  will  transcribe  what  the  General  says  of  the  fam 
ily  life  of  the  French  Monarch,  Louis  Phillippe. 

"  On  ordinary  occasions  the  French  royal  family  assemble  after 
dinner  in  an  evening  saloon,  where  the  queen  and  princesses  are 
seated,  with  the  ladies  of  the  court,  around  a  table,  generally  en 
gaged  in  needle-work,  requiring  little  attention,  and  which  when 
finished,  is  sent  to  be  sold  at  some  fair,  opened  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  money  for  charitable  objects.  The  diplomatic  corps,  and 
persons  entitled  by  their  position  to  the  entree,  as  it  is  called — that 
is,  who  are  expected  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  royal  family  in 
the  evening — present  themselves  occasionally,  and  the  ladies  are 
invited  to  take  seats  round  the  table,  where  the  queen  and  her 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  395 

sister,  Madame  Adelaide,  and  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  when  pres 
ent,  receive  them  with  great  kindness  and  affability . 

"The  gentlemen,  after  saluting  the  queen  and  her  circle,  are  gen 
erally  addressed  by  the  king  and  by  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  upon 
such  topics  of  conversation  as  may  naturally  arise  from  the  cir 
cumstances.  There  is  in  these  family  receptions,  if  I  may  so  call 
them,  a  manifest  desire  on  the  part  of  the  distinguished  hosts  to 
make  the  position  of  the  persons,  whether  natives  or  foreigners, 
who  present  themselves  there,  as  free  from  restraint  as  is  compat 
ible,  perhaps,  with  the  social  distinctions  necessarily  incident  to 
a  monarchical  government.  Certainly  there  is  no  other  court  in 
Europe  where  an  access  like  this  is  permitted,  and  where  the  in 
terior  of  royal  life  is  thus  thrown  open  to  public  gaze.  But  the 
dynasty  of  July  has  noth  ing  to  fear  from  the  most  rigid  .examina 
tion  of  the  social  and  domestic  conduct  of  its  members. 

"  In  the  winter  there  are  great  balls  at  the  Tuilleries,  at  one  or 
more  of  which  each  American  who  has  been  presented  at  court 
is  invited.  By  usage,  the  proper  officer  writes  to  the  Minister, 
asking  for  the  names  of  all  his  countrymen  who  are  in  Paris,  and 
who  have  in  previous  years  been  received  by  the  king  ;  and  to  the 
list  thus  furnished  the  names  of  all  those  recently  presented  are 
added,  and  an  invitation  is  sent  to  each.  As  to  the  balls  them 
selves,  I  must  decline  the  office  of  chronicler.  I  have  neither  taste 
nor  time  for  the  task.  There  is  all  the  splendor  which  power  and 
wealth  can  command.  There  are  immense  apartments,  gorgeous 
ly  furnished  and  brilliantly  illuminated  —  guards  on  duty,  and 
servants  in  rich  liveries — a  numerous  company,  from  all  quarters 
of  the  globe,  many  in  their  national  costumes,  and  each  habited 
for  the  occasion  ;  and  there  are  besides  these  all  the  proper  acces 
sories  of  music  and  refreshments,  including  a  magnificent  supper, 
which  may  be  expected  from  the  highest  rank  and  the  most 
refined  taste. 

"  In  the  summer  the  king  and  his  family  leave  Paris,  and  reside 
at  Neuilly  and  St.  Cloud,  and  occasionally  at  Fontainbleau,  and 
some  of  the  other  royal  seats.  A  day  at  Fontainbleau  will  give 
a  general  description  of  the  mode  of  life  at  these  residences.  Each 
guest  is  provided  with  proper  apartments ;  and  soon  after  he 
rises  he  is  offered  a  cup  of  coffee,  as  is  usual  in  France  ;  and  he 
then  strolls  out  to  look  at  the  grounds,  or  to  amuse  himself  as  his 
inclination  or  caprice  may  dictate.  About  eleven  o'clock,  he  is 


396  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

summoned  to  breakfast,  or,  as  it  is  termed,  a  dejeuner  a  la  four- 
cliette.  He  repairs  to  the  saloon  of  reception,  where  he  pays  his 
respects  to  the  royal  family,  and  where  he  meets  all  the  other 
guests,  who  participate  with  him  in  the  general  hospitality.  From 
here  the  company  go  to  the  breakfast  room,  a  magnificent  hall, 
where  a  splendid  table  is  spread  with  perhaps  a  hundred  covers. 
The  breakfast — resembling,  in  fact,  a  dinner  rather  than  our  morn 
ing  meal — is  served  on  elegant  dishes,  and  presents  the  greatest 
variety  of  the  choicest  fruits.  At  this  time,  an  intimation  is  given 
to  the  guests  respecting  the  amusements  of  the  day,  which  consist 
in  hunting  in  the  beautiful  forest,  visiting  the  circumjacent  coun 
try,  looking  at  the  military  maneuvers,  or  recreations  of  a  similar 
kind.  The  means  of  riding  are  placed  at  the  disposition  of  each 
person,  either  in  carriages  or  on  horseback,  and  he  joins  the  party, 
and  the  day  passes  cheerfully  away.  At  six  o'clock  in  the  even 
ing  there  is  again  a  general  reunion  in  the  saloons  of  reception, 
and  from  these  the  company  move  to  the  dinner  table,  which  is 
all  that  the  epicure  or  the  man  of  the  most  refined  taste  could 
wish.  Among  other  amusements  of  the  evening  is  that  of  walk 
ing  through  the  splendid  apartments,  one  of  which,  by  the  by, 
contains  the  table  at  which  the  renunciation  of  Napoleon  was 
written,  together  with  the  pen  and  inkstand  which  he  made  use 
of  on  that  memorable  occasion,  and  the  original  autograph  instru 
ment  he  wrote.  The  room  is  historical,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
no  vandal  will  arise  to  destroy  these  interesting  memorials.  There 
is  no  danger  of  this  during  the  life  of  the  present  king  or  that  of 
his  son.  The  rest  of  the  evening  is  spent  in  music  and  conversa 
tion,  and  a  cheerful  day  is  brought  to  a  cheerful  close.  I  am  told, 
that  no  one  has  ever  passed  a  day  at  this  hospitable  seat  without 
being  most  favorably  impressed  with  the  kind  attention  of  which 
he  has  been  the  object. 

"  But  I  quit  these  descriptions  of  royal  life.  Perhaps  what  I 
have  said  may  be  thought  inappropriate,  and  in  unfortunate  juxta 
position  with  more  important  matter.  But  it  should  be  recol 
lected,  that  the  courtesies  of  society  enter  deeply  into  public  opin 
ion,  and  that  he  who  travels  abroad  and  shuts  his  eyes  upon  the 
various  modes  of  life,  high  or  low,  he  may  encounter,  under  the 
impression  that  these  are  too  insignificant  for  his  wisdom  or  grav 
ity,  may  return  with  a  self-satisfied  conviction  of  his  own  acqui 
sitions,  but  he  will  assuredly  bring  back  with  him  little  of  that 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  397 

practical  knowledge  without  which  his  gravity,  instead  of  being 
a  proof  of  his  wisdom,  is  but  a  cloak  for  his  imbecility.  And  an 
American,  while  he  is  proud  of  the  institutions  of  his  country, 
and  grateful  for  the  rational  equality  which  prevails  there,  may 
yet  seek  to  explain  the  usages  of  other  societies,  and  describe 
them  for  the  gratification  of  his  countrymen,  without  incurring 
the  suspicion  that  he  is  dazzled  by  European  lustre,  or  that  he  can 
not  return  to  his  country  with  feelings  and  affections  as  warm  as 
when  he  left  it." 

There,  we  have  given  the  pith  of  General  Cass'  observations 
on  Louis  Phillippe  and  his  government.  The  residue  of  what 
was  contained  in  the  book  that  was  published,  relates  to  and  in 
fact  consists  of  a  narrative,  told  in  a  familiar  way,  of  the  tour  of 
the  king  and  his  two  brothers  in  the  United  States  —  a  tour  em 
bracing  some  four  thousand  miles  of  travel,  and  two  thousand 
seven  hundred  of  which  was  done  on  the  same  horses.  These  ob 
servations  w~ere  just,  and  surely  honorable  to  the  feelings  of  a 
man  who  was  treated  by  the  king  of  France  with  the  greatest 
esteem  and  friendship.  The  governmental  policy  pursued  by 
Louis  Phillippe  towards  the  close  of  his  reign,  however  different 
from  that  with  which  he  commenced  it,  can  not  take  from  him  the 
great  qualities  with  which  he  was  endowed,  nor  can  it  be  set  down 
a  foible  in  those  who  praised  him  when  he  acted  as  he  ought  to 
do.  In  respect  to  the  personality  of  Louis  Phillippe,  General  Cass 
but  repeated  what  had  appeared,  time  and  again  before,  in  all  the 
liberal  papers  in  Europe.  And  there  is  no  one,  even  now,  that  is 
acquainted  with  the  state  of  Europe  and  of  the  masses  —  their 
wishes  and  condition  —  at  the  time  Louis  Phillippe  ascended  the 
throne,  but  is  well  satisfied,  that,  for  a  long  time,  he  was  the  surest 
bulwark  against  the  machinations  of  the  enemies  of  freedom  in 
Europe. 

The  old  Bourbon  dynasty  was  dethroned,  and  a  new  race  of 
monarchs  had  mounted  to  power  with  more  liberal  views  of  go 
vernment,  and  apparently  greater  sympathy  with  the  living 
interests  of  the  mass  of  the  people.  Such  General  Cass  found 
when  in  Erance.  Contrasted  with  the  leading  powers  of  Europe, 
the  government  of  Louis  Phillippe  was  a  long  stride  ahead  in 
melioration  of  the  condition  of  society,  and  of  respect  to  the 
wishes  of  Frenchmen,  insomuch  that  it  was  looked  upon  with 
distrust  bv  all  the  cabinets  who  believed  in  the  divine  right  of 


398  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

kings.  The  occupant  of  the  Tuilleries,  unlike  other  monarchs, 
had  in  his  earlier  days  strayed  among  all  classes;  and  that  was 
not  all,  he  had  breathed  the  air  of  liberty  on  the  mountains  and 
plains  of  free  America.  He  had  seen  life  as  it  is,  and  better  knew 
how  to  appreciate  the  wants  of  mankind.  He  was  indebted  to 
no  particular  caste  or  interest  for  the  power  he  possessed.  All, 
by  common  consent,  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  Channel  to  the 
Rhine,  apparently,  at  least,  acquiesced,  and  with  loud  huzzas  pro 
claimed  him  as  their  sovereign.  The  distinguished  recipient  of 
this  lofty  power  evidenced  a  desire  to  rule  for  the  good  of  France. 
So  his  reign  commenced,  and  auspicious  was  it  pronounced  to  be, 
by  the  liberalists  all  over  the  continent  of  Europe.  If  this  bright 
morning  of  hope  was  succeeded  by  a  dismal  night,  and  the  king 
— so  happily  installed  with  the  reins  of  government — was  driven 
from  his  sacked  palace,  to  wander  over  the  world  as  an  outcast 
again,  the  philosopher  of  history  must  pause  ere  he  renders  his 
judgment,  and  examine  writh  care  the  stratum  upon  which  is  rear 
ed  this  mighty  fabric  of  dominion.  If  the  First  Napoleon,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  Third,  believed  it  for  the  good  of  his  beloved 
France  to  encircle  his  brow  with  the  imperial  diadem,  it  surely 
should  not  be  taken  amiss  for  Louis  Phillippe  to  wear  the  crown. 
If  the  plebeian  of  Corsica  could  habit  himself  in  the  imperial 
robes  with  complacency,  no  wonder  is  it  that  an  exiled  scion  of 
royalty  should  deem  the  institutions  of  monarchy  compatible 
with  the  prosperity  and  glory  of  his  country. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  309 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Ambition  of  England— Quintuple   Treaty — The    Chamber   of  Deputies — General  Cass  determines  to 
resist  the  Treaty. 

Simultaneously  with  the  publication  of  the  memoranda  referred 
to  in  the  foregoing  chapter,  England  was  aspiring  to  the  supre 
macy  of  the  seas.  Under  the  shallow  pretext  of  putting  an  end 
to  the  African  slave  trade,  she  was  endeavoring  to  interpolate  into 
the  code  of  international  law,  the  right  to  visit  the  commercial 
marine  of  the  Atlantic,  and  overhaul  the  ships'  papers.  With  the 
law  and  the  fact  in  the  hands  of  her  cruisers, — without  jury  or 
writ  of  habeas  corpus, — she,  then,  would  seize  upon  the  crew 
who  had  first  seen  the  light  in  her  dominions,  upon  the  principle, 
once  a  subject,  always  a  subject.  Her  persevering  efforts  to  estab 
lish  this  doctrine  of  search,  had  been  continued,  unremittingly  on 
all  suitable  occasions,  for  thirty  years:  and  as  long  successfully  re 
sisted  by  the  United  States.  But  she  was  now  exerting  all  the 
arts  of  diplomatic  cunning,  to  blind  the  eyes  of  those  whose  co 
operation  she  sought,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  uniting  the  five  great 
powers  of  Europe  in  a  treaty,  recognizing  this  right. 

Austria,  Russia,  Prussia  and  France,  were,  with  herself,  to  be 
the  high  contracting  parties.  The  governments  of  the  three  for 
mer  had  already  ratified  the  transaction,  and  the  approval  of  the 
French  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  all  that  was  wanting  to  con 
summate  it.  Her  representative  at  Paris  was  urging  on  the  bar 
gain  to  its  completement,  with  his  native  craftiness  and  diligence. 
Her  agents,  fearing  the  personal  influence  of  the  American  Min 
ister  at  the  French  court,  endeavored  to  sap  it  by  soiling  the 
patriotism  of  the  man,  and  depreciating  the  attitude  of  his  go 
vernment  before  the  world. 

England,  in  this  aspiration  to  be  the  acknowledged  mistress  of 
the  ocean,  had  go  far  influenced  the  governments  alluded  to,  as  to 
induce  them  to  sign  the  treaty  she  had  so  artfully  prepared. 
Its  ratification  by  France,  and  its  execution,  would  undoubtedly 
have  brought  on  another  war  between  her  and  this  country.  It 


400  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

would  have  been  a  wanton,  destructive  war.  It  would  have  reach 
ed  the  extremities  of  the  globe.  It  would  have  paralyzed  com 
merce,  and  depressed  trade.  Under  the  banner  of  no  slave  trade, 
the  British  navy  would  have  roved  the  highway  of  nations,  and 
under  the  banner  of  no  search,  it  would  have  been  met  by  the 
Americans.  But,  probably,  despite  every  effort,  the  government 
of  the  United  States  would  have  been  placed  in  a  false  position. 
England,  backed  by  her  powerful  allies,  would  have  made  it  ap 
pear  that  the  United  States  was  fighting  to  sustain  a  traffic 
in  human  flesh,  which  she  and  they  were  endeavoring  to  destroy. 
An  immense  treasure  would  have  been  expended,  and  thousands 
of  lives  sacrificed,  to  gain  the  mastery  of  the  seas. 

It  was  the  winter  of  1842,  and  the  subject  of  the  ratification  of 
this  monster  treaty  was  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  French 
Chamber  of  Deputies.  The  British  Minister  was  hand  and  glove 
writh  the  leading  members,  and  the  British  agents  lent  themselves 
to  all  the  seductive  appliances  of  the  most  refined  diplomacy. 
It  was  already  rumored  in  the  French  capital  even,  that  the  Sec 
retary  of  State  at  Washington,  Daniel  "Webster,  belonged  to  a 
different  class  of  statesmen  from  those  who  guided  the  high  coun 
cils  of  the  American  Republic  in  the  days  of  Jefferson  and  Mad 
ison,  and  that  no  fear  need  be  entertained  that  the  ratification 
would  involve  the  powers  in  hostilities  with  this  country.  And 
to  add  poignancy  to  this  reckless  statement  of  the  British  em 
ployees,  the  hint  was  thrown  out  that  with  the  change  of  the  pres 
idency  followed  a  change  of  the  diplomatic  corps  in  all  quarters  of 
the  world. 

General  Cass  never  felt  the  responsibility  of  official  station 
more  than  at  this  crisis  of  his  mission.  Not  certain  how  far  he 
might  venture  to  rely  upon  being  sustained  by  his  government  at 
home,  in  the  course  which  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  adopt  in  the 
emergency  of  the  hour,  he  nevertheless  at  once  resolved  to  act 
affirmatively.  He  had  not  time  to  write  to  Washington  for 
instructions.  Before  a  special  bearer  of  dispatches  could  go  and 
return,  the  legislative  action  so  much  desired  by  England,  would 
have  transpired,  and  appearances  indicated  that  it  would  be  favor 
able  to  that  power.  He  deemed  it  necessary  and  proper  to  act 
on  his  own  responsibility,  and  prevent,  if  possible,  the  consum 
mation  of  her  wishes. 

Believing  that  if  public  sentiment  could  be  reached,  an  effective 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  401 

impression  might  be  made  upon  the  deputies,  he,  happily  for  his 
country,  took  an  appeal  direct  to  the  people  of  France.  This,  in 
that  land,  and  from  such  a  source,  was  novel,  and  elicited  the 
most  vulgar  epithets  from  the  press  of  England.  It  was  unan 
swerable  ;  if  not  so,  at  any  rate  no  attempt  at  an  answer  was 
made.  It  startled  the  minds  of  the  intelligent.  It  tore  off  the 
mask,  and  displayed  in  full  form  the  real  object  of  the  treaty. 
Citizens  and  legislators,  hitherto  favorable,  stopped  to  read  the 
appeal,  and  rose  from  its  perusal  indignant  at  the  designs  of  the 
British  cabinet.  It  produced  the  desired  effect  on  public  senti 
ment.  With  the  publication  of  this  document,  he'  protested  to 
the  government,  in  firm  and  respectful  language,  against  the  rati 
fication  by  the  Chamber.  Without  this  ratification,  the  treaty 
was  shorn  of  its  vigor  and  power.  Because  if  France  and  the 
United  States  opposed,  its  provisions  could  not  be  enforced, 
although  the  other  four  powers  should  countenance  it.  The 
appeal  and  the  protest  were  effectual,  and  the  French  govern 
ment  abandoned  the  project,  having  ascertained  that  the  treaty 
would  not  be  ratified  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  This  mas 
terly  movement  of  General  Cass  thwarted  the  design  of  the  Brit 
ish  government,  by  breaking  up  the  conspiracy  she  was  so  care 
fully  forming  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  United  States  upon 
the  high  seas.  At  the  same  time  he  preserved  untarnished  the 
honor  of  his  country,  and  by  his  own  action  ensured  the  continu 
ance  of  peaceful  relations,  not  only  with  the  government,  but  also 
with  our  old  friend  and  ally. 

The  proceedings  of  our  Minister  on  this  occasion,  and  his  appeal 
and  argument  upon  a  question  of  great  import  to  the  world, 
should  receive  the  study  and  examination  of  every  citizen  of  the 
United  States.  His  examination  of  the  right  of  search  is  compre 
hensive  and  instructive,  and  is,  in  fact,  the  only  authoritative 
exposition  of  the  American  view  of  a  subject  which  British  states 
men  have  so  often  endeavored  to  complicate.  The  reasons  given 
for  the  position  of  the  United  States  upon  the  doctrine  of  search, 
or  visitation  simply,  are  so  clearly  and  forcibly  presented,  that 
one  would  suppose  it  must  have  carried  conviction  to  all  minds 
not  closed  against  the  light  of  reason  and  the  power  of  truth. 
And  yet  it  is  probable  that  the  result  of  the  deliberations  of  the 
Deputies  might  have  been  of  a  different  complexion,  Lad  the 
American  Minister  been  without  influence  at  the  court  of  Louis 
26 


402  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Phillippe.  The  truth  is,  the  king  himself,  in  consequence  of  his 
previous  action,  was  anxious  for  the  ratification  of  the  treaty. 
General  Cass  had  penetrated  the  diplomacy  of  the  British  gov 
ernment,  and  had  several  private  interviews  with  the  king  and 
M.  Guizot,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  Before  the  publica 
tion  of  his  pamphlet,  he  called  upon  M.  Guizot,  and  expressed  a 
wish,  as  the  subject  was  important  to  his  country,  and  not  well 
understood,  to  prepare  his  views  of  it,  and  to  spread  them  before 
the  French  public.  M.  Guizot  said  that  he  saw  no  objection  to 
this  course,  and  therefore  General  Cass  can  not  be  accused  of 
taking  an  improper  or  an  undiplomatic  course.  Indeed,  he 
exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to  break  up  the  unholy  alliance, 
and  to  his  own  great  gratification  personally,  and  to  the  honor  of 
his  country,  and  the  uninterrupted  prosperity  of  his  fellow-citizens 
at  home,  he  was  signally  triumphant. 

Believing  that  this  important  labor  constitutes  one  of  the  great 
epochs  of  his  life,  we  transcribe  the  appeal  to  the  French  people 
entire  in  the  succeeding  chapter. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  403 


CHAPTEE  XXYI. 

The  Appeal  of  General  Cass  to  the  People  of  France. 

PART  I. — THE  QUESTION  STATED — THE  MOTIVES  OF  THE  BRITISH  GOV 
ERNMENT — THE  POSITION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  right  of  maritime  search,  now  in  discussion  between  the  British  and  Ameri 
can  governments,  is  a  grave  question,  practically  interesting  to  all  nations  to  whom 
the  freedom  of  the  seas  is  dear,  if  not  in  its  application  to  the  subject  which  has 
been  the  cause  or  the  pretext  of  its  assertion,  at  any  rate,  from  the  consequences  to 
which  its  use  or  abuse  may  lead.  Its  connection  with  the  African  slave  trade  is 
but  incidental,  and  the  nature  of  this  traffic,  which  nowhere  finds  advocates,  can 
not  affect  the  nature  of  the  question,  nor  the  right  of  a  state,  nor  of  a  combination 
of  states,  to  make  an  interpolation  into  the  law  of  nations,  which  shall  become  a 
part  of  that  great  public  code.  Great  Britain  professes  to  push  this  point,  in  order 
to  destroy  the  yet  existing  relics  of  that  trade.  We  do  not  question  her  motives — 
that  is  no  part  of  our  purpose.  But,  in  all  general  discussions,  we  must  take  human 
nature  as  it  is,  with  the  good  and  the  bad  blended  together,-  and  we  may,  without 
offense,  fairly  follow  out  the  application  of  a  principle,  and  seek  its  consequences  to 
the  parties.  And  we  are  at  liberty,  without  violating  any  of  the  courtesies  of  a 
liberal  controversy,  to  assume  that  neither  can  be  indifferent  to  its  bearing  upon 
their  interest,  whatever  motive  of  general  benevolence  may  have  led  to  the  difler- 
ence.  Great  Britain  is  eminently  a  maritime  and  commercial  nation,  and  the  history 
of  her  naval  progress,  during  the  last  century  and  a  half,  is  pregnant  with  lessons 
for  all  people  interested  in  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  She  has  marched  steadily  on 
to  her  object.  Jsaval  superiority  she  has  acquired,  and  naval  supremacy  she  seeks. 
We  say  this  in  a  spirit  of  truth,  not  of  offense.  Human  ambition  is  everywhere,  in 
some  form  or  other,  in  ceaseless  action;  and,  upon  sea  and  land,  the  history  of  the 
past  is  but  the  warning  of  the  future,  and  nations  will  strive,  as  they  have  striven, 
for  power.  It  is  impossible  that  the  intelligent  government  and  people  of  Great 
Britain  should  shut  their  eyes  to  the  effect  of  this  claim  of  a  right  of  search  upon 
their  interests,  whatever  motives  of  philanthropy  may  have  led  to  its  first  suggestion. 
To  their  flag  it  will  give  the  virtual  supremacy  of  the  seas.  We  say  virtual  suprem 
acy,  because  it  would  be  found,  in  practice,  that,  ninety-nine  times  out  of  a  hundred, 
it  would  be  her  cruisers  which  would  search  the  vessels  of  other  nations. 

During  twenty-five  years,  the  British  government  has  urged  the  government  of 
the  United  States  to  consent  to  this  measure.  The  application  has  been  steadily 
repelled  and  pertinaciously  repeated.  In. the  meantime,  treaties  have  been  formed, 
at  various  intervals,  between  Great  Britain  and  some  other  nations,  establishing  a 
mutual  right  of  search,  and  regulating  the  principles  upon  which  it  shall  be  exer 
cised.  Within  a  short  time,  five  of  the  European  powers,  two  of  which  have  few 


4:04:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

vessels  upon  the  ocean,  and,  probably,  not  one  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  had  recipro 
cally  made  themselves  parties  to  a  similar  convention.  "  Great  Britain,"  says  the 
London  journal,  the  Times,  "has  managed,  by  great  exertion,  to  accomplish  this 
object."  We  do  not  judge,  if  the  expression  is  rightly  chosen.  It  is  certainly  very 
significant.  And  now  this  principle  of  the  right  of  search,  in  a  time  of  profound 
peace,  heretofore  never  claimed  as  a  question  of  right,  and  so  solemnly  decided  by 
the  English  Admiralty  Judge,  Lord  Stowell,  but  sought,  as  a  conventional  arrange 
ment,  for  the  first  time  since  the  last  general  war  in  Europe,  and  established  by 
treaties  with  several  powers,  as  a  matter  to  be  regulated  by  themselves,  is  claimed 
by  Great  Britain  to  be  a  part  of  the  law  of  nations,  which  she  has  both  the  right 
and  the  will  to  carry  into  effect,  as  a  sort  of  custos  morum  for  all  the  maritime  powers 
of  the  world.  "  All  our  government  contends  for,"  says  the  Times,  "  is  the  mere 
right  to  act  as  constables  in  boarding  suspicious  ships,  bearing  the  American  flag." 
And  who  made  England  the  great  prefect  of  police  of  the  ocean,  searching  and 
seizing  at  pleasure?  And  the  United  States,  who  have  so  long  been  asked  to  yield 
this  point  by  convention,  are  now  told  that  it  is  established  without  them  and  in 
spite  of  them  ;  and  the  great  ministerial  English  journal,  the  Times,  in  a  leading 
article  of  its  number  of  January  5th,  1842,  after  defending  this  interpolation  into  the 
law  of  nations,  says  that  the  European  powers,  parties  to  the  last  treaty,  will  not 
brook  to  be  thwarted  by  any  ordinary  restiveness.  It  thus  significantly  concludes  : 
u  A  single  war  with  Great  Britain  she  (the  United  States)  has  already  tried;  a  war, 
on  her  part,  with  all  Europe,  will  be  a  novelty." 

There  is  certainly  no  want  of  frankness  here.  While  the  special  Ambassador, 
Lord  Ashburton,  goes  out  with  the  professed  objects  of  peace  and  conciliation,  we 
are  told  in  effect  by  this  leading  journal,  that  the  United  States  have  but  one 
course  to  adopt,  in  order  to  avoid  a  war  with  the  European  world ;  and  that  is,  sub 
mission  to  the  demand  of  England.  There  are  powers,  parties  to  the  late  treaty 
upon  this  subject,  which  we  shall  not  believe  will  make  themselves  parties  to  a  war 
with  the  United  States,  until  we  actually  hear  the  sound  of  their  guns.  Does  the 
Times  speak  by  permission,  or  by  command,  or  by  neither?  Is  this  declaration 
a  prophecy,  as  well  as  threat? 

As  to  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  it  is  a  question  which  meets  no  opposi 
tion  in  the  United  States.  The  American  government,  if  not  the  first,  was  among 
the  first  to  give  the  example  to  the  world  of  a  legal  prohibition  of  this  traffic.  As 
early  as  March  22d,  1794,  they  commenced  their  legislative  measures  for  its  repres 
sion,  and  in  subsequent  laws,  passed  10th  May,  1800,  28th  February,  1803,  2d  March, 
1807,  20th  April,  1818,  and  3d  March,  1819,  they  extended  and  enforced  the  provis 
ions  and  penalties  upon  this  subject,  and  rendered  liable  to  heavy  fines,  and  among 
other  punishments,  to  an  imprisonment  of  seven  years,  those  who  should  be  en 
gaged  in  this  nefarious  pursuit.  Their  armed  crusicrs  have  permanent  instructions 
to  examine  all  the  American  merchant  vessels  they  meet,  and  which  they  have  rea 
son  to  suspect;  and  their  tribunals  enforce  these  repressive  laws  with  as  much 
promptitude  and  impartiality  as  those  of  France  or  England  enforce  similar  laws. 
That  violations  may  occasionally  occur,  and  that  the  American  flag  may  be  some 
times  abused,  we  feel  no  disposition  to  deny, — not  by  the  introdtiction  of  slaves  into 
the  United  States,  for  that  traffic  is  unknown,  and  would  be  impossible.  We  may 
venture  to  assert,  that  not  a  slave  has  been  imported  into  the  United  States  for 
thirty  years.  We  would  not  be  guilty  of  deception  upon  this  subject,  and  if  there 
is  a  single  exception  to  this  statement,  we  have  never  learned  it.  If  American 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  405 

interests  are  connected  with  this  traffic,  it  is  in  the  transportation  of  slaves  to  Brazil 
or  the  Spanish  colonies.  But  even  this  is  much  rarer  than  is  supposed:  and  what 
has  given  occasion  to  the  imputation  of  its  frequent  occurrence,  is  the  fact,  that  the 
sharp  Baltimore  schooners,  well  known  for  their  speed,  are  often  sold  to  the  Span 
ish  and  Portuguese  merchants,  and  are  then  fitted  out  for  the  slave  trade.  Every 
practical  sailor  knows  them  at  once;  and  as  they  are  American  built,  they  are  sup 
posed  to  be  American  property,  when  in  truth  their  national  character  is  changed. 
But  any  candid,  intelligent  man  will  at  once  see  and  acknoAvledge,  that  in  the  scan 
dalous  traffic  like  this  of  human  beings,  condemned  by  the  public  opinion  and  by 
the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  watched  perpetually  by  one  of  their  squadrons 
upon  the  coast  of  Africa,  revolting  to  humanity,  afflicting  to  all  Christians,  and  re 
probated  by  the  civilized  world,  the  pecuniary  interests  of  a  few  degraded  men.  who 
covertly  pursue  it,  by  associating  their  capital  with  the  regular  slave  dealers  of 
other  nations,  would  not  Aveigh  as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance  with  the  American 
government  in  any  consideration  connected  with  this  matter.  This  miserable  mo 
tive  has  been  hinted  at,  rather  than  distinctly  charged,  by  some  of  the  English  jour 
nals.  We  shall  not  descend  to  refute  the  charge.  Xo  administration  in  the  United 
States,  giving  the  least  just  ground  for  such  an  imputation,  could  resist  the  public 
indignation.  Xo  :  it  is  not  African  slavery  the  United  States  wish  to  encourage  ;  it 
is,  as  we  shall  see  by  and  by,  American  slavery,  the  slavery  of  American  sailors, 
they  seek  to  prevent. 

But  after  all.  a  crusade  of  benevolence  can  not  be  carried  on  against  any  nation, 
because  its  laws  are  sometimes  violated,  and  its  flag  abused.  If  its  government 
connives  at  such  measures,  then,  indeed,  it  is  justly  liable  to  the  reproach  of  Chris 
tendom.  But  against  the  United  States,  there  is  no  pretense  for  such  an  imputation  : 
and  the  question,  now  under  discussion,  must  be  judged,  independently  of  these 
accidental  evasions,  which  are  common  to  all  nations  and  to  all  codes. 


PART  II. — THE  QUESTION  MET — ENGLISH  AND  AMERICAN  PERTINACITY 
—  THE  REASONS  WHY  THE  FORMER  is  WRONG  AND  THE  LATTER 
RIGHT — THE  GREATEST  OBJECTION  OF  ALL — THE  RIGHT  OF  SEARCH 
DISCUSSED  AND  REFUTED  —  THE  KEY  TO  AMERICAN  RELUCTANCE 
AND  BRITISH  PERTINACITY — THE  PRACTICAL  CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE 
RIGHT  TO  VISIT,  OR  SEARCH,  OR  BOTH. 

As  to  a  right  of  search  in  time  of  peace,  no  one  pretends  it  has  heretofore  existed. 
The  well  known  English  Admiralty  Judge,  Sir  AVilliam  Scott,  afterwards  Lord  Sto- 
well,  whose  disposition  to  enlarge,  rather  than  to  restrain,  the  maritime  pretensions 
of  England,  no  one.  who  knows  the  course  of  his  decisions,  during  the  last  general 
war,  will  doubt,  expressly  decided,  that  such  a  right  was  unknown  to  the  law  of 
nations.  This  decision,  in  the  case  of  a  French  vessel  seized  upon  the  coast  of 
Africa,  absolutely  puts  down  all  this  pretension  in  the  most  authoritative  manner. 

"  Xo  nation  can  exercise  a  right  of  visitation  and  search,  upon  the  common  and 
unappropriated  parts  of  the  ocean,  except  upon  the  belligerent  claim.  Xo  nation 
has  the  ri«'ht  to  force  their  way,  for  the  liberation  of  Africa,  by  trampling  upon  the 


406  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

independence  of  other  States,  on  the  pretense  of  an  eminent  good,  by  means  that 
are  unlawful,  or  to  press  forward  to  a  great  principle,  by  breaking  through  other 
great  principles  which  stand  in  their  way." 

But  it  may  be  asked,  as  the  object  for  which  this  measure  is  now  demanded  is 
just,  why  does  not  the  American  government  assent  to  the  propositions  which  have 
been  made  ?  Is  the  reciprocal  power  more  injurious  or  less  honorable  to  the  United 
States  than  to  other  nations,  who  have  admitted  its  obligation  ?  The  question  is  a 
fair  one,  and  ought  to  be  fairly  met.  If  this  can  not  be  done,  we  shall  not  deny 
that  the  motives  of  the  United  States  may  be  fairly  suspected,  and  their  conduct 
arraigned  at  the  bar  of  Christendom. 

In  the  first  place,  we  would  remark,  that  there  is  a  natural  indisposition  in  the 
human  mind  to  yield  to  applications  which  are  accompanied  with  threats  of  the 
consequences.  This  sentiment  is  common  to  nations  as  well  as  it  is  to  indivi 
duals,  and,  in  fact,  forms  part  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature.  English  pertinacity 
in  demanding,  has  been  met  by  American  pertinacity  in  resisting ;  and  now,  when 
the  United  States  are  summoned  to  give  their  adhesion  to  a  new  principle  of  public 
law,  against  which  they  have  uniformly  protested  since  its  first  promulgation,  and 
are  told  by  Lord  Aberdeen,  that  the  course  of  the  English  government  is  taken,  and 
that  the  claim  will  be  enforced,  with  the  taunt  that  "  it  is  for  the  American  govern 
ment  to  determine  what  may  be  due  to  a  just  regard  for  their  national  dignity  and 
national  honor,"  no  generous  people  can  fail  to  find  in  their  present  position  that 
just  resistance  to  dictation,  without  which  there  can  neither  be  self  respect  at  home 
nor  honorable  estimation  abroad. 

But  besides,  where  would  end  this  doctrine  of  interpolation  ?  Who  can  tell  the  ex 
tent  to  which  it  may  be  pushed,  or  the  purposes  to  which  it  may  be  applied?  It  is  bv 
progressive  steps,  that  many  a  pretension,  hostile  to  the  best  dictates  of  reason  and 
humanity,  has  urged  its  way  to  recognition,  and  taken  its  place  in  the  code  of  mari 
time  law.  Belligerent  powers  are  always  ready  to  break  down  the  feeble  barriers 
with  which  public  opinion  has  endeavored  to  protect  the  rights  of  peaceful  traffic ; 
and  in  the  Times  of  the  eighth  instant,  this  process  is  described  and  defended 
with  equal  frankness  and  coolness.  The  lessons  of  the  past  are  lost  upon  him,  who 
does  not  read  in  this  avowal,  the  contemplated  transformations  which  the  great 
maritime  code  is  destined  to  undergo.  An  act  of  violence  of  yesterday,  so  pro 
nounced  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord  Stowell,  becomes  the  doctrine  of 
to-day,  and  to-morrow  finds  itself  firmly  established,  to  be  defended  by  jurists, 
enforced  by  cannon,  and  applied  by  Courts  of  Admiralty. 

"  And  the  same  kind  of  general  proscription,  since  attempted  by  Napoleon  against 
ourselves,  has  equally  failed  to  gain  admittance  into  the  international  code.  In  all 
this,  history,  justice  and  expediency  have  alternately  triumphed,  but  each  step  has 
been  the  result  of  a  struggle  (the  italics  here  and  elsewhere  are  our  own)  such  as  is 
now  pending  between  ourselves  and  the  United  States.  Law  has  had  to  work  its  own 
way."  Significant  words  these,  and  as  true  as  they  are  significant.  When  force  more 
and  more  usurps  the  place  of  justice,  law  works  its  own  way,  and  it  goes  on 
bearing  down  before  it  the  doctrine  of  jurists,  the  decision  of  judges,  and  the  rights 
of  the  world. 

But  apart  from  these  general  considerations,  applicable  to  all  changes  in  the 
maritime  code  of  nations,  there  are  cogent  reasons  why  the  United  States  should 
refuse  their  assent  to  this  measure,  some  of  which  are  common  to  them  and  to  all 
other  states  which  do  not  seek  to  exercise  the  police  of  the  seas,  or,  as  the  Times 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  407 

says,  "to  be  the  constables  of  the  ocean,"  and  others,  which  are  proper  to  them  only, 
arising  out  of  the  peculiar  relation  which  a  community  of  language,  manners  and 
institutions  exerts  between  them  and  England. 

Looking  to  this  right  of  search,  as  a  measure  affecting  the  commerce  of  the  ocean, 
it  is  arbitrary,  vexatious,  and  not  only  liable,  but  necessarily  liable,  to  serious 
abuse.  It  is  arbitrary,  because  it  constitutes  a  naval  officer,  whatever  may  be  his  rank, 
the  judge  to  decide  upon  serious  questions  and  upon  grave  interests.  It  permits  a 
foreigner,  under  the  pretense  of  settling  the  national  character  of  a  vessel,  and  the 
objects  of  her  cruise,  to  indulge  his  antipathies  and  his  love  of  gain,  by  seizing  the 
ship  and  cargo,  and  imprisoning  the  crew,  and  by  sending  them  to  a  distant  port 
for  examination  ;  and  all  this  without  any  practical  redress  against  the  wrong  doer. 
It  is  vexatious,  because  all  who  know  anything  of  the  course  of  boarding  ships 
and  boarding  officers,  under  similar  circumstances,  know,  that  the  search  is  pur 
sued  with  little  regard  to  justice  or  forbearance.  There  is  power  on  one  side  and 
weakness  on  the  other.  The  American  vessels,  during  the  long  period  of  lawless 
domination  which  the  belligerent  powers  exercised  over  the  high  seas  for  many 
years,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century  and  at  the  commencement  of  the  present, 
were  too  often  the  victims  of  a  similar  search,  instigated  frequently  by  cupidity,  and 
conducted  in  the  most  injurious  and  offensive  manner  to  leave  any  doubts  respect 
ing  the  course  which  Avould  be  taken,  should  this  claim  be  recognized.  In  this 
condemnation,  we  speak  now  of  what  is  history.  We  stop  not  to  examine  the  value 
of  the  pretensions  by  which  these  aggressions  Avere  sought  to  be  justified,  that  the 
antagonist  partly  had  commenced  this  work  of  violence;  nor  the  truth  of  the 
charges,  thus  respectively  preferred.  And  the  vessels  of  France,  of  the  United 
States,  and  of  the  Hanse  towns,  have  already  had  a  foretaste  of  what  will  occur, 
when  a  few  years  more  shall  have  consecrated  the  present  doctrine,  as  an  acknow 
ledged  principle  of  international  law.  The  crews  will  be  paraded  and  examined,, 
perhaps  by  a  young  midshipman,  and  this  offensive  operation  will  be  rendered  more 
offensive,  by  that  kind  of  insolence  which  is  everywhere  the  sure  accompaniment 
of  unchecked  responsibility.  This  tendency  to  abuse  can  not  be  better  described 
than  it  has  been  by  the  London  Stm,  and  as  its  views  upon  the  question  are  more 
authoritative  than  ours,  we  shall  quote  them.  It  says,  that  arbitrary  habits  "  are 
engendered  and  maintained  in  our  naval  officers  by  the  mode  employed  to  procure 
men  for  the  fleet,  and  those  habits  make  them  treat  foreign  vessels  in  an  arbitrary 
manner."  So  far  as  respects  the  treatment  of  merchant  vessels,  this  is  true 
to  the  letter.  And  once  establish  this  right  of  search,  and  the  scenes  of  vio 
lence  which  chequered  the  ocean  for  twenty  years,  will  again  be  renewed.  The 
hatches  will  be  broken  open,  the  cargo  overhauled,  property  dilapidated,  and  many 
articles  will  be  taken,  as  they  have  been  taken,  without  permission  and  without 
compensation.  This  has  often  happened,  and  is  an  abuse,  inseparable  from  such 
proceedings, — prohibited  and  deplored,  no  doubt,  by  all  honorable  officers  of  a 
boarding  ship,  but  where  might  makes  right,  easily  effected,  and  not  easily  detected 
and  punished.  The  annals  of  American  voyages  abound  with  similar  incidents, 
which  occurred  during  those  stormy  periods.  And  the  complaints  were  not  con 
fined  to  the  conduct  of  one  of  the  belligerent  powers,  the  one  from  the  number 
of  its  cruisers,  if  from  no  other  cause,  was  much  more  injurious  to  the  American 
commerce  than  the  other. 

We  speak  of  all  this  as  an  historian,  but  we  speak  of  it  as  an  historian  holding 
up  the  past  as  a  warning,  and  predicting  that  the  future  will  bring  with   it  the 


408  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

same  consequences,  if  the  same  causes  are  put  in  operation.  The  journal,  the 
Scotsman,  is  perfectly  correct  in  its  appreciation  of  the  American  feeling  when  it 
says,  "  We  have  little  doubt  that  the  arrogant  and  indefensible  right  of  search, 
claimed  by  Great  Britain  in  the  last  war,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  stubborn  hostil 
ity  of  the  Americans  to  the  reasonable  propositions  of  our  government." 

But  again,  this  claim  is  liable  to  serious  abuse,  because  there  are  strong  tempta 
tions,  both  national  and  individual,  to  pervert  the  professed  objects  of  the  search 
into  others,  which,  though  not  avowed,  are  apparent,  and  because  the  remedy  is 
distant,  expensive  and  doubtful. 

.The  commerce  of  Africa  is  already  important,  and  is  becoming  more  so  every  day. 
The  very  suppression  of  the  trade  in  human  beings  will  tend  obviously  to  turn 
industry  and  capital  into  other  branches  of  employment.  England  is  now  exploring 
the  interior  of  that  great  continent,  and  with  her  accustomed  foresight  is  pushing 
her  intercourse  with  the  native  tribes,  and  preparing  new  means  of  communication. 
Who  can  doubt  but  that  English  cruisers,  stationed  upon  that  distant  coast,  with 
an  unlimited  right  of  search,  and  discretionary  authority  to  take  possession  of  all 
vessels  frequenting  those  seas,  will  seriously  interrupt  the  trade  of  other  nations,  by 
sending  in  their  vessels  for  trial  under  very  slight  pretenses,  and  in  part  under  no 
real  pretense  whatever?  For  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  one  of  the  most  important 
elements  in  all  this  controversy,  which  is,  that  the  mere  appearance  of  a  merchant- 
ship  in  those  regions  is  ipso  facto  suspicious.  This  is  the  very  ground-work  of  the 
English  pretension  ;  the  right,  as  her  government  now  contends,  to  ascertain  by 
actual  examination,  the  true  character  of  every  vessel  found  in  "  certain  latitudes," 
which  are  assumed  to  be  suspicious,  as  the  quarantine  regulations  pre-suppose 
many  regions  to  be  always  pestiferous.  Under  these  circumstances,  a  boarding  offi 
cer,  stimulated  by  that  reward  which  a  successful  capture  ahvays  brings  with  it, 
and  by  a  determination,  which  may  not  be  uncharitably  charged  to  him,  of  favoring 
'the  trade  of  his  own  country,  and  of  discouraging  that  of  another,  will  readily  be 
lieve,  or  affect  to  believe,  not  that  there  is  just  ground  to  suspect  the  destination  of 
a  vessel,  that  her  very  appearance  upon  his  cruising  ground  furnishes,  agreeable  to 
these  new  institutes,  but  that  the  redeeming  circumstances  about  her  are  not  suffi 
cient  to  establish  that  her  cruise  is  a  lawful  one,  or  that  she  is  entitled  to  the 
national  character  she  claims  ;  and  that  she  must  be  sent  to  a  Court  of  Admiralty, 
to  one  of  those  great  mrclstroms  which  swallowed  up  so  many  American  ships, 
during  that  period  when  there  was  no  right  upon  the  ocean  but  the  right  of  force. 
The  vexation  and  interruption  of  voyages,  the  result  of  this  system,  are  easily  under 
stood.  A  trade  carried  on  under  such  unfavorable  circumstances,  can  not  contend 
with  the  trade  of  a  favored  nation,  who  herself  exercises  the  police  of  the  seas,  and 
who  may  be  harsh  or  lenient,  as  her  prejudices  or  interests  may  dictate.  It  must 
be  abandoned,  as  some  of  the  Paris  journals  of  the  eighth  instant  announce,  that 
the  French  vessel,  the  "  Sophia,"  has  just  changed  her  destination,  rather  than  sub 
ject  herself  to  the  vexations  which  another  French  ship,  the  "Marabout,"  had  expe 
rienced  from  the  English  cruisers  upon  the  coast  of  Brazil.  As  to  the  indignity  to 
which  this  proceeding  will  expose  the  officers  and  crews  of  merchant-ships,  that 
must  be  left  to  every  nation  to  appreciate  for  itself.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
pretension  will  be  rendered  less  offensive  by  the  mode  of  its  execution. 

But  beyond  all  these  objections,  applicable  in  common  to  every  maritime  nation, 
there  is  another,  far  more  powerful  in  its  operation,  and  which,  from  the  peculiar 
relation  of  language,  manners  and  institutions  that  exists  between  the  United  States 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  409 

and  Great  Britain,  renders  this  measure  not  only  obnoxious,  but  to  the  last  degree 
unacceptable  to  the  American  government  and  people.  We  would  not  impute  un 
worthy  motives  to  a  great  and  intelligent  people,  and  Great  Britain  has  done  enough 
to  command  for  herself  her  full  share  of  the  admiration  of  the  world.  But  we  must 
take  human  nature  as  we  find  it,  and  the  code  of  political  ethics  is  a  loose  system, 
where  there  is  much  both  of  good  and  evil.  Amidst  many  gradual  meliorations  in 
the  Constitution  of  England,  she  has  adhered  with  wonderful  tenacity  to  certain 
pretensions,  arising  out  of  feudal  notions,  and  among  others,  to  one  by  which  she 
claims  that  every  person  born  under  her  government  is  forever  a  British  subject, 
and  that  if  he  is  by  condition  a  seaman,  he  is  liable  to  be  taken  wherever  he  can 
be  found,  and  forcibly  compelled  to  serve  an  unlimited  period  on  board  her  vessels 
of  war.  This  is  not  a  conscription  which  operates  equally  upon  all,  subjecting  all 
to  the  same  chance,  and  requiring  their  services  upon  established  conditions,  and 
for  fixed  periods.  However,  so  far  as  this  is  a  municipal  regulation,  other  nations 
have  no  concern  with  its  justice  or  policy,  except  as  a  subject  of  general  speculation. 
But  unfortunately  for  the  duration  of  harmony  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  this  pretension  is  a  subject  of  fearful  importance.  The  British  government 
claims  the  right  of  impressing  seamen  on  board  the  merchant-vessels  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  once,  as  is  well  known,  they  exercised  this  right  on  board  the  Chesa 
peake  frigate,  after  an  action,  in  profound  peace,  when  the  American  ship  was  com 
pelled  to  yield  to  superior  force.  The  conduct  of  the  commander  was,  however, 
disavowed,  but  his  zeal  was  rewarded  by  promotion.  It  is  now  matter  of  history, 
that  for  many  years  the  British  armed  ships  boarded  the  American  vessels,  wherever 
they  found  them  upon  the  ocean,  and  seized  their  crews,  incorporating  them  with 
their  own,  and  compelling  them  to  fight  the  battles  of  a  foreign  power;  first  against 
France,  and  ultimately,  after  the  commencement  of  the  war,  to  which  these  aggres 
sions  gave  rise,  to  fight  against  their  own  country.  In  theory,  indeed,  the  British 
government  did  not  arrogate  to  itself  the  right  to  impress  American  citizens,  unless 
those  citizens  had  been  born  British  subjects.  In  that  case,  the  new  character  with 
which  they  were  invested  gave  them  no  protection  against  this  new  pretension. 
But  in  its  practical  operation,  this  power  was  exercised  with  a  general  disregard  of 
the  character  of  the  American  crews,  the  boarding  officer  being  the  final  judge,  and 
the  cruiser  being  almost  always  in  want  of  able  seamen.  A  midshipman  entered 
an  American  vessel  with  absolute  power,  mustered  the  crew,  declared  that  such 
and  such  persons  were  British  subjects,  seized  them  and  transported  them  to  his 
own  ship,  to  be  released  by  death  or  by  a  general  peace. 

Vain  were  the  protestations  of  these  unhappy  victims  of  lawless  aggression  ;  vain 
the  opposition  of  the  captain ;  vain  the  proofs,  furnished  by  the  papers.  His  Bri 
tannic  Majesty's  ships  wanted  seamen,  and  seamen  they  took.  During  many  years, 
a  warm  diplomatic  correspondence  was  carried  on  between  the  two  governments, 
but  the  argument  being  exhausted,  and  the  abuse  continued,  an  appeal  was  finally 
made  to  arms. 

The  British  government  said,  our  seamen  seek  protection  in  the  United  States, 
and  enter  into  their  marine,  and  thus  escape  from  the  duties  they  owe  to  their  own 
country.  We  have  a  right  to  their  services,  and  we  have  also  a  right  to  take  them, 
wherever  we  can  find  them  in  merchant-ships  on  the  high  seas,  having  first  entered 
these  ships  for  another  purpose. 

To  this  the  American  government  answered:  \ve  deny  the  doctrine  of  perpetual 
allegiance.  Our  country  is  open,  and  if  foreigners  come  here,  after  a  certain. 


410  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

number  of  years,  and  compliance  with  certain  established  formalities,  they  may  be 
invested  with  the  character  of  American  citizens,  and  then  it  is  our  duty  to  protect 
them.  You  adopt  the  same  principle,  and  follow  the  same  practice  ;  you  naturalize 
by  special  acts  of  Parliament;  you  naturalize  all  persons  who  reside  a  certain 
number  of  years  in  your  colonies,  and  you  naturalize  all  seamen  who  have  served  a  short 
term  in  your  navy.  At  this  moment,  the  governors  of  some  of  your  colonies  are 
compelling  emigrants  from  the  United  States  to  bear  arms  against  us.  We  have 
just  turned  to  McCulloch's  Dictionary  of  Commerce  to  ascertain  how  far  the  Amer 
ican  government  were  borne  out  in  their  assertion,  respecting  the  naturalisation  of 
foreign  seamen  by  the  British  law,  and  there  we  find,  page  1011,  that  among  other 
means  of  naturalization,  a  foreigner  who  has  "  served  on  board  his  Majesty's  ships 
of  Avar,  in  time  of  war,  for  the  space  of  three  years,  becomes  '  a  British  seaman.' 
But  his  Majesty  may  by  proclamation  during  war,  declare  that  foreigners,  who  have 
served  two  years  in  the  royal  navy  during  such  war,  shall  be  deemed  as  British 
seamen." 

The  act  of  Congress,  respecting  the  employment  of  seamen  in  the  American  ser 
vice,  provides,  that  no  person  shall  be  employed  in  the  public  or  private  vessels  of 
the  United  States,  who  is  not  a  native  born  or  naturalized  citizen.  Another  act  on 
the  subject  of  naturalization  provides,  that  "  no  person  can  become  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  who  shall  not,  for  the  continual  term  of  five  years  next  preceding  his 
admission,  have  resided  within  the  United  States,  without  being  at  any  time  during 
the  said  five  years  out  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States."  In  the  one  country,  a 
foreigner  can  enter  into  the  marine  service,  without  the  probation  of  a  moment ; 
and  after  serving  three  3*ears,  he  becomes  ipso  facto  a  British  seaman.  Into  the 
marine  service  of  the  other  no  one  but  a  native  can  enter,  till  he  shall  have  actually 
lived  five  years  in  the  country,  without  departing  from  it. 

In  the  whole  history  of  human  inconsistencies,  few  chapters  can  be  found  more 
striking  than  this. 

But  the  United  States  were  anxious  to  avoid  a  war  with  Great  Britain.  They 
were  willing  to  concede  much  to  avert  this  extremity.  They  exhausted  the  cata 
logue  of  arguments  and  of  offers.  Thus  speaks  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
in  his  message  of  June  13th,  1812,  recommending  war:  "This  practice,"  that  of 
impressment,  "is  so  far  from  affecting  British  subjects  alone,  that  under  pretense  of 
searching  for  these,  thousands  of  American  citizens  under  the  safeguard  of  public 
law,  and  of  their  natural  flag,  have  been  torn  from  their  country,  and  from  every 
thing  dear  to  them,  have  been  dragged  on  board  the  ships  of  war  of  a  foreign  nation, 
and  exposed  under  the  severities  of  their  discipline,  to  be  exiled  to  the  most  distant 
and  deadly  regions,  to  risk  their  lives  in  the  battles  of  their  oppressors,  and  to  be 
the  melancholy  instrument  of  taking  away  the  lives  of  their  own  brethren. 

"Against  this  crying  enormity,  which  Great  Britain  would  be  so  prompt  to  avenge, 
if  committed  against  herself,  the  United  States  have  in  vain  exhausted  remonstrances 
and  expostulations  :  and  that  no  doubt  might  be  wanting  of  their  conciliatory  dis 
position,  and  no  pretext  left  for  a  continuance  of  the  practice,  the  British  govern 
ment  was  formally  assured  of  the  readiness  of  the  United  States  to  enter  into  an 
arrangement,  such  as  could  not  be  rejected,  if  the  recovery  of  British  subjects  were 
the  real  and  sole  object.  The  communication  passed  without  effect."  We  return 
to  the  point  maintained  by  the  American  government  in  the-  correspondence  to 
which  we  have  referred.  Independently,  said  they,  of  these  obvious  considerations, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  411 

(the  same  we  have  already  presented,)  there  is  another  which  covers  the  whole 
question.  Your  right,  by  your  own  confession,  is  not  an  absolute  one.  It  yields  to 
our  right  of  sovereignty.  You  do  not  claim  to  come  upon  our  soil,  and  there  to 
seize  your  sailors.  Where  do  you  find  the  right  to  seize  them  in  our  ships,  covered 
by  our  flag,  which  is  as  exclusive  of  your  jurisdiction,  except  in  certain  prescribed 
cases  in  time  of  war,  as  the  territory  of  the  United  States?  If  you  suffer  your 
citizens  to  escape,  and  to  come  under  our  sovereignty,  your  claim  to  their  services 
must  yield  to  our  superior  claim  to  national  immunity.  Like  many  other  rights  or 
pretensions  in  society,  if  this  can  not  be  exercised,  without  violating  the  privileges 
of  another  party,  it  must  be  abandoned. 

The  British  jurists  of  that  day,  who  administered,  and  often  made  the  maritime 
law,  were  endowed  with  sufficient  subtlety  to  discover  new  principles  to  suit  new 
circumstances,  and  her  statesmen  had  sufficient  firmness  to  adopt  and  maintain 
them.  But  we  doubt,  if  in  the  whole  progress  of  that  warfare,  between  orders  in  coun 
cil  and  imperial  decrees,  which  so  long  vexed  neutral  commerce  and  outraged  the 
common  sense  of  mankind,  a  bolder  invasion  was  made  into  the  regions  of  maritime 
metaphysics,  than  in  the  promulgation  of  that  doctrine  which  was  to  reconcile  the 
exercise  of  this  right  of  impressment,  with  those  principles  of  public  law,  that  had 
been  too  long  and  too  clearlv  established  to  be  directly  controverted.  Who  was 
the  discoverer  of  this,  till  then,  terra  incognito,  we  knew  not,  but  its  revelation  was 
announced  by  great  authority  and  from  a  high  place.  It  is  to  be  found  in  a  declara 
tion  of  the  Prince  Regent  of  Great  Britain,  dated  July  9th,  1813,  made  in  answer  to 
the  manifesto  of  the  American  government,  recapitulating  the  causes  which  had  driven 
the  United  States  to  war;  and  it  is  there  gravely  maintained,  that  "His  Royal  High 
ness  can  never  admit  that  in  the  exercise  of  the  undoubted  and  hitherto  undisputed 
right  of  searching  neutral  merchant  vessels  in  time  of  war,  (alluding  to  the  ordinary 
rights  of  search,  recognized  by  the  law  of  nations,)  the  impressment  of  British 
seamen,  when  found  therein,  can  be  deemed  any  violation  of  a  neutral  flag.  Neither 
can  he,  the  Prince  Regent,  admit  that  the  taking  such  seamen  from  on  board  such 
vessels  can  be  considered  by  any  neutral  state  as  a  hostile  measure,  or  a  justifiable 
cause  of  war." 

And  thus  speaks  the  executive  of  England.  The  right  to  enter  an  American  ship, 
for  the  purpose  of  impressment,  is  clearly  disclaimed;  but,  having  entered  for  a  lawful 
purpose,  then  the  boarding  officer  has  the  right  to  take  any  British  subjects  he  may 
find ;  that  is  to  say,  to  seize  every  American  sailor,  and  place  him  upon  the  deck 
of  a  British  cruiser.  We  shall  not  go  back  to  the  history  of  the  monstrous  abuses  to 
which  this  pretension  gave  birth,  and  which  drove  the  United  States  to  war.  They 
would  have  become  a  by-word  among  nations  had  they  tamely  submitted  to  sec 
their  seamen  dragged  into  this  worst  of  slavery.  But  it  is  well,  with  regard  to  the 
future,  to  investigate  the  claims  of  the  past.  A  seaman,  on  board  an  American  ship, 
is  protected  by  his  national  flag.  No  British  officer  can  enter,  for  the  purpose  of 
tearing  him  from  this  natural  asylum.  But,  having  entered  for  one  object,  he  may 
execute  another.  Certain  belligerent  rights  are  given  to  him,  and  he  may  board  all 
vessels  upon  the  great  highway  of  nations,  in  order  to  enforce  them.  And  having 
done,  or  affected  to  do  this,  he  may  then  turn  around  and  pervert  his  right  of  entry 
to  a  totally  different  object.  He  may  violate  the  sovereignty  of  the  neutral  power 
by  giving  effect,  not  to  the  code  of  international  law,  but  to  the  mere  municipal 
regulations  of  his  own  country,  and  under  the  most  arbitrary  and  offensive  circum- 
gtances.  No:  all  this  is  but  the  sophistry  of  power,  determined  to  attain  its  object, 


412  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  seeking  to  justify  itself.  There  is  no  such  right  of  conversion — no  just  claim 
to  demand  one  thing  and  to  do  another.  The  whole  pretension  shocks  the  common 
sense  of  the  world. 

Argument  would  be  lost  in  its  refutation.  The  analogy  of  the  English  law  would 
lead  the  British  government  to  a  far  different  conclusion.  In  England,  if  a  person 
has  a  right  of  entry  for  one  purpose,  and  perverts  it  to  another,  he  renders  himself 
a  trespasser  ab  initio.  He  finds  no  convertible  justification,  by  which  his  real  object 
may  be  obtained,  while  he  covers  himself  with  a  professed  one. 

According  to  this  right  of  conversion,  when  the  British  forces  entered  the  State 
of  Xew  York  to  burn  the  "  Caroline,"  having  got  within  the  American  territory,  for 
what  they  contended  to  be  a  lawful  purpose,  they  might  have  then  violated  the 
national  sovereignty  at  pleasure,  and  seized  all  the  persons  they  found,  who  had 
been  born  British  subjects,  and  transported  them  into  Canada.  And  why  not  have 
seized  their  American  debtors,  if  they  had  any,  or  done  any  other  act  which  they 
might  lawfully  do  at  home,  as  they  claim  to  enforce  their  municipal  laws  upon  the 
vessels  of  the  United  States.  This  claim  can  only  be  supported  upon  the  ground 
that  these  laws  ride  over  those  of  the  United  States  wherever  British  power  plants 
itself,  even  for  the  shortest  period,  and  for  whatever  purpose. 

But  another  high  authority,  the  Times,  has  recently  laid  down  the  same  doctrine, 
more  distinctly  indeed,  and  quite  ex  cathedra,  showing  how  rapidly  these  maritime 
pretensions  gather  strength  from  time  and  use.  We  can  not,  at  this  moment,  refer 
to  the  number  which  contains  this  dictum,  but  it  must  have  been  that  of  the  6th 
or  7th  of  January,  and  will  be  found  in  Galiynam's  Messenger  of  10th  January, 
extracted  from  the  London  Journal.  After  laying  down  the  right  of  search  for 
enemy's  property  and  articles  contraband  of  war,  the  Times  continues:  "It  is,  also, 
we  believe,  confessed,  that  if,  in  the  course  of  search,  we  find  the  goods  and  persons 
of  our  enemies,  such  goods  and  persons  may  be  made  lawful  prizes  and  prisoners; 
the  law,  however,  being  punctilious  (!)  enough  to  require,  in  the  former  instance, 
that  the  captors  shall  pay  freight  to  the  neutral  carriers,  of  whose  cargo  they  possess 
themselves.  Now,  during  our  wars  with  France,  we  exercised  this  uncontested  and 
incontestable  right  against  America  and  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  with  this  not  very 
unnatural  corollary,  (!)  that,  as  we  might  take  the  persons  of  the  king's  enemies,  (a 
right  given  by  the  law  of  nations,)  we  might  take  the  persons  of  the  king's  subjects, 
who  had  deserted  their  duty,  (meaning  thereby  all  speaking  the  English  language,) 
and  Avere  serving  in  foreign  ships,"  (a  right  totally  unknown  to  and  unrecognized  by 
the  law  of  nations).  We  shall  continue  our  quotations  from  the  Times,  because 
nothing  we  could  say  would  more  forcibly  describe  the  intolerable  abuses  of  this 
pretension,  and  because,  from  the  position  and  character  of  that  journal,  we  have 
the  best  assurance  that  those  abuses  are  not  exaggerated : 

"  In  the  practical  enforcement,  however,  of  this  right  or  wrong,  for,  on  that  point, 
it  is  not  now  necessary  to  pronounce,  the  searching  party  being,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  the  strongest,  and,  moreover,  ordinarily  speaking,  persons  of  summary  habits, 
were  apt  to  be  somewhat  arbitrary  in  their  judgments  of  who  was  American  and 
who  was  English,  '  when  they  doubted  they  took  the  trick,'  at  least  so  thought  and 
said  the  Americans ;  and  any  one  may  remember  that,  once  taken  and  lodged  in  an 
English  man-of-war,  by  right  or  by  wrong,  it  was  not  a  very  easy  matter  to  get  out 
of  it ;  and,  accordingly,  the  Americans  had  to  stay,  with  just  as  good  a  chance  of 
being  cut  off  by  a  French  cannon  ball,  before  he  could  get  his  right  again,  as  any  of 
his  English  fellow  sailors."  We  pardon  the  frivolity  of  manner  with  which  this 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  413 

grave  subject  is  treated,  in  consideration  of  the  frankness  of  that  journal,  in  the 
open  avowal  of  a  principle  which  can  not  fail  to  excite  general  reprobation,  now  the 
unnatural  excitement  of  a  long  and  bitter  war  has  passed  away. 

A  nation,  which  should  tamely  submit  to  such  pretensions,  would  merit,  as  surely 
as  it  would  receive,  the  contumely  of  the  world. 

The  Times  adds  "that  this  dispute  (of  impressment)  now  sleeps,  though  it  will 
have  to  be  revived,  at  latest  on  the  next  occasion  when  we  find  ourselves  invested 
by  a  war  with  the  right  of  which  it  is  the  consequence ;  and  indeed  it  might  be 
raised  upon  the  contemplated  treaty,  giving  a  mutual  right  of  search  for  the  preven 
tion  of  the  slave  trade,  unless  provided  for,  as  it  easily  might  and  probably  would 
be,  by  special  articles." 

But  here  is  the  true  key  to  much  of  the  reluctance  of  the  American  government 
to  become  a  party  to  any  arrangement,  which  shall  add  to  the  category  of  the  right 
of  search  ;  whether  it  is  likewise  the  key  to  the  pertinacity  with  which  the  British 
government  presses  this  matter,  we  do  not  presume  to  judge.  Until  now  the  right 
of  search  has  been  a  belligerent  right,  belonging  only  to  a  state  of  war.  .  .  . 
Here  is  the  first  formal  claim  to  exercise  it  in  time  of  peace.  Impressment  is  a  mu 
nicipal  right,  depending,  say  the  English  jurists,  upon  the  mutual  relation  of 
allegiance  and  protection,  and  the  duties  which  these  reciprocally  create.  Ordina 
rily  it  is  exercised  in  time  of  war  only,  but  the  government  might  authorize 
its  exercise  at  all  times,  as  the  conscription  is  operative  as  well  in  peace  as  in  war. 
And  surely  many  cases  may  occur,  where  its  exercise  might  be  necessary  to  man 
a  fleet,  before  hostilities  were  actually  declared,  but  while  they  were  considered  im 
pending.  Under  such  circumstances,  this  new  right  of  search,  bringing  a  British 
boarding  officer  legally  on  board  an  American  ship  for  a  defined  object,  would 
enable  him  very  conveniently,  after  satisfying  himself  she  neither  sought  nor  con 
tained  slaves,  to  seize  her  crew  and  reduce  them  to  worse  than  African  bondage; 
because  to  all  their  other  miseries  might  be  added  the  obligation  to  fight  against  the 
flag  of  their  own  country. 

The  Scotsman  is  not  less  frank  than  the  Times ;  <:  the  object  of  the  one,"  says  the 
former  journal,  alluding  to  the  right  of  search  as  heretofore  practised,  "  was  to 
discover  British  sailors  in  American  vessels,  and  practically  gave  our  naval  officers 
a  power  to  impress  seamen  from  the  ships  of  another  state." 

So,  having  already  maintained,  under  various  vicissitudes,  the  right  to  seize 
American  sailors  in  time  of  war,  as  a  consequence  of  her  belligerent  right  of  search, 
if  the  present  pretension  is  established,  Great  Britain  can  then  seize  them  in  time 
of  peace,  as  a  consequence  of  her  pacific  right  of  search,  called  visitation,  and  thus 
the  marine  of  the  United  States  will  be  an  inexhaustible  fountain,  whence  in  peace 
and  Avar  she  can  seek  her  force. 

But  it  may  be  said,  and  indeed  the  suggestion,  as  we  have  seen,  is  in  the  Times, 
that  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  American  government  to  frame  a  convention,  which 
shall  exclude  this  process  of  impressment,  and  therefore  the  fear  of  its  occurrence 
ought  not  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  this  check  to  an  odious  traffic.  To  this  sug 
gestion  the  answer  is  easy.  The  United  States  can  enter  into  no  stipulation,  which 
can  be  tortured  into  a  recognition  of  this  doctrine  of  impressment.  They  can  not 
provide  for  its  restriction  nor  regulation.  They  can  only  accept  a  general  declara 
tion  from  the  British  government,  that  their  flag  shall  protect  their  seamen,  at  all 
times  and  under  all  circumstances,  and  there  is  little  reason  to  hope  that  the  coun 
sels  of  justice  will  so  far  prevail  over  those  of  interest,  as  to  lead  to  such  a  measure. 


414  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Were  it,  however,  adopted  by  the  British  government  as  the  regulation  of  its 
future  conduct,  it  would  be  hailed  in  the  United  States  as  the  harbinger  of  a  brighter 
day ;  as  the  cause  and  the  precursor  of  an  indefinite  peace  between  two  nations 
having  so  many  reasons  for  union,  and  so  few  for  separation. 

In  such  an  event,  there  would  be  little  hazard  in  predicting,  that  a  satisfactory 
arrangement  might  soon  be  made,  by  which  the  fullest  co-operation  of  the  United 
States  would  be  obtained  towards  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade.  The  great 
difficulty  being  removed,  a  mutual  spirit  of  conciliation  would  soon  do  the  rest. 
But  till  then,  the  United  States  can  not,  in  any  arrangement  giving  reciprocally  the 
right  of  search,  with  a  professed  view  to  the  extinction  of  the  slave  trade,  admit  a 
stipulation,  that  the  doctrine  of  constructive  entrance  should  not  apply,  and  that 
their  seamen  should  be  safe  from  seizure.  Such  a  stipulation  would  soon  be  con 
strued  into  an  admission  of  this  claim,  under  other  circumstances,  and  to  this  the 
American  government  and  people  will  never  submit.  With  them  it  is  a  question  of 
life  and  death.  They  went  to  Avar  to  oppose  it,  thirty  years  ago,  when  comparatively 
young  and  weak.  And  now,  after  having  advanced  in  the  elements  of  power 
with  a  rapidity  unknown  in  human  history,  they  will  not  be  found  wanting  to  their 
duties  and  honor  in  the  day  of  trial.  An  American,  at  home  or  in  Europe,  may 
safely  predict  that  the  first  man  impressed  from  a  ship  of  his  country  and  detained, 
with  an  avowal  of  the  right  by  order  of  the  British  government,  will  be  the  signal 
of  war.  A  war,  too,  which  will  be  long,  bitter,  and  accompanied,  it  may  be,  with 
many  vicissitudes  ;  for  no  citizen  of  the  United  States  can  shut  his  eyes  to  the 
power  of  Great  Britain,  nor  to  the  gallantry  of  her  fleet  and  armies.  But  twice  the 
republic  has  come  out  honorably  from  a  similar  contest,  and  with  a  just  cause  she 
would  again  hope  for  success.  At  any  rate,  she  would  try. 

In  the  preceding  discussion,  we  have  spoken  generally  of  the  right  of  search, 
without  being  led  aside  by  any  distinction,  founded  upon  the  purposes,  real  or  avow 
ed,  of  those  who  exercise  it.  We  have  done  so,  because  so  far  as  regards  the  most 
obnoxious  consequences  to  the  United  States,  the  liability  of  their  seamen  to  impress 
ment,  it  is  obvious,  and  so  indeed  says  the  Times,  that  the  exercise  of  this  preten 
sion,  though  not  forming  a  just  cause  of  entry,  yet  being  its  necessary  result,  it  is 
perfectly  immaterial,  in  its  practical  operation,  whether  the  naval  judge,  "  clothed 
with  a  little  brief  authority,"  but  deciding  summarily  upon  human  liberty,  boards 
the  peaceful  trader  to  ascertain  her  national  character,  or  to  inquire  into  the  objects 
of  her  voyage.  But  besides  this  fundamental  objection,  it  is  evident,  that  no  vessel 
can  be  liable  to  examination  without  some  hindrance  ;  that  in  all  such  cases  there 
may  be  gross  abuses,  and  that  in  many,  these  abuses  will  occur.  The  boarding 
officer  will  judge  if  her  papers  are  regular,  or  if  they  are  simulated,  and  if  the  ac 
cidents  of  the  voyage  and  the  nature  and  appearance  of  the  cargo  and  equipment 
confirm  these  papers,  or  render  them  suspicious.  Here  is  latitude  enough  for  arbi 
trary  vexation,  and  for  interruptions  which  may  drive  an  otherwise  profitable  com 
merce  into  less  troubled  channels.  And  these  considerations  are  abundantly 
powerful  to  justify  the  United  States  in  refusing  their  consent,  both  to  the  conven 
tional  arrangement  proposed  for  the  right  of  search  to  ascertain  the  objects  of  the 
voyage,  and  to  the  new  doctrine,  now  first  promulgated,  of  a  right  of  search 
to  ascertain  if  the  proofs  of  the  vessel's  nationality  are  sufficient  to  justify  her  title 
to  the  flag  she  bears. 

We  can  not  better  describe  the  little  difference  in  its  practical  operation,  which 
would  be  found  between  the  right  of  search  to  ascertain  the  true  character  of  a 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  415 

vessel,  and  the  right  of  search  to  ascertain  the  object  of  her  voyage,  than  we  find  it 
done  to  our  hands  in  the  London  Sun.  One  may  be  called  a  search,  and  the  other 
a  visit,  but  both  will  be  found  equally  vexatious  visitations.  The  passage  of  the  Sun 
is  striking,  and  we  shall  quote  it : 

"The  Americans  may  very  properly  object  to  our  right  of  search,  and  may  still 
have  a  great  inclination  to  suppress  the  slave  trade  ;  but,  of  the  two  evils,  we  have 
no  doubt  but  the  Americans  would  prefer  the  eternal  existence  of  the  slave  trade  to 
allowing  their  ships  to  be  overhauled  by  our  men-of-war.  If  they  sanction  the 
examination,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  ascertaining  if  a  vessel,  bearing  the  American 
flag,  is  bona  fide  an  American  vessel,  they  sanction  a  rigid  examination  of  the  vessel 
herself.  The  papers  may  be  simulated.  How  is  that  to  be  proved?  By  examining 
the  crew ;  by  ascertaining  that  the  cargo  of  the  vessels  corresponds  to  the  manifest : 
by  tracing  her  route  in  the  log-book;  in  short,  by  subjecting  her  to  a  complete 
search.  If  that  be  not  done,  papers  will  be  once  produced,  to  correspond  with  the 
flag,  and  merely  to  prove  that  they  do  correspond,  will  be  of  no  use  whatever.''  The 
Americans  are  well  aware  of  the  insults  and  injuries  they  would  subject  themselves 
to  by  admitting  this  claim  to  visit  their  ships;  and  the  Morning  Chronicle  does 
them  egregious  injustice  when  it  represents  their  resistance  to  that  claim  as  grounded 
in  unrighteousness. 

"  The  correspondence  with  the  British  Secretaries  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  just 
published  by  the  American  government,  comes  marvclously  in  support  of  the  remark? 
of  the  Sun,  though  received  since  those  remarks  were  written.  It  gives  to  them 
almost  the  character  of  prophecy.  The  search  of  five  American  vessels  is  complained 
of  by  the  American  Minister — the  Douglas,  the  lago,  the  Hero,  the  Mary,  and  the 
Susan;  and,  in  four  of  these  cases,  serious  complaints  are  also  made,  that  the  crews 
were  treated  with  indignity,  and  the  cargoes  overhauled  and  injured,  and  various 
articles  taken  away.  As  Lord  Palmcrston,  in  his  answer  to  Mr.  Stevenson,  gives  a 
summary  of  the  complaints  of  that  gentleman,  in  the  case  of  one  of  these  vessels, 
we  shall  quote  the  passage,  as  an  illustration  of  the  practical  effects  of  this  new 
claim,  not  having,  unfortunately,  Mr.  Stevenson's  letter  on  the  subject  within  reach. 
And  we  embrace,  with  pleasure,  this  opportunity  of  tendering  our  thanks  to  that 
able  American  representative,  for  the  spirit,  ability,  and  dignity  with  which  he  main 
tained  the  rights  of  his  country,  during  the  arduous  correspondence  lie  carried  on 
with  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Aberdeen.  But  to  the  summary.  '  In  these  two 
communications  from  Mr.  Stevenson/  says  Lord  Palmerston,  'it  is  stated  that,  on 
the  21st  of  October,  1839,  Lieutenant  Scagrand  boarded  the  Douglas,  while  she  was 
pursuing  her  voyage,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  examined  the  ship's  papers  and  the 
passengers'  passports,  broke  open  the  hatches,  hauled  down  the  American  flag,  and 
seized  the  vessel  as  a  slaver;  that  he  kept  possession  of  her  during  eight  days  ? 
namely,  from  the  21st  of  October  to  the  29th  of  the  same  month;  that  the  officers 
and  men  of  the  Douglas  became  ill  from  exposure  to  the  sun,  and  that,  in  conse 
quence,  three  of  them  died,  and  the  captain  is  yet  in  ill  health.'  It  appears,  by 
another  letter  from  Lord  Palmerston,  that  the  boarding  crew  were  charged  with 
consuming  the  stores  and  provisions  of  the  Douglas. 

"And,  in  a  third  letter  from  Lord  Palmcrston,  which  relates  to  the  Mary,  the  char 
acter  of  the  occurrences  on  board  maybe  judged  by  this  remark :  '  proceedings  ? 
which,  in  Mr.  Stevenson's  opinion,  seem  to  want  nothing  to  give  them  the  character 
of  a  most  flagrant  and  daring  outrage,  and  very  little,  if  anything,  to  sink  them  into 
an  act  of  open  and  direct  piracy.' 


416  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"Lord  Palmerston  then  proceeds  to  justify  or  deny  all  these  charges,  and  then 
they  sleep  the  sleep  of  death. 

"  As  to  the  ill  treatment  of  the  crews,  and  the  free  use  of  the  provisions  and  stores 
of  the  vessels,  and,  frequently,  the  subtraction  of  more  valuable  articles,  (in  one  of 
these  cases  money,  a  chronometer,  and  a  watch  are  stated  to  have  disappeared,)  all 
this  is  but  an  old  story  in  the  history  of  vessels  boarding  and  boarded,  as  we  have 
already  had  occasion  to  observe.  How,  indeed,  can  it  be  otherwise  in  the  constitu 
tion  of  human  nature  and  in  the  position  of  the  parties  ?  There  is  no  check  for  the 
present,  no  responsibility  for  the  future.  The  most  rigorous  discipline  and  the  best 
disposition  could  not  prevent  abuse  where  a  party  of  sailors  enter  the  vessel  of 
another  nation,  in  fact,  as  masters,  parade  the  crew,  examine  the  papers,  break  up 
the  hatches,  overhaul  the  cargo,  and  feel  themselves  at  free  quarters,  almost  in  an 
enemy's  country.  And  when  the  disposition  of  the  officers  is  bad  and  the  discipline 
lax,  all  these  evils  are  fearfully  augmented.  In  the  catalogue  of  naval  wrongs 
endured  by  the  United  States  during  the  long  period  of  belligerent  oppression  to 
which  we  have  referred,  the  injuries  and  abuses  inflicted  by  boarding  vessels  figure 
in  the  front  rank.  What  will  they  be  hereafter,  when  this  doctrine  of  universal 
search,  under  the  guise  of  an  inquiry  into  the  nationality  of  vessels,  becomes  conse 
crated  by  time  and  usage,  and  is  exercised  as  well  in  peace  as  in  war? 

"  But,  after  all,  what  is  this  distinction  which  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Aber 
deen  have  discovered,  and  which  is  now  to  give  to  British  officers  the  right,  in  a 
time  of  profound  peace,  to  enter  and  search  American  ships  ?  We  are  distinctly- 
told,  by  both  these  statesmen,  in  their  correspondence  with  the  American  minister, 
that  they  do  not  assert  this  claim  of  search  with  a  view  to  ascertain  the  objects  of  a, 
voyage,  and  to  seize  the  vessel  if  found  engaged  in  the  slave  trade.  Both  admit,  in 
terms,  that,  her  American  character  being  once  established,  her  cargo,  whether  men 
or  merchandise,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  armed  cruiser,  and  that  she  must  be  per 
mitted  to  prosecute  her  voyage,  however  nefarious  its  objects  may  be.  But  both 
equally  contend  that  the  flag  at  the  mast-head,  or  the  piece  of  bunting,  as  Lord  Pal 
merston  rather  contemptuously  styles  this  emblem  of  sovereignty,  furnishes  no 
evidence  of  national  character,  and  shall  furnish  no  protection  against  the  entrance 
of  British  force ;  that  they  have  a  right  to  board  all  vessels  upon  the  ocean,  examine 
their  papers,  and  satisfy  themselves  respecting  their  nationality.  Lord  Aberdeen, 
indeed,  consoles  the  government  of  the  United  States  by  the  assurance  that  their 
vessels  are  not  entered  as  their  vessels.  '  Nor  is  it  as  American  that  such  vessels  are 
ever  visited.'  Poor  consolation  this.  If  Tom  is  knocked  down  in  the  streets,  it  is  little 
comfort  to  him  to  be  told,  I  did  not  knock  you  down  as  Tom,  I  knocked  you  dou~n  as  Jack. 
The  answer  to  all  such  pretensions  is  very  simple,  and  can  not  have  escaped  the 
sagacity  of  the  British  statesmen,  who  have  resorted  to  this  strange  process  of  justi 
fication.  You  commit  the  act  at  your  own  hazard.  If  you  enter  a  ship  or  knock 
down  a  man,  believing  the  ship  or  man  is  not  what  appearances  indicate,  and  your 
suspicions  being  correct,  if  the  law,  international  in  one  case,  national  in  the  other, 
gives  you  the  right  to  use  this  violence,  then  you  may  avow  the  act  and  justify  it. 
But,  if  you  err  in  these  premises,  you  are  responsible  for  the  consequences." 

The  municipal  law  of  every  country  is  filled  with  illustrations  of  this  principle. 
It  is  common  sense  applied  to  the  affairs  of  men  in  their  social  relations  as  members 
of  an  organized  community ;  applied  to  the  affairs  of  nations  in  their  commercial 
intercourse  with  one  another  upon  the  ocean,  it  is  the  same  common  sense,  then 
called  public  law.  If  a  father  or  master  meet  his  son  or  servant,  he  has  a  right  to 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  417 

examine  him  to  ascertain  if  he  is  violating  his  orders.  This  we  may  call  the  visita 
tion  of  persons.  The  right  can  not  be  denied.  Now,  the  son  or  servant  may  disguise 
himself,  and  assume  the  appearance  and  dress  of  a  son,  or  servant  of  a  neighbor,  it 
may  be  his  livery  ;  but  does  this  possibility  of  abuse  give  the  superior  the  right  to 
stop  in  the  streets  all  persons  he  may  choose  to  suspect,  with  or  without  cause,  to 
be  his  son  or  servant,  and  not  even  violating  the  law  of  the  country,  but  his  own 
domestic  law?  Certainly  not.  If  he  examine  forcibly,  he  does  so  at  his  peril. 
Borne  out  by  the  result,  he  is  but  in  the  exercise  of  his  right.  Deceived,  lie  is  a 
trespasser,  and  responsible  for  his  conduct. 

We  consider  it  unnecessary  to  pursue  these  illustrations  further.     It  would  be 
but  a  work  of  supererogation. 


PART  III. — THE  PROCESS  BY  WHICH  THIS  DOCTRINE  OF  RIGHT  TO  SEARCH 
AND  SEIZE  is  ATTEMPTED  TO  BE  MAINTAINED — THE  CORRESPONDENCE 
OF  THE  BRITISH  SECRETARIES  OF  STATE  FOR  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  AN 
ALYZED. 

What,  then,  is  the  process  by  which  this  new  principle  is  attempted  to  be  justified 
and  maintained  ?  Lord  Palmerston  thus  lays  down  the  doctrine,  which  is  hence 
forth  to  become  a  part  of  the  great  maritime  law :  The  United  States  Flag,  or  bunt 
ing,  as  his  lordship  calls  it,  shall  exempt  no  vessel,  (whether  American  or  not  ^  from  search, 
except  "  when  that  vessel  is  provided  with  papers  entitling  her  to  wear  that  flag, 
and  proving  her  to  be  United  States  property,  and  navigated  according  to  laic."  And 
with  a  view  to  ascertain  if  she  is  entitled  to  the  flag  she  bears,  and  if  she  is  sailing 
according  to  law,  a  right  of  entry  is  claimed  for  every  British  cruiser  into  every 
American  vessel,  wherever  they  may  meet.  And  this  right  of  entry  is  called  not  a 
search,  but  a  visit. 

Lord  Palmerston,  it  will  be  remarked,  lays  down  as  a  part  of  the  principle,  that  a 
vessel  must  be  sailing  according  to  law,  that  is,  for  a  purpose  not  prohibited  by 
law,  and  Lord  Aberdeen,  who  shows  more  regard  for  hunting  than  Lord  Palmerston, 
concedes  that,  "doubtless  the  flag  is prima  facie  evidence  of  the  nationality  of  the 
vessel."  A  strange  designation  this,  by  the  by,  for  a  national  pavilion,  and  we 
had  almost  said,  a  profane  one,  to  be  applied  by  an  English  statesman,  the  Minister 
of  a  country  whose  meteor  flag  is  associated  with  so  many  glorious  recollections,  and 
apostrophized  in  so  much  glorious  poetry.  And  after  all,  this  emblem  of  sovereignty 
and  accompaniment  of  victory,  is  but  a  piece  of  bunting!  Alas!  for  the  prestige  of 
great  names,  when  reduced  to  this  matter-of-fact  standard. 

It  will  not  be  denied,  that  this  is  the  first  solemn  occasion  upon  which  this  pre 
tension  has  been  put  forth  to  the  world.  No  elementary  writer  has  advanced  it,  no 
jurist  has  asserted  it,  no  judge  has  ruled  it.  The  universal  exemption  of  all  vessels 
in  time  of  peace,  "  from  search  or  visitation/'  the  very  words,  as  we  have  seen,  of 
Lord  Stowcll,  has  heretofore  been  an  uncontested  and  incontestable  principle  of  the 
law  of  nations,  and  lie  added  the  authority  of  his  decision  to  the  opinions  of  his 
predecessors,  the  commentators  upon  the  great  code  of  maritime  law.  When,  there 
fore  the  two  British  statesmen,  who  have  assumed,  or  upon  whom  has  fallen  the 

27 


418  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

task  of  interpolating  this  new  principle  into  that  code,  or  as  the  Times  would  express 
it,  who  are  ivorking  the.  way  for  the  neiv  law,  undertake  to  justify  this  pretension  by 
argument,  preparatory  to  its  being  maintained  by  force,  we  may  fairly  call  upon 
them  to  establish  their  position  by  undeniable  proofs,  or  by  the  clearest  illustrations. 
The  burden  of  discussion  is  cast  upon  them,  while  the  nations  of  the  earth,  at  the 
same  time  judges  and  parties,  are  watching  the  progress  of  the  controversy,  anxious, 
it  may  be,  to  see  if  this  new  step,  as  the  Times  may  well  term  it,  is  to  be  attended 
with  a  new  struggle,  and  if  both  are  to  be  gained,  as  so  many  have  been  gained 
before  them. 

In  carefully  analyzing  the  correspondence,  the  arguments  in  support  of  this  claim 
may  be  briefly  summed  up  in  these  :  Without  it  flags  may  be  sometimes  abused. 
Without  it  English  cruisers  may  sometimes  be  prevented  from  boarding  their  own 
vessels,  and  thus  the  municipal  laws  of  England  may  be  violated.  Without  it  the 
treaty  stipulations  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  can  not  be  so  well  executed, 
as  with  it.  And  the  traditions  of  the  British  navy,  and  Lord  Aberdeen  believes,  of 
other  navies,  are  in  favor  of  its  assertion.  This  is  a  brief  summary  of  the  defense 
of  the  measure. 

As  to  what  may  be  termed  the  quarter-deck  law,  we  shall  dismiss  it  with  a  very 
cursory  examination.  Mr.  Stevenson  calls  in  question  the  exactitude  of  the  fact,  at 
any  rate  to  the  extent  to  which  it  must  reach,  in  order  to  support  such  a  claim  as 
this.  That  vessels  may  have  been  overhauled  and  entered  in  time  of  peace,  under 
peculiar  circumstances,  we  do  not  doubt.  But  it  is  evident  that  this  practice  has 
never  prevailed  in  any  considerable  degree,  most  certainly  not  sufficiently  so  to 
render  it  authoritative,  as  otherwise  it  would  have  given  rise  to  examination  and 
consideration  among  the  elementary  writers,  and  to  discussion  among  the  govern 
ments  which,  from  time  to  time,  must  have  been  affected  by  it.  No  trace  of  this 
appears,  and  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  its  use  has  never  been  established, 
nor  its  abuse  sufficiently  prevalent  nor  serious  to  render  it  the  subject  of  diplomatic 
intervention. 

If  Great  Britain  had,  as  she  has  not,  in  the  exercise  of  her  naval  strength,  pushed 
this  usage  beyond  the  point  we  have  indicated,  certainly  it  would  be  with  a  bad 
grace,  she  would  claim  that  her  own  violence  should  be  written  down  in  the  law 
of  nations,  and  constitute  the  rule  for  their  future  government.  We  go  farther; 
vessels  will,  no  doubt,  be  hereafter  spoken  and  entered,  and  no  one  will  complain, 
because  no  indignity  will  be  intended,  nor  will  any  injury  be  done.  Strictly  speak 
ing,  a  trespass  may  be  committed,  but  the  matter  will  pass  off,  without  exciting  the 
least  sensation,  either  among  the  parties  or  their  governments.  How  different  this 
is  from  a  claim  to  enter  and  search  all  ships,  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  we  leave 
to  the  common  sense  of  mankind  to  judge.  We  say  in  all  places,  because,  though 
one  half  only  of  the  Atlantic  ocean  is  tabooed,  (as  the  South-sea  islanders  express 
it.)  at  the  present  moment,  yet  the  same  power  which  has  laid  this  interdict  upon  a 
part  of  one  of  the  mightiest  works  of  God.  may  extend  it,  as  soon  as  its  interests 
dictate,  from  pole  to  pole,  and  from  east  to  west.  If  that  is  not  already  done,  it  is 
not  that  the  principle  is  not  sufficiently  elastic  to  cover  such  a  space,  but  only,  that 
the  time  of  harvest  has  not  yet  come.  We  are  aware  of  our  offense  against  the  canons 
of  criticism  in  the  metaphor,  but  we  may  be  pardoned  the  trespass,  in  consequence 

of  the  force  of  the  illustration With  respect  to  the  abuse  to  which  the  claim 

of  immunity,  made  by  the  United  States  for  their  vessels,  may  be  liable,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  show,  how  greatly  it  has  been  exaggerated.  This  seems  to  be  the  favorite 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  419 

argument  of  Lord  Palmerston,  and  is  repeated,  under  a  somewhat  different  view,  by 
Lord  Aberdeen.  Both  these  statesmen  appear  to  think,  that  the  United  States  claim 
a  perfect  immunity  for  all  vessels  bearing  their  nag,  and  as  an  illustration  of  the 
absurdity  of  such  a  pretension,  Lord  Aberdeen  asks  Mr.  Stevenson,  if  he  supposes 
the  government  of  Great  Britain  would  permit  "British  vessels  and  British  capital 
to  carry  on,  before  the  eyes  of  British  officers,  this  detestable  traffic,  etc.,  by  hoisting 
the  American  flag. 

This  conclusion  is  no  corollary  from  the  premises  laid  down  by  the  United  States. 
They  advance  no  such  pretension.  It  is  the  immunity  of  their  own  lonafidc  vessels, 
they  seek  to  secure.  They  do  not  deny  to  the  cruisers  of  all  the  powers  of  the  earth 
the  right  to  enter  and  search  each  the  vessels  of  their  own  country,  which  may 
concede  the  privilege,  though  the  flag  of  the  United  States  may  fly  at  all  their  mast 
head?.  But  they  do  deny  the  right  of  any  such  cruisers  to  search  tlieir  vessels,  and 
here  lies  the  root  of  the  whole  matter.  Certainly,  if  a  British  or  French  frigate 
encounters  a  vessel  at  sea,  which  is  most  assuredly  a  British  or  a  French  vessel, 
endeavoring  to  conceal  her  nationality,  under  the  American  flag,  such  frigate  is  jus 
tified  in  boarding  her,  and  in  disposing  of  her  as  the  laws  of  her  country  may 
provide.  But  this  is  done  at  the  risk  of  the  boarding  ship.  If  the  result  proves 
that  the  suspicion  was  well  founded,  then  the  commanding  officer  will  be  scathless. 
He  will  have  done  his  duty  to  his  own  government,  and  no  injury  to  another.  But 
if  he  has  suffered  himself  to  be  deceived,  then  he  has  violated  the  rights  of  a  for 
eign  power,  and  his  sovereign  must  be  responsible  for  the  consequences.  He  may 
still  have  done  his  duty  to  his  own  government.  That  will  depend  upon  the  strength 
of  the  evidence  upon  which  he  acted.  But  he  has  committed  an  injury  against  another, 
and  for  that  injury,  atonement  may  be  demanded.  But  here  we  come  to  the  prac 
tical  operation  of  these  general  principles,  and  it  is  that  branch  of  the  subject  alone 
which  is  worthy  serious  consideration. 

The  two  British  statesmen  attempt  to  support  their  position  by  pushing  principles 
to  their  extremes.  This  may  do  in  the  schools,  but  its  place  is  not  in  active  life,  and, 
least  of  all,  in  the  affairs  of  nations.  A  British  officer  meets  a  vessel  bearing  an 
American  flag,  but  which  he  has  the  strongest  reasons  to  suspect  to  be  British,  and 
engaged  in  the  slave  trade.  He  boards  her,  conducts  himself  with  perfect  propriety, 
ascertains  his  error,  and  retires,  without  committing  any  injury.  He  is  a  trespasser, 
but  no  government  would  ever  think  of  complaining  in  such  a  case.  A  perpetual 
right  to  stop,  to  search,  and  to  seize  is  one  thing;  a  casual  act  of  trespass,  conceded 
to  be  such,  excused  by  peculiar  circumstances,  and  immediately  acknowledged  and 
atoned  for,  is  another.  The  latter  may  be  pardoned.  The  former  is  intolerable. 
The  commander  of  the  boarding  vessel  is  precisely  in  the  condition  of  a  sheriff's 
officer,  who,  with  a  writ  against  A,  arrests  B.  Now,  on  a  trial  in  an  action  of  tres 
pass,  which  B  might  institute  for  this  assault  and  battery,  what  would  be  the  measure 
of  damages  which  an  intelligent  jury  would  apply  to  the  case  1  They  would  adopt 
precisely  the  same  rule  we  have  already  laid  down,  in  the  case  of  the  commander. 
If  the  officer  had  strong  reasons  to  mistake  the  identity  of  B,  and  to  suppose  he  was 
A,  and  if  he  had  conducted  himself  with  perfect  propriety,  and  had  really  committed 
no  injury,  he  would  be  dismissed  with  nominal  damages ;  damages,  which,  while 
they  asserted  the  great  principle  of  liberty,  would  be  yet  perfectly  valueless  in  their 
amount,  leaving  the  ill-advised  complainant  to  pay  the  costs.  Such  is  the  illustra 
tion  of  our  maritime  subject.  In  this  manner  the  principle  is  saved,  and  flagrant 
abuses  prevented.  And  why  the  naked  principle  is  incalculably  valuable  to  the 


420  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

United  States,  is  obvious.  Upon  it  turns  the  claim  of  impressment.  The  exercise 
of  that  claim,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  consequence  of  a  legal  right  of  entry.  So  long 
as  this  entry  is  illegal,  so  long  the  American  seamen  are,  by  British  confession,  safe 
from  British  power.  We  may  illustrate  this  principle  still  further,  and  it  is  well  to 
do  so,  because  Lord  Aberdeen  pushes  the  immunity  even  to  the  protection  of  piracy, 
and  some  of  the  English  journals  have  expressed  a  very  patriotic  fear  of  that  result. 
Let  us  examine  this  matter.  The  cruiser  of  a  civilized  power  approaches  a  region 
where  a  pirate  is  known  to  have  recently  been  committing  depredations.  His 
appearance  is  described,  and  he  is  anxiously  watched.  A  vessel,  with  the  flag  of 
the  United  States,  heaves  in  sight,  and  she  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  the  corsair. 
She  is  entered,  and  the  mistake  is  discovered.  The  act  would  be  pardoned,  and, 
especially,  as  the  crime  is  proscribed  by  the  law  of  nations — a  law  which  all  powers 
should  support  and  enforce.  And  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  suppose  a  case,  where 
the  public  ship  of  a  nation  might  be  attacked,  and  under  such  strong  presumption 
of  her  being  a  pirate,  as  to  excuse,  though  not  to  justify,  the  aggression.  When 
piracy  was  prevalent  in  the  West  Indies,  some  years  since,  the  smaller  vessels  of  the 
American  squadron  employed  in  its  suppression,  were  often  disguised  to  deceive  the 
pirates.  If  one  of  them  had  been  mistaken  by  a  French  or  British  frigate  for  a 
piratical  cruiser,  she  would  have  been  attacked,  but  the  matter  would  have  been 
amicably  arranged,  as  was  the  controversy  respecting  the  action  between  the  Amer 
ican  frigate,  the  "President,"  and  the  British  sloop-of-Avar,  the  "Little  Belt,"  which 
occurred  in  profound  peace,  but  was  the  result  of  mutual  misunderstanding.  Now 
Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Aberdeen  do  not  claim  the  right,  in  time  of  peace,  under 
any  circumstances,  to  search  a  vessel  of  war,  in  order  to  ascertain  her  nationality. 
Here  the  bunting  rides  inviolate.  But  does  it  follow  that,  because  a  pirate  hoists  the 
flag  of  a  Christian  power,  and  assumes  the  appearance  of  one  of  her  armed  ships,  he 
is  therefore  beyond  the  reach  of  his  pursuers?  Or  that  all  the  French  vessels  of 
war  upon  the  ocean  may  be  searched  by  a  British  ship,  because  the  latter  chooses 
to  suspect  they  are  pirates?  Such  pretensions  would  be  absurd.  The  public  vessel 
is  inviolable  in  principle  by  universal  consent,  as  the  private  vessel  was  till  this 
pretension  arose.  The  immunity  of  the  one  has  not  prevented  the  suppression  of 
piracy,  nor  would  the  immunity  of  the  other  prevent  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade.  Neither  ought  to  be  forcibly  entered  by  a  foreign  power,  but,  if  their  guise 
is  assumed,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  deceive  the  honest  cruiser,  circumstances 
might  occur  to  justify  him  in  attacking  the  one  and  in  entering  the  other. 

But  pursuing  the  analogy  and  pushing  the  principles,  as  Lord  Palmerston  pushes 
it,  ii  is  evident  that,  if  the  possible  abuse  of  their  flag,  for  the  purpose,  among  other 
things,  of  carrying  on  the  slave  trade,  is  a  proof  that  the  merchant  vessels  of  the 
United  States  may  be  stopped  and  searched,  then  their  armed  ships  may  be  also 
stopped  and  searched,  or  every  corsair,  who  may,  in  like  manner,  hoist  their  flag,  may 
roam  the  ocean  untouched.  We  leave  the  dilemma  where  the  argument  originated. 
With  our  views  there  is  no  difficulty.  These  we  have  sufficiently  explained.  Piracy 
has  been  put  down  without  any  violation  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas,  or  of  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  nations.  The  slave  trade  may  be  put  down  also,  with  the  same 
sacred  regard  to  those  great  principles.  If  occasional  trespasses  are  committed  in 
obtaining  the  one  object  or  the  other,  let  these  be  judged  as  they  arise.  Sufficient 
unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof.  Let  violence  not  be  encouraged  and  shielded  in 
advance,  and  one  of  the  best  works  of  man — the  code  of  opinion — by  which  the  strong 
is  restrained  and  the  weak  protected  upon  the  ocean,  be  broken  up,  and  its  frag 
ments  scattered  to  the  wind. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  421 

We  come  now  to  the  consideration  of  this  principle  as  the  British  statesmen  lay 
it  down,  and  more  particularly  in  its  application  to  the  slave  trade.  We  have  seen 
that  Lord  Palmerston,  who  certainly  expresses  himself  less  guardedly  than  Lord 
Aberdeen,  qualifies  his  general  postulatum  concerning  the  search  of  the  vessels  of 
the  United  States  by  this  limitation,  that  there  must  be  circumstances  justifying  the 
suspicion  that  they  are  not  American  property ',  and  that  their  voyages  are  illegal.  Lord 
Aberdeen  goes  farther.  He  claims  no  right  of  search,  u  except  under  the  most  grave 
suspicions  and  well  founded  doubts  of  the  genuineness  of  its  (the  vessel's)  charac 
ter."  And  he,  too,  requires  that  the  object  of  the  vessel  should  be  "illegal." 

The  most  grave  suspicions  and  well  founded  doubts  of  what.  Lord  Aberdeen  ?  Of  vio 
lating  your  municipal  laws  ?  If  that  proposition  is  meant  and  can  be  maintained, 
then  England  is  much  nearer  universal  domination  upon  the  ocean  than  the  most 
jealous  observer  of  the  maritime  "steps'"'  has  ventured  even  to  insinuate.  She  has 
only  by  statutory  provision  to  declare,  as  she  already  declares  in  principle,  that  the 
employment  of  her  native  born  subjects  in  the  American  marine,  military  or  com 
mercial,  is  illegal,  and  she  can  then  enter  the  ships  of  the  United  States,  and  seize 
their  crews,  without  resorting  to  the  sophism,  (we  speak  as  a  logician,  not  offens 
ively,)  which  actually  casts  an  air  of  ridicule  upon  the  grave  question,  and  by  which 
the  true  object  is  attained  under  a  pretended  one. 

She  has  only  to  declare  piratical  the  transportation  of  the  merchandise  of  France, 
as  she  has  declared  piratical  the  slave  trade,  and  then  every  French  ship  sailing  the 
ocean,  and  every  other  one,  indeed,  may  be  stopped  and  searched,  to  ascertain  if 
they  carry  the  wines  of  Bordeaux,  the  silks  of  Lyons,  or  the  rich  and  elegant 
manufactured  articles  of  Paris.  From  such  a  search,  to  seizure  and  condemnation 
Is  but  another  step  ;  and  the  tri-colored  bunting  of  France,  and  the  striped  bunting 
of  the  American  Union  might  disappear  from  the  face  of  the  seas. 

Let  no  man  say  that  such  things  will  not  happen.  Upon  this  subject  we  can  no 
more  assert  what  is  probable,  than  we  can  predict  what  will  happen.  Xo  step  in 
this  onwa.d  progress  can  be  more  irreconcilable  with  common  right  and  common 
sense,  than  was  the  proper  blockade  of  half  Europe,  without  even  the  pretense  that 
this  interdict  was  supported  by  an  armed  vessel,  if  it  were  but  a  gun  boat,  to  watch 
one  hundredth  part  of  the  coast  thus  pronounced  to  be  hermetically  closed. 

But  what  constitutes  this  illegality,  we  are  nowhere  distinctly  told.  Indeed,  the 
whole  reasoning  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  upon  this  branch  of  the  subject,  is  marked 
with  a  confusion  certainly  not  the  characteristic  of  that  accomplished  statesman, 
but  the  result  of  the  position  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  take.  He  says,  in  one  part  of  his 
dispatch,  "  that  the  present  happy  concurrence  of  the  states  of  Christendom  (Qu, 
some  of  the  states  of  Europe  ?)  in  this  great  object,  not  merely  justifies,  but  renders 
indispensable  the  right  now  claimed  and  exercised  by  the  British  government." 
This,  it  will  be  observed,  was  written  before  the  conclusion  of  the  late  treaty  be 
tween  five  of  the  European  powers,  upon  this  subject,  and  therefore  has  relation 
only  to  the  previous  isolated  treaties  ;  though  that  circumstance,  in  our  view,  what 
ever  it  may  do  in  that  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  changes  nothing  in  the  rights  of  the 
parties  to  this  controversy.  That  all  the  powers  of  Christendom  have  not  conceded 
this  right  of  search  will  not  be  disputed  ;  for  we  suppose  the  United  States  may 
.fairly  claim  to  belong  to  that  great  brotherhood  of  nations.  Is  it  possible  Lord 
Aberdeen  means  all  his  words  clearly  express?  Will  he  openly  assume  the  princi 
ple,  that  the  concurrence  of  some  of  the  powers  of  Europe,  great  or  small,  in  a 
,  even  when  -avowedly  and  specifically  confined  to  themselves,  immediately 


422  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  ipso  facto  changes  the  law  of  nations,  and  sanctifies  the  principle  of  this  new 
measure?  If  some  future  Napoleon  should  arise,  and  by  a  general  continental  con 
vention,  attempt  to  exclude  England  from  the  markets  of  the  world,  would  this 
act  of  violence  become  legal  £  Would  it  impose  upon  that  country  the  moral  duty 
of  submission,  because  the  "happy  concurrence  of  some  of  the  states  of  Christen 
dom  in  the  great  object"  had  not  only  legalized,  but  had  rendered  the  process  by 
which  their  decree  was  to  be  enforced,  not  merely  justifiable,  but  indispensable? 
This  is  no  reasoning  for  the  nineteenth  century,  and  we  can  no  longer  occupy 
ourselves  with  it. 

If  the  right  of  search  is  here  placed,  as  we  see,  upon  the  obligation  created  by 
the  partial  treaties  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  there  are  passages  in  the 
dispatches  of  both  Lord  Falmerston  and  Lord  Aberdeen,  where  it  is  placed  upon 
the  municipal  law  of  England.  These  are  to  be  found  where  Lord  Aberdeen 
invokes  the  necessity  of  examining  American  ships,  to  ascertain  if  they  are  not 
"British  ships  with  British  capital,"  carrying  on  a  traffic  "which  the  law  (the  mu 
nicipal  law  of  England)  has  declared  to  be  piracy."  And  Lord  Palmerston  saysr 
that  without  the  right  of  searching  American  vessels,  "  even  the  laws  of  England 
might  be  set  at  defiance  by  her  own  subjects."  And  so  they  may  be  evaded  in  a 
thousand  ways,  and  have  been  evaded  by  means  furnished  by  ships,  both  English 
and  foreign.  And  why  confine  this  claim  of  search  to  the  evasion  of  the  laws, 
respecting  the  slave  trade?  Why  not  extend  it  to  all  cases  which  may  happen,  and 
stop  and  seize  upon  the  ocean  all  vessels  suspected,  or  pretended  .to  be  suspected, 
of  aiding  in  such  evasion  ?  And  why  should  not  a  French  cruiser  overhaul  and 
search  any  merchantman,  foreign  as  well  as  French,  which,  it  may  be  pretended, 
has  on  board  a  young  conscript  fleeing  from  the  conscription  ?  This  branch  of  the 
discussion  has  already  extended  too  far.  We  do  not  believe  it  is  necessary  for  any 
intelligent,reader  that  we  should  farther  push  the  refutation  of  the  pretension,  that 
a  British  boarding  crew  may  enter  any  American  ship  she  meets,  with  a  view  to 
give  effect  to  the  British  laws.  That  time  may  come,  and  perhaps  will  come,  if  this 
step  is  gained.  But  before  then,  many  strange  events  may  come  to  pass. 

But  it  will  be  seen,  also,  that  this  illegality  which  we  are  in  search  of,  is  created, 
not  only  by  treaty  stipulations  and  municipal  laws,  but  by  the  law  of  nations.  To 
the  last  authority  the  United  States  avow  their  entire  submission,  and  what  that 
ordains  they  will  cheerfully  obey.  Lord  Aberdeen  says,  that  the  fraudulent  abuse 
of  the  American  flag  "  constitutes  that  reasonable  ground  of  suspicion  which  the 
law  of  nations  requires  in  such  a  case."  Let  Lord  Aberdeen  put  his  finger  upon 
that  part  of  the  law  which  applies  to  "  such  a  case,"  and  all  opposition  to  the  pre 
tensions  of  his  country  is  at  an  end.  But  it  is  the  fair  provision  which  is  demanded, 
and  not  a  substitute,  created  by  a  false  analogy.  This  doctrine  is  not  to  be 
supported  by  transferring  to  this  subject  principles  and  practices  applicable  only 
to  a  state  of  war,  and  to  acts  which  are  then  "illegal"  by  the  unanimous  consent 
of  mankind. 

But,  after  all,  supposing  the  law  to  be  as  laid  down,  that  American  vessels  may  be 
searched  because  their  voyages  may  be  sometimes  "  illegal,"  what  are  the  circum 
stances  which  justify  the  exercise  of  this  measure,  agreeably  to  the  British  doctrine? 
We  repeat  the  rule,  as  stated  by  Lord  Aberdeen.  No  vessel  bearing  the  American 
flag  ought  to  be  visited  by  a  British  cruiser,  except  "  under  the  most  grave  suspi 
cions  and  well  founded  doubts  of  the  genuineness  of  its  character."  What  is  the 
practical  application  of  this  rule?  Why,  American  vessels  are  visited,  in  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  423 

language  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  "  in  certain  latitudes  and  for  a  particular  object."  That 
is  to  say,  their  very  appearance  in  "  certain  latitudes"  is  a  "  grave  suspicion,"  and 
thence  follows  the  entry,  the  detention,  the  search,  and,  it  may  be,  the  sei/Aire!  If 
this  is  not  reversing  the  natural  order  of  things,  and  casting  the  burden  of  proof 
upon  the  injured  partv.  we  confess  our  inability  to  understand  the  subject.  This 
amounts  to  a  complete  blockade  of  the  great  Southern  ocean,  from  Rio  Janeiro  to 
the  Bight  of  Benin.  How  long  it  may  continue,  and  how  much  further  it  may 
extend,  we  leave  to  history  to  tell. 


PART  IV. — THE    AFRICAN    SLAVE    TRADE,   AS    PIRACY,  CONSIDERED. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  the  communications  of  both  the  British  Secretaries  of 
State  for  Foreign  Affairs  to  consider  the  African  slave  trade  as  piracy.  This  point 
established,  and  all  opposition  to  this  claim  of  search,  in  cases  bona  fide  suspicious, 
would  cease.  Lord  Palmerston  speaks  of  u  slave  trading  pirates,"  and  Lord  Aber 
deen  of  "piratical  adventurers." 

But  this  is  loose  language,  except  so  far  as  it  has  reference  to  municipal  laws. 
The  slave  trade  is  nefarious,  unjustifiable,  and  ought  everywhere  to  be  proscribed 
and  rigorously  punished.  But  it  is  one  of  that  class  of  acts  whose  criminality  de 
pends  upon  the  laws  of  different  countries.  A  nation  or  a  combination  of  nations 
may  call  it  piracy,  and  apply  to  their  own  citizens  the  punishment  usually 
prescribed  for  that  crime.  But  this  change  of  names  changes  nothing  in  the  nature 
of  things,  and  piracy  is  now,  by  the  law  of  nations,  what  it  has  been  for  ages  past. 

As  to  the  status  of  slavery  itself,  it  were  idle  to  contend  it  is  illegal  by  the  common 
consent  of  mankind.  It  has  existed  since  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world,  and  there 
is  probably  no  nation,  ancient  or  modern,  among  whom  it  has  not  been  known.  By 
some,  it  has  been  abolished,  and  where  it  yet  survives  we  hope  its  condition  has 
been  meliorated.  This  is  certainly  true  of  the  United  States.  A  general  disposition 
is  gaining  ground  to  improve  the  situation  of  this  unfortunate  class  of  societ}-.  This 
is  felt  in  the  Southern  States  of  the  American  confederacy  as  well  as  elsewhere,  and 
he  who  should  judge  of  the  treatment  of  the  slaves  in  that  region,  by  their  treat 
ment  in  the  West  India  colonies,  would  do  the  Southern  planter  egregious  injustice. 
The  best  proof  of  this  assertion  is  the  fact,  disclosed  by  the  statistical  tables  pub 
lished  by  the  American  government,  that  in  some  of  the  slave  States  the  slaves 
increase  faster  than  the  white  population,  and  another  fact,  not  less  significative,  is 
the  rate  of  their  natural  augmentation.  This  is  found  to  be  between  twenty-five 
and  thirty  per  cent,  in  each  decennial  period.  A  very  respectable  countryman  now 
here,  in  whose  statement  we  place  full  confidence,  has  just  informed  us,  he  has 
examined  the  subject,  and  finds,  though  there  are  more  than  fourteen  millions  of 
free  white  persons  in  the  United  States,  and  but  two  millions  and  a  half  of  slaves, 
yet  the  number  in  the  latter  class,  over  one  hundred  years  of  age,  is  almost  double 
that  in  the  former. 

We  are  no  slaveholder.  We  never  have  been.  We  never  shall  be.  We  deprecate 
its  existence  in  principle,  and  pray  for  its  abolition  everywhere,  where  this  can  be 
effected  justly  and  peaceably,  and  safely  for  both  parties.  But  we  would  not  carry 
fire,  and  devastation,  and  murder,  and  ruin  into  a  peaceful  community,  to  push  on 


424  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  accomplishment  of  that  object.  But  after  having  visited  the  three  quarters  of 
the  old  continent,  we  say  before  God  and  the  world,  that  we  have  seen  far  more,  and 
more  frightful  misery,  since  ive  landed  in  Europe,  and  we  have  not  visited  Ireland  yet,  than 
we  have  ever  seen  among  this  class  of  people  in  the  United  States.  Whatever  may 
be  said,  there  is  much  of  the  patriarchal  relation  between  the  Southern  planter  and 
the  slave.  And  as  to  the  physical  distress  which  is  seen  in  Europe,  resulting  from 
a  want  of  food,  and  from  exposure  to  a  rigorous  winter  without  adequate  clothing, 
we  believe  it  to  be  so  rare,  as  not  to  form  a  just  element  in  the  consideration  of  this 
matter.  But  the  subject  of  the  emancipation  of  two  millions  and  a  half  of  human 
beings,  living  among  another  population,  of  different  race  and  color,  and  with 
different  habits  and  feelings,  is  one  of  the  gravest  questions  which  can  be  submitted 
to  society  to  solve.  It  can  be  safely  left  only  to  those  who  are  to  be  so  seriously 
affected  by  it;  and  there  it  is  left  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a 
matter  with  which  the  general  government  has  no  concern. 

And  so  with  respect  to  the  slave  trade.  It  is  a  traffic  which  can  be  traced  back 
to  the  time  of  Jacob,  whose  son  was  sold  into  Egypt;  and  down,  in  some  form  or 
other,  during  the  successive  ages  which  have  intervened,  to  the  last  century,  when 
by  treaty  arrangements  with  Spain,  England  obtained,  as  a  great  commercial  favor, 
the  privilege  of  supplying  the  Spanish  colonies  with  slaves,*  and  to  the  present, 
when,  after  many  years  of  bitter  opposition,  the  English  Parliament  voted  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  slave  trade,  but  when  some  of  the  greatest  namesf  in  England  were 
found  in  the  minority.  These  statesmen  by  their  votes  not  only  pronounced  the  slave 
trade  to  be  legal  and  expedient,  but  moral,  also,  so  far  as  that  consideration  formed,  at 
that  time,  a  motive  of  legislative  action.  That  it  is  illegal,  by  the  great  code  of 
public  law,  no  statesman,  nor  publicist,  or  well  informed  man,  will  seriously  contend. 
Thanks  to  the  advancing  opinions  of  the  age,  its  atrocity  is  generally  acknowledged, 
and  the  obligation  of  Christian  states  to  extirpate  it,  almost  everywhere  felt  and 
obeyed.  But  it  is  not  permitted,  in  order  to  attain  a  great  good,  to  commit  a  great 
evil.  In  order  to  break  up  the  traffic,  to  break  down  the  barriers  which  centuries  have 
been  rearing,  and  by  which  the  weak  are  everywhere  protected  against  the  strong, 
the  peaceful  against  the  warlike ;  the  law  of  nations  is  but  general  opinion,  illus 
trated  by  able  jurists,  and  sanctified  by  time,  and  by  universal  acquiescence.  Touch 
it  rudely,  and  the  whole  fabric  will  disappear,  leaving  the  nations  of  the  world,  in 
their  mutual  relations,  as  they  existed  in  the  most  barbarous  age. 

Most  wisely  and  most  impressively,  therefore,  did  Lord  Stowcll  say,  "No  nation 
has  the  right  to  force  their  way,  for  the  liberation  of  Africa,  by  trampling  upon  the 
independence  of  other  states,  on  the  pretense  of  an  eminent  good,  by  means  that 
are  unlawful;  or  to  press  'orward  to  a  great  principle,  by  breaking  through  other 
great  principles  which  stand  in  their  way." 

*  The  first  article  of  the  treaty  of  Madrid,  of  26th  March,  1718,  is  thus  conceived:  "\Vhoreas  the 
assiento  which  was  formed  with  the  Company  Koyal  of  Guinea,  estahlished  in  France,  to  furnish  negco 
slaves  for  the  West  Indies,  has  expired,  and  the  queen  of  Great  Britain  wishing  to  enter  into  this  com 
merce,  arid  in  her  name  the  English  Company,  etc. 

|  In  looking  over  Clarkson's  History  of  the  Aholition  of  the  Slave  Trade,  we  find  that  the  cabinet  of 
Mr.  Pitt  was  divided  upon  this  subject,  and  that  the  .sincerity  of  that  distinguished  man  in  the  support 
of  it  was  generally  doubted.  And  Clarkson  states,  that  from  the-  known  sentiments  of  the  king,  the 
veto  of  the  hill  was  feared.  Among  the  opponents  we  find  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  (afterwards  William 
the  Fourth,)  who  called  the  supporters  of  the  bill  fanatics  and  hypocrites.  Lords  Thurlow,  Rodney, 
Sheffield,  Eldon,  Saint-Vincent,  Liverpool,  Sidmouth,  (who  was  Mr.  Addington,)  Hawksbury,  (who  was 
Mr.  Jenkinson,)  Mr.  Dundas,  Colonel  Tarleton,  Major  Scott,  etc. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  425 

Words  of  deep  wisdom  and  of  solemn  wearing;  and  lamentable  is  it,  that  their 
obligation  has  scarcely  outlived  the  able  and  venerable  judge  by  whom  they  were 
pronounced.  And  above  all  is  it  to  be  deplored,  that  the  first  public  practical  dis 
avowal  of  these  sentiments  should  come  from  a  country  whose  law  they  were 
ruled  to  be. 

We  have  already  adverted  to  the  opinion  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  in  connection 
with  that  of  Lord  Stowell.  This  we  did  from  memory ;  but  at  the  moment  of  writing 
this  part  of  our  remarks,  we  have  been  enabled  to  refer  to  a  debate  in  the  House  of 
Lords.  10th  July,  1839,  where  his  sentiments  are  fully  disclosed.  With  that  spirit 
of  frankness  and  sagacity  which  are  not  the  least  eminent  among  the  qualities  of 
that  eminent  man,  lie  predicted  the  issue  to  which  this  pretension  must  lead.  He 
said,  "the  clause  in  question  made  it  lawful  to  detain  any  vessels  whatever,  on 
suspicion  on  the  high  seas,  and  demand  their  papers;  and  the  persons  exercising 
such  authority,  were  moreover  indemnified  for  all  the  consequences.  Was  it  in 
tended  that  the  vessels  of  any  power  in  Europe  might  be  searched,  and  afterwards 
allowed  to  proceed  on  their  voyage,  whether  we  had  treaties  with  those  powers  or 
not?  Such  a  law  would  be  a  perfect  novelty  in  the  legislation  of  this  country,  and 
the  House  ought  to  well  pause  before  they  adopt  it." 

Again,  on  the  15th  August,  the  duke  remarked:  u  It  was  well  known  that  with 
the  United  States  we  had  no  convention;  there  were,  indeed,  engagements,  made  by 
diplomatic  notes,  but  nothing  went  to  show  the  least  disposition,  on  their  part,  to 
permit  the  right  of  detention  and  the  search  of  papers ;  and  if  there  was  one  point  more 
to  be  avoided  than  another,  it  was  that  relating  to  the  visitation  of  vessels  belonging 
to  the  Union.  He  warned  government  not  to  proceed,  but  rather  to  issue  an  order 
in  council  or  a  declaration  of  war." 

We  quote  the  remarks  of  Lord  Brougham,  because  they  are  equally  honorable  to 
himself,  to  truth,  and  to  the  American  government.  "  It  could  not  be  disguised  that 
we  were  peculiarly  situated  with  respect  to  the  United  States,  because  we  had  not 
affected  any  treaty  conferring  such  right  of  search.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  United  States,  at  the  very  earliest  period  they  were  enabled  to  do  so  by  the 
Federal  Union,  had  adopted  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  were,  in  fact,  the 
first  to  make  it  piracy  for  any  one  of  its  subjects  to  carry  it  on.  The  government  of 
the  United  States  was  not  so  strong  as  a  monarchical  government,  nor  had  it  such 
direct  and  powerful  means  of  controlling  its  subjects."  And  he  remarks,  with  respect 
to  the  sale  of  American  ships  to  persons  carrying  on  the  slave  trade  :  "  but  the  people 
might  not,  after  all,  be  answerable  for  the  purposes  to  which  they  were  devoted,  not 
more  so,  certainly,  than  an  English  shipbuilder  who  sold  vessels,  constructed  in  his 
yard,  which  were  afterwards  dispatched  to  the  coast  of  Africa." 

We  shall  not  add  a  word  to  the  authority  of  these  high  names.  Their  decisions 
need  no  commentary  from  us. 


PART  V. — WHAT  THE  UNITED  STATES  HAVE  DONE  TO  PUT  DOWN  THE 
SLAVE  TRADE — THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  PERSISTENCE  IN  THE  RIGHT 
OF  SEARCH  BY  ENGLAND. 

Keeping  in  view  the  preceding  course  of  discussion,  it  is  obvious  that,  upon  the 
principle?  heretofore  received  among  mankind,  if  the  United  States  should  peremp 
torily  refuse  all  co-operation  in  any  effort  to  put  down  the  slave  trade,  they  would 


426  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

be  responsible  only  to  the  public  opinion  of  the  nations,  and  to  Him  by  whom  nations 
rise  and  fall.  "  It  would  be  but  the  consequence,"  says  the  London  Sun, li  of  our  for 
mer  proceedings,  which  have  made  it  impossible  for  the  Americans  to  admit  the  claim. 
By  committing  injustice  on  our  own  people,  we  have  bred  up  our  officers  to  arbi 
trary  habits,  which  have  made  them  arbitrary  to  other  nations,  and  the  consequen 
ces  debar  England  from  following  out  her  humane  wishes  to  suppress  the  slave  trade." 
But  the  United  States  refuse  no  such  co-operation.  They  have  interdicted,  as  we 
have  seen,  this  trade  to  their  citizens,  and  have  provided  exemplary  punishments 
for  the  transgressors.  They  have,  for  many  years,  kept  a  squadron  upon  the  coast 
of  Africa,  to  aid  in  its  suppression,  and  they  are  now  making  arrangements  for  its 
augmentation.  We  do  not  affect  to  deny  that  a  general  right  of  search  would  assist 
the  objects  which  all  Christian  powers  are  seeking  to  attain.  It  would  be  an  addi 
tional  means  of  detection.  But  such  a  right  is  not  at  all  indispensable  to  success. 
Much  has  already  been  done,  and  the  work  is  going  on  now.  It  would  be  greatly 
promoted  if  the  markets,  in  countries  to  which  slaves  are  yet  transported,  were 
closed  to  this  traffic.  If  these  unhappy  victims  of  lawless  violence  could  not  be  sold, 
they  would  not  be  bought.  Let  a  general  effort  be  made  with  the  Spanish,  Portu 
guese,  and  Brazilian  governments,  to  induce  them  to  act  vigorously  in  this  matter, 
by  judicious  municipal  regulations  faithfully  executed,  and  a  powerful  means  of 
success  will  be  put  in  motion,  without  "  breaking  down  the  great  principles  which 
now  stand  in  its  way." 

That  the  efforts  to  suppress  the  slave  trade  may  be  rendered,  without  the  adop 
tion  of  this  obnoxious  measure,  is  evident,  from  a  suggestion  in  a  London  journal, 
which,  with  just  feeling,  seeks  to  avert  the  impending  consequences  of  this  claim  of 
search.  This  journal  proposes  that  an  officer  of  the  British  and  American  navies 
shall  reciprocally  sail  in  one  of  the  cruisers  of  the  respective  nations,  and  that  such 
officer  shall  exercise  the  right  of  search,  in  the  vessels  of  his  own  country,  thus 
ascertaining  their  character  and  objects,  and  seizing  them,  when  guilty,  without  any 
violation  of  the  rights  of  sovereignty.  We  do  not  stop  to  examine  this  proposition; 
we  merely  allude  to  it  to  show,  that  in  a  spirit  of  accommodation,  means  may  be 
found  to  reconcile  all  avowed  objects  with  national  dignity  and  independence.  Such 
a  plan  would  possess  one  advantage.  It  would  be  truly  reciprocal ;  whereas  the 
proffered  power  to  search  is  but  the  mockery  of  a  reciprocity  toward  the  United 
States,  Avhose  institutions  never  will  permit  impressment  as  a  means  of  manning 
their  navy.  While,  therefore,  the  British  officer  enters  to  search  and  impress,  and 
the  American  officer  enters  to  search,  the  inequality  is  too  glaring  to  need  illus 
tration. 

But,  after  all,  what  kind  of  philanthropy  is  that  which  seeks  not  merely  to  put 
down  the  African  slave  trade,  but  to  put  it  down  by  the  employment  of  one  means 
among  many,  and  which  means,  if  persisted  in  as  threatened,  will  as  surely  involve 
two  great  nations  in  war,  as  to-morrow's  sun  will  rise  upon  both?  And  who  can 
tell  the  issue  of  such  a  war,  not  merely  to  the  parties  themselves,  that  we  shall  not 
touch,  but  to  the  civilized  world?  Who  can  tell  the  questions  of  maritime  right 
which  will  arise  during  its  progress,  and  of  maritime  wrongs  which  will  be  inflicted? 
Who  can  tell  how  soon  its  sphere  will  be  enlarged,  and  the  oppressions  of  Africa  be 
lost  sight  of  in  the  struggles  of  Europe  and  America? 

It  is  strange,  indeed,  but  so  it  is,  that  one  of  the  modes  proposed  for  the  liberation 
of  the  negro  from  the  traffic  of  his  flesh  and  blood,  will  necessarily  lead  to  the 
bondage  of  the  American  seaman ;  where  his  flesh  and  blood  are  not  indeed  sold, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  427 

but  where  they  arc  taken  without  price,  and  may  be  swept  away  by  the  cannon  of 
his  own  country.  "When  they  doubted  they  took  the  trick''  —  words  which  all 
Americans  should  grave  upon  their  hearts.  We  may  safely  appeal  to  any  generous 
Englishman  and  F  renchman,  and  ask  what  would  be  their  sensations  if  told,  yes, 
we  do  seize  i/our  citizens,  we  ivill  seize  them ;  ivhen  we  doubt,  we  ta/ce  the  trick.  Let  each 
answer  for  himself,  and  that  answer  will  disclose  the  feelings  of  the  Americans ;  for 
this  trick  it  is  a  man,  an  American  citizen.  By  and  by,  after  law  shall  have  worked 
its  way  far  enough,  the  trick  may  become  a  French  citizen,  and  what  sort  of  a  struggle 
will  come  when  that  step  is  taken  ? 

But  should  the  United-  States  yield  to  this  claim,  what  security  is  there  for  them, 
or  for  nations  like  them,  interested  in  the  freedom  of  the  seas,  that  it  would  not  be 
followed  by  another  and  another  pretension,  till  the  British  flag  rode  triumphantly 
over  the  waters  of  the  earth  ?  How  far  is  to  be  pushed  this  crusade  of  benevolence, 
which  would  involve  east  and  west  in  one  common  calamity,  in  order  to  attain,  in 
its  own  way,  an  object  which  must  come,  and  that  speedily?  There  are  significant 
signs  abroad  that  this  is  but  the  commencement  of  a  system,  destined  to  a  wide 
extension.  Already  the  project  has  been  publicly  discussed  in  England,  of  putting 
a  stop  to  slavery  by  putting  a  stop  to  the  sale  of  its  products.  It  has  been  sup 
ported  in  the  journals,  and  advocated,  we  believe,  in  Parliament.  The  scheme  has 
not  yet  ripened  into  a  plan.  But  benevolence  is  sometimes  shrewd,  as  well  as  active, 
and  the  proposition,  so  far,  is  merely  to  interdict  the  sale  of  these  products  in  Eng 
land  ;  yet  who  can  tell  how  soon  the  question  may  enter,  in  an  improved  form,  into 
the  maritime  code  of  nations?  It  would  be  but  another  step,  and  though  it  might 
be  accompanied  by  another  struggle,  leading  to  universal  war,  what  cares  the  phi 
lanthropist  for  this  ?  Law  would  work  its  own  ivay.  Slavery  is  wrong  as  well  as  the 
slave  trade.  We  can  not  enter  upon  the  territory  of  another  nation,  to  suppress  it. 
But  we  will  seize  its  products  upon  the  ocean  ;  they  shall  become  contraband  of 
peace  ;  no  cotton,  rice,  coffee,  sugar  nor  tobacco,  not  the  product  of  free  labor, 
shall  be  lawful  freight.  And  thus  the  object  being  just,  the  means  must  be  just  also. 

But  here  we  drop  the  discussion,  leaving  every  reflecting  man  to  draw  his  own 
conclusions.  Most  sincerely  do  we  hope  that  Lord  Ashburton  carries  out,  to  the 
American  government,  some  modified  proposition  it  can  accept.  But  we  freely 
confess,  looking  to  the  pretensions  of  both  parties,  and  knowing  the  feelings  of  our 
countrymen,  that  we  do  not  see  upon  what  middle  ground  they  can  meet.  Our 
fears  are  stronger  than  our  hopes  ;  and  sad  will  be  the  day  when  two  such  nations 
go  to  war.  Even  if  England  were  clearly  right,  as  in  our  opinion  she  is  clearly 
wrong,  she  might  forbear  much,  without  any  imputation  upon  her  honor.  She  has 
won  her  way  to  distinction  by  a  thousand  feats  in  arms,  and,  what  is  her  better  title 
to  renown,  by  countless  feats  in  peace  :  triumphs  of  genius,  of  skill,  of  industry, 
and  of  enterprise,  which  have  gained  her  a  name  that  the  proudest  may  envy,  and 
that  few  can  hope  to  equal.  She  has  given  birth  to  an  empire  in  the  west ;  an 
empire  whose  extent  and  duration  it  passes  human  sagacity  even  to  conjecture. 
There  are  planted  her  laws,  her  language,  her  manners,  her  institutions.  A  thous 
and  ties  of  interest  unite  these  kindred  people.  Let  England  cherish  this  as  her 
most  glorious  work;  but  let  her  recollect,  too,  that  a  spirit  equal  to  her  own  ani 
mates  the  republic,  and,  though  she  may  be  crushed,  she  will  not  be  dishonored. 


428  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTEE  XXVII. 

General  Cass  Protests  to  the  French  Government — Notifies  the  Secretary  of  State — Treaty  not  Ratified 
— His  Course  Approved  by  the  President — The  Protest  to  the  French  Government. 

On  the  fourteenth  of  February,  1842,  General  Cass  left  at  the 
office  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Ids  protest  against  the  proposed  treaty- 
It  was  warmly  approved  by  his  countrymen,  and  the  national 
administration  at  Washington,  although  differing  in  political 
views,  acknowledged  the  eminent  services  rendered  by  him.  It 
is  American  in  tone  and  sentiment,  and  worthy  of  its  author. 
Having  taken  his  stand  before  the  people  of  France,  he  could  do 
no  less  than  place  among  the  archives  of  the  legation  and  of  the 

X  O  O 

French  government,  his  disclaimer  of  the  right  of  Europe  to 
make  the  proposed  combination,  and  his  remonstrance  thereto. 
Although  he  did  not  yet  know  the  views  of  his  government,  he 
felt  that  his  duty  lay  in  this  direction,  and  he  took  the  responsi 
bility  entirely  to  himself.  It  is  too  intimately  connected  with  the 
appeal,  to  be  separated  from  it  in  a  history  of  his  life.  The  two 
go  together,  and  should  be  kept  together,  to  appreciate  truly  his 
position  and  feelings  on  this  occasion. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  February  he  officially  advised  the  Secretary 
of  State  of  his  proceedings,  and  enclosed  copies  of  the  appeal  and 
the  protest,  and  in  this  communication  he  fully  reports  the  pro 
gress  of  this  affair.  He  reminded  the  Secretary  of  State  that  he 
was  in  the  midst  of  stirring  circumstances,  and  could  form  a  safe 

O  j 

judgment  of  the  dangers  which  menaced  the  American  govern 
ment,  and  pressed  upon  the  notice  of  the  Department  the  necessity 
of  instant  and  extensive  arrangements  for  offensive  and  defensive 
war  ;  all  other  questions,  personal,  local,  or  political,  should  give 
way  before  this  paramount  duty;  and  that,  for  aught  he  knew,  a 
hostile  squadron  might  carry  to  the  United  States  the  first  news 
of  war.  He  admitted  that,  perhaps,  his  appeal  to  the  French 
nation  might  not  be  regarded  as  a  very  diplomatic  dispatch.  "  It 
is  not  so,  certainly,  so  far  as  diplomacy  consists  in  mystery,  either 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  429 

of  thought  or  expression,"  said  the  General.  "I  have  felt  strongly, 
and  I  have  attempted  to  speak  plainly.  I  do  not  belong  to  the 
school  of  that  well  known  French  statesman  who  said,  '  that  lan 
guage  was  given  to  conceal  thoughts.'  I  must  claim  your  indul 
gence  for  my  candor,  in  consideration  of  my  motives.  I  see  the 
difficult  position  of  my  country,  and  most  anxious  am  I  that  it 
should  be  seen  and  appreciated  at  home.  That  done,  I  have  no 
fear  for  the  result." 

On  the  thirtieth  of  April  he  apprised  the  Department  that  the 
quintuple  treaty,  purporting  to  be  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade,  had  not  been  ratified  by  France,  and,  from  all  indications, 
he  thought  it  would  not  be,  and  at  the  same  time  intimating  that 
he  had  not  then  heard  from  his  own  government  on  this  subject. 

On  the  seventeenth  of  May,  he  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  Mr. 
Webster's  dispatch,  containing  the  gratifying  information  that  his 
conduct  was  approved;  and  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  May,  he  advised 
the  Department  that  the  treaty  had  been  discussed  in  the  Cham 
ber  of  Peers  and  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  the  sentiments 
expressed  were  unanimously  against  the  measure,  and  that  the 
exciting  subject  was  at  rest. 

"  LEGATION  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES,  \ 
"  PARIS,  February  13th,  1842.      / 

"  Sm  :  The  recent  signature  of  a  treaty,  having  for  its  object  the 
suppression  of  the  African  slave  trade,  by  five  of  the  powers  of 
Europe,  and  to  which  France  is  a  party,  is  a  fact  of  such  general 
notoriety,  that  it  may  be  assumed  as  the  basis  of  any  diplomatic 
representations  which  the  subject  may  fairly  require. 

"  The  United  States,  being  no  party  to  this  treaty,  have  no  right 
to  inquire  into  the  circumstances  which  have  led  to  it,  nor  into 
the  measures  it  proposes  to  adopt,  except  so  far  as  they  have 
reason  to  believe  that  their  rights  may  be  involved  in  the  course 
of  its  execution.  Their  own  desire  to  put  a  stop  to  this  traffic  is 
everywhere  known,  as  well  as  the  early  and  continued  efforts  they 
have  adopted  to  prevent  their  citizens  from  prosecuting  it.  They 
have  been  invited  by  the  government  of  Great  Britain  to  become 
a  party  to  the  treaty,  which  should  regulate  the  action  of  the  com 
bined  governments  upon  the  subject.  But,  for  reasons  satisfactory 
to  themselves,  and  I  believe  satisfactory  to  the  world,  they  have 
declined  this  united  action,  and  have  chosen  to  pursue  their  own 


4-30  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

measures,  and  to  act  upon  their  own  citizens  only,  without  subject- 
ing  these  to  any  kind  of  foreign  jurisdiction. 

"  In  a  communication  from  Lord  Palmerston.  her  Britannic 
Majesty's  principal  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  to  Mr. 
Stevenson,  the  American  Minister  at  London,  dated  twenty-sev 
enth  August,  1841,  Lord  Palmerston  claims  a  right  for  the  British 
cruisers,  and  avows  the  intention  of  his  government  to  exercise  it, 
to  search  American  vessels  at  sea  in  time  of  peace,  with  a  view  to 
ascertain  their  national  character.  He  adds,  that  '  this  examina 
tion  of  papers  of  merchantmen  suspected  of  being  engaged  in  the 
slave  trade,  even  though  they  hoist  the  United  States  flag,  is  a 
proceeding  which  is  absolutely  necessary  that  British  cruisers, 
employed  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  should  continue 
to  practice,1  &c.,  &c. 

u  In  a  communication  from  the  successor  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  to 
Mr.  Stevenson,  dated  October  13th,  1811,  the  views  and  determi 
nation  announced  in  the  first  are  confirmed  ;  and  Lord  Aberdeen 
thus  states  the  ground  upon  which  rests  this  pretension  to  search 
American  vessels  in  time  of  peace  :  '  But  the  undersigned  must 
observe  that  the  present  happy  concurrence  of  the  states  of  Christ 
endom  in  this  great  object,  (the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,) 
not  merely  justifies,  but  renders  indispensable,  the  right  now 
claimed  and  exercised  by  the  British  government.'  That  is  to 
say,  the  right  of  entering  and  examining  American  vessels,  to 
ascertain  their  nationality. 

"  It  is  no  part  of  rny  duty  to  offer  any  comments  upon  this  pre 
tension,  nor  upon  the  reasons  advanced  in  support  of  it.  And  if 
it  were,  I  should  find  the  duty  far  better  performed  for  me  than  I 
could  perform  it  for  myself,  in  the  annual  message  of  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  to  Congress,  of  December  7th,  1841.  In 
that  document  will  be  found  the  views  of  the  American  govern 
ment  upon  this  subject,  and  it  is  there  emphatically  declared,  that 
'  however  desirous  the  United  States  may  be  for  the  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade,  they  can  not  consent  to  interpolations  into  the 
maritime  code  at  the  mere  will  and  pleasure  of  other  governments. 
AVe  deny  the  right  of  any  such  interpolation  to  any  one  or  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  without  our  consent.  We  claim  to  have  a 
voice  in  all  amendments  or  alterations  of  that  code,  and  when  we 
are  given  to  understand,  as  in  this  instance,  by  a  foreign  govern 
ment,  that  its  treaties  with  other  nations  can  not  be  executed 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  431 

without  the  establishment  and  enforcement  of  new  principles  of 
maritime  police,  to  be  applied  without  our  consent,  we  must  em 
ploy  language  neither  of  equivocal  import  nor  susceptible  of 
misconstruction.' 

"  You  will  perceive,  sir,  by  these  extracts,  that  the  British  gov 
ernment  has  advanced  a  pretension  which  it  asserts  to  be  indis 
pensable  to  the  execution  of  its  treaties  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave  trade,  and  to  which  the  President  of  the  United  States  has 
declared  that  the  American  government  will  not  submit.  This 
claim  of  search,  it  will  be  observed,  arising,  as  is  asserted,  out  of 
existing  obligations,  has  relation  to  the  isolated  treaties  for  the 
abolition  of  this  traffic  which  were  in  force  at  the  date  of  the 
communications  of  Lord  Palmerston  and  of  Lord  Aberdeen.  It 
is  now  known,  that  the  combined  treaty  upon  this  subject  is  more 
extensive  in  its  operations,  and  more  minute  in  some  of  the  details 
of  its  execution,  than  the  separate  treaties  with  France,  which 
preceded  it,  and  equally  indefinite  in  the  duration  of  its  obliga 
tions.  Of  course,  measures  were  not  only  'justifiable,  but  indis 
pensable,'  for  the  execution  of  the  latter  will  find  equal  justice  and 
necessity  in  the  obligations  of  the  former. 

"  With  this  previous  declaration  made  by  one  of  the  parties  to 
this  quintuple  treaty,  concerning  its  operations,  the  American 
government  can  not  shut  their  eyes  to  their  true  position.  The 
moral  effect  which  such  a  union  of  five  great  powers,  two  of  which 
are  eminently  maritime,  but  three  of  which  have  perhaps  never 
had  a  vessel  engaged  in  that  traffic,  is  calculated  to  produce  upon 
the  United  States  and  upon  other  nations,  who,  like  them,  may 
be  indisposed  to  these  combined  movements,  though  it  may  be 
regretted,  yet  furnishes  no  cause  of  complaint.  But  the  subject 
assumes  another  aspect,  when  they  are  told,  by  one  of  the  parties, 
that  their  vessels  are  to  be  forcibly  entered  and  examined,  in  order 
to  carry  into  effect  these  stipulations.  Certainly  the  American 
government  does  not  believe  that  the  high  powers,  contracting 
parties  to  the  treaty,  have  any  wish  to  compel  the  United  States, 
by  force,  to  adapt  their  measures  to  its  provisions,  or  to  adopt  its 
stipulations.  They  have  too  much  confidence  in  their  sense  of 
justice  to  fear  any  such  result,  and  they  will  see  with  pleasure 
the  prompt  disavowal  made  by  yourself,  sir,  in  the  name  of  your 
country,  at  the  tribune  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  of  any  inten 
tions  of  this  nature.  But  were  it  otherwise,  and  were  it  possible 


432  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

they  might  be  deceived  in  this  confident  expectation,  that  would 
not  alter  in  one  tittle  their  course  of  action.  Their  duty  would 
be  the  same,  and  the  same  would  be  their  determination  to  fulfill 
it.  They  would  prepare  themselves  with  apprehension,  indeed, 
but  without  dismay  ;  with  regret,  but  with  firmness  ;  for  one  of 
those  desperate  struggles  which  have  sometimes  occurred  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  but  where  a  just  cause  and  the  favor  of  Prov 
idence  have  given  strength  to  comparative  weakness,  and  enabled 
it  to  break  down  the  pride  of  power. 

u  But  I  have  already  said  that  the  United  States  do  not  fear 
that  any  such  united  attempt  will  be  made  upon  their  independ 
ence.  What,  however,  they  may  reasonably  fear,  and  what  they 
do  fear,  is,  that  in  the  execution  of  this  treaty,  measures  will  be 
taken  which  they  must  resist.  How  far  the  act  of  one  of  the  par 
ties  putting  its  construction  upon  its  own  duties,  and  upon  the 
obligations  of  its  co-contractors,  may  involve  these  in  any  unlooked- 
for  consequences,  either  by  the  adoption  of  similar  measures,  or 
by  their  rejection,  I  do  not  presume  to  judge.  Certain  it  is,  how 
ever,  that  if  the  fact,  and  the  principle  advanced  by  Lord  Aber 
deen,  are  correct,  that  these  treaties  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade  can  not  be  executed  without  forcibly  boarding  American 
ships  at  sea  in  time  of  peace,  and  that  the  obligations  created  by 
them  confer  not  only  the  right  thus  to  violate  the  American  flag, 
but  make  this  measure  a  duty,  then  it  is  also  the  duty  of  France  to 
pursue  the  same  course.  Should  she  put  this  construction  upon 
her  obligations,  it  is  obvious  the  United  States  must  do  to  her  as 
they  will  do  to  England,  if  she  persist  in  this  attack  upon  their 
independence.  Should  she  not,  it  does  not  become  me  to  inves 
tigate  the  nature  of  her  position  WTith  respect  to  one  of  her  asso 
ciates,  whose  opinion  respecting  their  relative  duties  would  be  so 
widely  different  from  her  own.  But  I  may  express  the  hope  that 
the  government  of  his  Majesty,  before  ratifying  this  treaty,  will 
examine  maturely  the  pretensions  asserted  by  one  of  the  parties, 
and  see  how  these  can  be  reconciled,  not  only  with  the  honor  and 
interest  of  the  United  States,  but  with  the  received  principles  of 
the  great  maritime  code  of  nations.  I  may  make  this  appeal  with 
the  more  confidence,  from  the  relations  subsisting  between  France 
and  the  United  States,  from  a  community  of  interest  in  the  liberty 
of  the  seas,  from  a  community  of  opinion  respecting  the  principles 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  433 

which  guard  it,  and  from  a  community  in  danger,  should  it  ever 
be  menaced  by  the  ambition  of  any  maritime  power. 

"It  appears  to  me,  sir,  that,  in  asking  the  attention  of  his  Maj 
esty's  government  to  the  subject  of  the  quintuple  treaty,  with  a 
view  to  its  reconsideration,  I  am  requesting  nothing,  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States,  inconsistent  with  the  duties  of  France  to 
other  powders.  If,  during  the  course  of  the  discussion  upon  this 
treaty,  preparatory  to  the  arrangement  of  its  provisions,  England 
had  asserted  to  the  other  parties  the  pretension  she  now  asserts  to 
the  United  States,  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  its  obligations,  I 
can  not  be  wrong  in  presuming  that  France  would  not  have  signed 
it  without  guarding  against  this  impending  difficulty.  The  views 
of  England  are  now  disclosed  to  you,  but,  fortunately,  before  its 
ratification.  And  this  change  of  circumstance  may  well  justify 
the  French  government  in  interposing  such  a  remedy  as  it  may 
think  is  demanded  by  the  grave  interest  involved  in  this  question. 

"  As  to  the  treaties  of  1831  and  1833,  between  France  and  Great 
Britain,  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  I  do  not  consider  it 
my  duty  to  advert  to  their  stipulations.  Their  obligations  upon 
t\\Q  contracting  parties,  whatever  these  may  be,  are  now  complete  ; 
and  it  is  for  my  government  alone  to  determine  what  measures 
the  United  States  ought  to  take  to  avert  the  consequences  with 
which  they  are  now  threatened,  by  the  construction  which  one  of 
the  parties  has  given  to  these  instruments. 

UI  have  the  honor  to  transmit,  herewith,  a  copy  of  the  message 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  Congress,  in  December 
last,  and  of  the  annual  documents  which  accompanied  it.  Among 
the  latter  will  be  found  the  correspondence  between  the  British 
Secretaries  of  State  and  Mr.  Stevenson,  upon  the  subject  herein 
referred  to.  From  these  you  will  learn  the  respective  views  of 
the  American  and  British  governments. 

;clt  is  proper  for  me  to  add,  that  this  communication  has  been 
made  without  any  instruction  from  the  United  States.  I  have 
considered  this  case  as  one  in  which  an  American  representative 
to  a  foreign  power  should  act,  without  awaiting  the  orders  of  his 
government.  I  have  presumed,  in  the  views  I  have  submitted  to 
you,  that  I  express  the  feelings  of  the  American  government  and 
people.  If,  in  this,  I  have  deceived  myself,  the  responsibility  will 
be  mine.  As  soon  as  I  can  receive  dispatches  from  the  United 
28 


434  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

States,  in  answer  to  my  communications,  I  shall  be  enabled  to 
declare  to  you  either  that  my  conduct  has  been  approved  by  the 
President,  or  that  my  mission  is  terminated. 

"  I  avail  myself,  &c., 

"LEWIS  CASS. 
"  His  Excellency  M.  GUIZOT, 

<;  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs." 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  435 


CHAPTER  XXVIH. 

Disappointment  of  England — The  Washington  Treaty — General  Cass  resigns  his  Mission — The  Corres 
pondence — England's  Construction  of  the  Treaty. 

The  British  government,  having  failed  to  secure  the  approval 
of  its  scheme  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  was  anxious  to  retreat 
with  some  appearance  of  honor  ;  and  disdaining  to  appear  before 
the  world  as  entirely  unsuccessful  in  her  project,  coupled  with  the 
wish  to  impress  the  other  great  powers  with  her  sincerity  and 
laudable  motives  in  suggesting  the  quintuple  treaty,  sought  an 
opportunity  to  open  a  negotiation  relative  to  the  slave  trade  with 
the  United  States.  With  this  view,  Lord  Ashburton  was  sent  as 
a  special  ambassador  to  Washington,  clad  with  authority  to  adjust 
and  definitely  settle  all  matters  of  difference  between  the  two 
countries. 

The  negotiation  was  opened  between  his  lordship  and  Mr.  Web 
ster,  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  a  treaty  concluded.  Mr.  Webster, 
in  communicating  this  treaty  to  General  Cass,  in  France,  called 
his  attention  particularly  to  the  clauses  relating  to  the  suppression 
of  the  African  slave  trade.  The  provisions  of  the  treaty,  in  rela 
tion  to  this  branch  of  the  negotiation,  did  not  meet  with  the  views 
of  General  Cass.  He  considered  the  omission  to  procure  a  renun 
ciation  of  the  offensive  claim  of  England  to  the  right  of  search, 
while  engaged  on  this  very  subject,  placed  him  in  a  false  position, 
arid  rendered  his  situation,  as  Minister  to  France,  unpleasant. 

With  powers  of  mind  which  grasp,  as  it  were,  by  intuition,  every 
subject  to  which  they  are  applied,  united  to  various  and  extensive 
acquirements,  he  had  exposed  the  mischief  that  lurked  in  the 
quintuple  treaty  ;  he  had  shown  that  the  whole  eastern  coast  of 
America,  south  of  the  thirty-second  degree  of  north  latitude,  came 
within  its  gigantic  sweep.  No  vessel  of  the  contracting  parties 
could  ever  have  been  approaching  New  York,  Boston,  Philadel 
phia,  or  Charleston,  with  a  cargo  from  any  part  of  the  world,  south 
of  Savannah,  without  risk  of  being  searched  for  slaves  by  British 
cruisers,  the  voyage  stopped,  and  the  vessel  ordered  to  some  British 


436  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Court  of  Admiralty  for  adjudication.  Almost  beyond  credibility, 
yet  the  words  of  the  treaty  prove  it.  The  space  for  British  search 
comprehended  more  than  seventy  degrees  of  latitude.  Nay  ;  it 
might  have  been  exercised  upon  all  the  vessels  going  to  or  from 
New  Orleans,  in  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  What  a  blow 
to  commercial  pursuits  was  happily  warded  off  by  the  bold  and 
unprecedented  movement  of  General  Cass  !  lie,  by  the  stroke  of 
his  pen,  as  it  were,  foreclosed  British  supremacy  on  the  high  seas, 
and  barred  the  door  against  her  fanaticism  there,  that  she  might 
do  her  work  more  thoroughly  and  quickly  on  the  land.  He  thus 
exposed  himself  to  the  wildest  anti-slavery  fanaticism  of  England, 
in  the  enlightened  and  fearless  vindication  of  the  rights  of  his 
country,  and  was  showered  with  calumnies  by  the  tory  press  of 
Britain  and  defamatory  peers  in  Parliament.  Lord  Brougham 
was  mad  with  rage  at  the  defeat  of  this  portentous  treaty  by  the 
talents,  sagacity,  and  patriotism  of  General  Cass.  He  thundered 
from  the  tory  benches,  and  exhausted  the  vocabularies  of  Johnson 
and  Walker.  And  notwithstanding  the  American  Minister  had 
thus  successfully  performed  his  duty  as  an  American  Minister 
should  have  done,  and  that,  too,  without  feeling,  at  the  time,  that 
any  very  especial  credit  was  due  to  his  patriotism,  and  was  thus 
exposed  to  the  growl  and  roar  of  the  British  lion,  still,  it  turned 
out,  in  the  sequel,  that  he  was  not  to  escape  indignity  and  injustice 
from  his  own  government,  in  the  person  of  Daniel  Webster,  the 
Secretary  of  State.  The  proof  is  on  record,  or  we  might  want 
faith  in  such  a  charge.  It  is  contained  in  the  correspondence 
between  Mr.  Webster  and  himself,  transpiring  after  his  return 
from  France ;  but  never  was  retribution  sooner  brought  about,  as 
far  as  the  parties  were  concerned,  and  his  own  victory  over  Mr. 
Webster  was  complete.  No  two  judgments  can  differ  about  this. 
The  necessity  that  created  this  correspondence  was  the  more  pain 
ful  to  General  Cass,  because  they  were  classmates  in  youth  at 
Exeter,  and  always  retaining  for  each  other  sentiments  of  respect 
and  friendship  ;  indeed,  each  wishing  for  the  other  a  prosperous 
voyage  through  life.  Years  afterwards,  in  personal  intercourse, 
General  Cass,  from  some  remarks  made  by  Mr.  Webster,  was  led 
to  doubt  whether  the  latter  did  not,  in  all  this  matter,  act  from  the 
promptings  of  others.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  cordial  intimacy  be 
tween  them  was  re-established,  and  continued  unbroken  to  the 
day  of  Mr.  W.'s  death  ;  and  the  eulogy  pronounced  by  General 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  437 

Cass  in  the  Senate,  upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster,  evidences  the 
warm  personal  sentiments  he  entertained  towards  him.  The  flame 
that  illumined  the  matchless  intellect  of  the  one,  is  already  extin 
guished  in  the  silence  of  death  ;  and  that  of  the  other,  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  nature,  must,  ere  long,  partake  of  the  same 
destiny.  And  were  it  not  necessary  to  a  just  appreciation  of  Gen 
eral  Cass'  position  and  subsequent  action  relative  to  the  Ashburton 
treaty,  so  called,  the  following  letters  would  be  omitted.  As  it  is, 
we  reproduce  them.  There  would  be  a  hiatus  without  them. 

[Mr.  Cass  to  Mr.  Webster.] 

"LEGATION  or  THE  UNITED  STATES,") 
"PARIS,  October  3d.  1842.         j 

"  SIR: — The  last  packet  brought  me  your  letter  of  August  29th, 
announcing  the  conclusion  of  a  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  and 
accompanied  by  a  copy  of  it,  and  of  the  correspondence  between 
the  ministers  charged  with  the  negotiations,  and  directing  me  to 
make  known  to  Mr.  Guizot  the  sentiments  of  the  American  gov 
ernment  upon  that  part  of  the  treaty  which  provides  for  the  co 
operation  of  the  United  States  in  the  efforts  making  to  suppress 
the  African  slave  trade.  I  thought  I  should  best  fulfill  your 
intentions  by  communicating  a  copy,  in  extenso,  of  your  letter. 
This  I  accordingly  did  yesterday.  I  trust  I  shall  be  able,  before 
my  departure,  to  transmit  to  you  the  acknowledgment  of  its  receipt 
by  Mr.  Guizot. 

"  In  executing  this  duty,  I  felt  too  well  what  was  due  to  my 
government  and  country  to  intimate  any  regret  to  a  foreign  power 
that  some  declaration  had  not  preceded  the  treaty,  or  some  stipu 
lation  accompanied  it,  by  which  the  extraordinary  pretension  of 
Great  Britain,  to  search  our  ships  at  all  times  and  in  all  places, 
first  put  forth  to  the  world  by  Lord  Palmerston  the  27th  of  August, 
1841,  and  on  the  13th  October  following  again  peremptorily 
claimed  as  a  right  by  Lord  Aberdeen,  would  have  been  abrogated 
as  equally  incompatible  with  the  laws  of  nations,  and  with  the 
independence  of  the  United  States.  I  confined  myself,  therefore, 
to  a  simple  communication  of  your  letter. 

"  But  this  reserve  ceases  when  I  address  my  own  government, 
and  connected  as  I  feel  my  official  conduct  and  reputation  with 
this  question  of  the  right  of  search.  I  am  sure  I  shall  find  an 
excuse  for  what  might  otherwise  be  considered  presumption,  if,  as 
one  of  the  last  acts  of  my  official  career,  I  submit  to  you,  and 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

through  you  to  the  President,  the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which 
I  am  placed  by  the  conclusion  of  this  treaty,  and  by  the  commu 
nication  of  your  letter  to  Mr.  Guizot. 

"  Before  proceeding  further,  permit  me  to  remark  that  no  one 
rejoices  more  sincerely  than  I  do  at  the  termination  of  our  diffi 
culties  with  Great  Britain,  so  far  as  they  are  terminated.  That 
country  and  oars  have  so  many  moral  and  material  interests 
involved  in  their  intercourse,  that  their  respective  governments 
and  inhabitants  may  \vell  feel  more  than  ordinary  solicitude  for 
the  preservation  of  peace  between  these  two  great  nations.  Our 
past  history,  however,  will  be  unprofitable,  if  it  do  not  teach  us 
that  unjust  pretensions,  affecting  our  rights  and  honor,  are  best 
met  by  being  promptly  repelled  when  first  urged,  and  by  being 
received  in  a  spirit  of  resistance,  worthy  the  character  of  our 
people,  and  of  the  great  trust  confided  to  us  as  the  depositories 
of  the  freest  system  of  government  which  the  world  has  yet 
witnessed. 

"I  had  the  honor,  in  my  letter  of  the  17th  ultimo,  to  solicit 
permission  to  return  to  the  United  States.  That  letter  was  written 
the  day  a  copy  of  the  treaty  reached  Paris  ;  and  the  remark  which 
I  then  made  to  you,  that  '  I  could  no  longer  be  useful  here,'  has 
been  confirmed  by  subsequent  reflection,  and  by  the  receipt  of 
your  letter,  and  of  the  correspondence  accompanying  it.  I  feel 
that  I  could  no  longer  remain  here  honorably  for  myself,  or 
advantageously  for  our  country. 

"In  my  letter  to  you,  of  the  15th  February  last,  transmitting  a 
copy  of  my  protest  against  the  ratification  of  the  quintuple  treaty 
for  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave  trade,  I  took  the  liberty 
of  suggesting  the  propriety  of  demanding  from  Lord  Ashburton, 
previously  to  entering  into  any  negotiation,  a  distinct  renunciation 
of  this  claim  to  search  our  vessels.  I  thought  then,  as  I  do  now, 
that  this  course  was  demanded  by  a  just  self-respect,  and  wxmld 
be  supported  by  that  tribunal  of  public  opinion  which  sustains 
our  government  when  right,  and  corrects  it  when  wrong.  The 
pretension  itself  was  one  of  the  most  flagrant  outrages  which 
could  be  aimed  at  an  independent  nation  ;  and  the  mode  of  its 
enunciation  was  as  coolly  contemptuous  as  diplomatic  ingenuity 
could  suggest.  We  were  told  that  to  the  doctrine  that  American 
vessels  were  free  from  the  search  of  foreign  cruisers  in  time  of 
peace,  '  the  British  government  never  could  or  would  subscribe  ; ' 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  439 

and  we  were  told,  too,  there  was  reason  to  expect  that  the  United 
States  would  themselves  become  converts  to  the  same  opinion  ; 
and  this  expectation  was  founded  on  the  hope  that  '  they  would 
cease  to  confound  two  things  which  are  in  their  nature  entirely 
different,  and  would  look  to  things  and  not  to  words.'  And  the 
very  concluding  paragraph  of  the  British  correspondence  tells 
us,  in  effect,  that,  take  whatever  course  we  may  please,  England 
will  adhere  to  this  pretension  to  board  our  vessels  when  and  where 
her  cruisers  may  find  them.  A  portion  of  this  paragraph  is 
equally  significant  and  unceremonious.  '  It  is  for  the  American 
government,'  says  Lord  Aberdeen,  '  alone  to  determine  what  may 
be  due  to  a  just  regard  for  their  national  dignity  and  national 
independence.'  I  doubt  if,  in  the  wide  range  of  modern  diplomacy, 
a  more  obnoxious  claim  has  been  urged  in  a  more  obnoxious 
manner. 

"This  claim,  thus  asserted  and  supported,  was  promptly  met 
and  firmly  repelled  by  the  President,  in  his  message  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  ;  and  in  your  letter  to 
me,  approving  the  course  I  had  adopted  in  relation  to  the  ques 
tion  of  the  ratification  by  France  of  the  quintuple  treaty,  you 
consider  the  principles  of  that  message  as  the  established  policy 
of  the  government.  Under  these  circumstances  of  the  assertion 
and  denial  of  this  new  claim  of  maritime  police,  the  eyes  of 
Europe  were  upon  these  two  great  naval  powers,  one  of  which  had 
advanced  a  pretension,  and  avowed  her  determination  to  enforce 
it,  which  might  at  any  moment  bring  them  into  collision.  So  far 
our  national  dignity  was  uncompromised. 

"  But  England  then  urged  the  United  States  to  enter  into  a 
conventional  arrangement  by  which  we  might  be  pledged  to  concur 
with  her  in  measures  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade.  Till 
then  wre  had  executed  our  own  laws  in  our  own  way.  But  yield 
ing  to  this  application,  and  departing  from  our  former  principle  of 
avoiding  European  combinations  upon  subjects  not  American,  we 
stipulated,  in  a  solemn  treaty,  that  we  would  carry  into  effect  our 
own  laws,  and  fixed  the  minimum  force  we  would  employ  for  that 
purpose.  Certainly,  a  laudable  desire  to  terminate  this  horrible 
man-stealing  and  man-selling,  may  well  justify  us  in  going  further 
in  changing  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  policy,  in 
order  to  effect  this  object,  than  we  would  go  to  effect  any  other. 
It  is  so  much  more  a  question  of  feeling  than  of  reasoning,  that 


44:0  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

we  can  hardly  be  wrong  in  yielding  to  that  impulse  which  leads 
us  to  desire  to  unite  our  efforts  with  those  of  other  nations  for  the 
protection  of  the  most  sacred  human  rights.  But  while  making 
so  important  a  concession  to  the  renewed  application  of  England, 
it  seems  to  me  we  might  well  have  said  to  her,  before  we  treat 
upon  this  matter,  there  is  a  preliminary  question  connected  with 
it  which  must  be  settled.  We  will  do  no  act  which  may  by  any 
possibility  appear  to  be  a  recognition  of  your  claim  to  search  our 
vessels.  That  claim  has  arisen  out  of  this  very  subject,  or,  at  any 
rate,  this  subject  has  been  the  pretext  for  its  assertion ;  and  if  WQ 
now  negotiate  upon  it,  and  our  concurrence  is  yielded,  you  must 
relinquish  as  solemnly  as  you  have  announced  this  most  offensive 
pretension.  If  this  is  not  done  by  now  making  a  conventional 
arrangement  with  you,  and  leaving  you  free  to  take  your  own 
course,  we  shall,  in  effect,  abandon  the  ground  we  have  assumed, 
and  with  it  our  rights  and  honor. 

"  In  carefully  looking  at  the  seventh  and  eighth  articles  of  the 
treaty  for  our  co-operation  in  the  measures  for  the  suppression  of 
this  traffic,  I  do  not  see  that  they  can  change,  in  the  slightest  de 
gree,  the  pre-existing  right  claimed  by  Great  Britain  to  arrest  and 
search  our  vessels.  That  claim,  as  advanced  both  by  Lord  Pal- 
merston  and  Lord  Aberdeen,  rested  on  the  assumption  that  the 
treaties  between  England  and  other  European  powers  upon  this 
subject  could  not  be  executed  without  its  exercise,  and  that  th& 
happy  concurrence  of  these  powers  not  only  justified  this  exercise, 
but  rendered  it  indispensable.  By  the  recent  treaty  we  are  to  keep 
a  squadron  upon  the  coast  of  Africa.  We  have  kept  one  there  for 
years — during  the  whole  time,  indeed,  of  these  efforts  to  put  a  stop 
to  this  most  iniquitous  commerce.  The  effect  of  this  treaty  is, 
therefore,  to  render  it  obligatory  upon  us,  by  a  convention,  to  do 
what  we  have  long  done  voluntarily — to  place  our  municipal  laws, 
in  some  measure,  beyond  the  reach  of  Congress,  and  to  increase 
the  strength  of  the  squadron  employed  on  this  duty.  But  if  a 
British  cruiser  meet  a  vessel  bearing  the  American  flair,  where 

O  c5  / 

there  is  no  American  ship-of-war  to  examine  her,  it  is  obvious  that 
it  is  quite  as  indispensable  and  justifiable,  that  the  cruiser  should 
search  this  vessel  to  ascertain  her  nationality,  since  the  conclusion 
of  the  treaty,  as  it  was  before.  The  mutual  rights  of  the  parties 
are  in  this  respect  wholly  untouched,  their  pretensions  exist  in  full 
force  ;  and  what  they  could  do  prior  to  this  arrangement  they 


OF  LEWIS  CASS. 

may  now  do  ;  for  though  they  have  respectively  sanctioned  the 
employment  of  a  force  to  give  effect  '  to  the  laws,  rights  and 
obligations  of  the  two  countries,'  yet  they  have  not  prohibited 
the  use  of  any  other  measure  which  either  party  may  be  disposed 
to  adopt. 

"  It  is  unnecessary  to  push  these  considerations  further  ;  and  in 
carrying  them  thus  far,  I  have  found  the  task  an  unpleasant  one. 
Nothing  but  justice  to  myself  could  have  induced  me  to  do  it.  I 
could  not  clearly  explain  my  position  here  without  this  recapitu 
lation.  My  protest  of  the  13th  February  distinctly  asserted  that 
the  United  States  would  resist  the  pretensions  of  England  to  search 
our  vessels.  I  avowed,  at  the  same  time,  that  this  was  but  my 
personal  declaration,  liable  to  be  confirmed  or  disavowed  by  my 
government.  I  now  find  a  treaty  has  been  concluded  with  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  which  provides  for  the  co-operation 
of  the  latter  in  efforts  to  abolish  the  slave  trade,  but  which  con 
tains  no  renunciation  by  the  former  of  the  extraordinary  preten 
sion,  resulting,  as  she  said,  from  the  exigencies  of  these  very 
efforts  ;  and  which  pretension  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  denounce  to  the 
French  government.  In  all  this  I  presume  to  offer  no  further 
judgment  than  as  I  am  personally  affected  by  the  course  of  the  pro 
ceedings  ;  and  I  feel  they  have  placed  me  in  a  false  position, 
whence  I  can  escape  but  by  returning  home  with  the  least  possi 
ble  delay.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  the  President  will  have  felt  no 
hesitation  in  granting  me  the  permission  which  I  asked  for. 

"I  am,  &c., 

"LEWIS  CASS. 

"DANIEL  WEBSTER, 

"  Secretary  of  State,  Washington.'' 

General  Cass,  upon  the  receipt  of  the  first  intelligence  ot 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty  made  at  Washington  with  Great 
Britain,  resigned  his  mission,  and  in  a  dispatch  under  date 
of  September  17th,  1842,  requested  the  President's  permission  to 
return  home,  and  apprised  the  Secretary  of  State  that  his  inten 
tion  was  to  be  ready  to  embark  for  the  United  States  on  the 
nineteenth  of  November  following.  The  President,  acknowledging 
the  loss  to  this  country,  by  the  withdrawal  of  General  Cass  from 
the  French  court,  reluctantly  gave  his  consent. 

Mr.  Webster,  under  date  of  November  14tb,  replied  to  the 
above  letter  of  General  Cass,  but  the  same  did  not  reach  him  at 


442  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Paris.  Upon  reaching  New  York,  a  duplicate  was  delivered  to 
him,  and  from  the  latter  city  he  immediately  addressed  to  Mr. 
Webster  the  following  rejoinder. 

[Mr.  Cass  to  Mr.  Webster.] 

NEW  YORK,  December  lltli,  1842. 

"  Sm. — Upon  my  arrival  here  yesterday,  the  duplicate  of  your 
letter  of  November  14th  was  delivered  to  me.  I  embrace  the  first 
moment  in  my  power  to  acknowledge  its  receipt. 

"  I  am  too  well  aware  of  what  is  due  from  me  to  the  government 
to  renew,  or  unnecessarily  to  prolong,  the  discussion  of  the  sub 
ject  contained  in  my  letter  of  October  3d.  In  submitting  to  you 
the  views  I  entertained,  I  fulfilled  a  duty  which,  in  my  opinion, 
circumstances  imposed  upon  me.  But  I  should  consider  myself 
obnoxious  to  the  censure  of  improper  interference,  with  which  you 
have  not  sparingly  reproached  me,  but  from  which  I  trust  I  shall 
satisfy  you  I  am  free,  did  I  seek  to  make  my  correspondence  with 
the  department  the  vehicle  for  obtruding  my  sentiments  upon  the 
government.  Still,  I  am  anxious  not  to  be  misunderstood,  and 
more  especially  since  you  give  me  to  understand  that  the  commu 
nications  which  have  passed  between  us  upon  this  subject  are  to 
be  published,  and  thus  submitted  to  the  great  tribunal  of  public 
opinion,  which  will  be  called  upon  to  decide  respecting  the  course 
I  have  deemed  it  necessary  to  adopt,  as  well  as  the  manner  in 
which  I  have  fulfilled  this  task.  And  as  you  have  in  several  in 
stances  misapprehended  my  views,  and  adopting  your  reasoning 
to  your  constructions  rather  than  to  my  sentiments,  and  as  I  have 
full  confidence  in  your  desire  to  do  me  justice,  I  must  beg  leave 
briefly  to  lay  before  you  such  considerations  connected  with  my 
letter,  r.nd  your  comments  upon  it,  as  are  essential  to  a  correct 
judgment  between  us.  And  first,  with  respect  to  the  procedure 
on  my  part. 

"  You  object  to  my  whole  course  of  action  in  this  matter, 
because  it  appears  to  you  to  be  intended  as  a  sort  of  protest 
or  remonstrance  against  a  transaction  of  the  government,  &c. 

"  I  have  been  very  unhappy  in  the  mode  in  which  I  have 
expressed  myself,  if  I  am  justly  liable  to  this  charge.  My  letter 
is  not  a  protest  or  a  remonstrance.  It  is  a  simple  answer  to  a 
dispatch  which  I  had  the  honor  to  receive  from  you.  In  your 
letter  of  August  29th,  you  communicated  to  me  the  views  of  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS. 

President  in  relation  to  the  treaty  then  recently  concluded  with 
England,  and  you  also  authorized  me  to  make  known  these  views 
to  the  French  government.  This  I  did,  both  in  conversation  and 
in  writing.  Here  was  a  dispatch  requiring  my  action,  and  which 
received  it  in  good  faith.  But  I  did  not  coincide  with  you  in 
opinion,  respecting  an  important  bearing  of  the  treaty.  I  thought 
it  left  us  in  a  worse  position  than  it  found  us  ;  and  so  thinking,  I 
deemed  it  my  right  and  felt  it  my  duty  to  lay  before  you  the  im 
pression  which  the  whole  matter  had  left  upon  my  mind.  I  did 
so,  and  the  result  is  before  you.  Under  these  circumstances  was 
I  guilty  of  indiscretion  or  of  an  impertinent  interference  still  more 
offensive,  which  it  seems  to  me  from  the  tone  of  your  letter  is  the 
construction  you  put  upon  my  action  ? 

"  This  question  will,  perhaps,  be  but  answered  by  another.  Is  it 
a  duty  of  a  diplomatic  agent  to  receive  all  the  communications  of 
his  government,  and  to  cany  into  effect  their  instructions  sul> 
silentio,  whatever  may  be  his  own  sentiments  in  relation  to  them  ? 
Or,  is  he  not  bound  as  a  faithful  representative  to  communicate 
freely,  but  respectfully,  his  own  views,  that  these  may  be  consid 
ered  and  receive  their  due  weight  in  that  particular  case,  or  in 
other  circumstances  involving  similar  considerations  ?  It  seems 
to  me  that  the  bare  enunciation  of  this  principle  is  all  that 
is  necessary  for  my  justification.  I  am  speaking  now  of  the  pro 
priety  of  my  action,  not  of  the  manner  in  which  it  was  performed. 
I  may  have  executed  the  task  well  or  ill ;  I  may  have  introduced 
topics  unadvisedly,  and  urged  them  indiscreetly.  All  this  I  leave 
without  remark.  I  am  only  endeavoring  here  to  free  myself  from 
the  serious  charge  which  you  bring  against  me.  If  I  have  mis 
apprehended  the  duties  of  an  American  diplomatic  agent  upon 
this  subject,  I  am  well  satisfied  to  have  withdrawn,  by  a  timely 
resignation,  from  a  position  in  which  my  own  self-respect  would 
not  permit  me  to  remain.  And  I  may  express  the  conviction  that 
there  is  no  government, — certainly  none  this  side  of  Constanti 
nople — which  would  not  encourage,  rather  than  rebuke,  the  free 
expression  of  the  views  of  their  representatives  in  foreign  countries. 
But,  independently  of  this  general  objection  to  all  action  on  my 
part,  you  present  another,  perhaps  still  more  formidable,  but 
which  is  applicable  only  to  the  circumstances  of  this  case.  With 
out  repeating  in  full  the  view  you  urge  upon  this  part  of  the 
subject,  I  shall  condense  the  objection  into  the  proposition  that 


444  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  expression  of  my  sentiments  to  the  government  upon  this 
occasion  might  induce  England  hereafter  '  to  rely  upon  my 
authority  for  a  construction  favorable  to  her  own  pretensions,  and 
inconsistent  with  the  interest  and  honor  of  the  United  States.' 

"In  the  first  place,  I  would  remark  that  I  have  written  for  my 
own  government,  and  not  for  that  of  England.  The  publication 
of  my  letter  which  is  to  produce  this  result,  is  to  be  the  act  of  the 
government,  and  not  my  act.  But  if  the  President  should  think 
that  the  slightest  injury  to  the  public  interest  would  ensue  from 
the  disclosure  of  my  views,  the  letter  may  be  buried  in  the  arch 
ives  of  the  department,  and  thus  forgotten  and  ren'dered  harmless. 

"  But  even  were  immediate  publicity  to  be  given  to  it,  I  know 
my  own  insignificance  too  well  to  believe  it  would  produce  the 
slightest  influence  upon  the  pretensions  or  the  course  of  England. 
The  English  public,  and  especially  the  English  statesmen,  are  too 
sagacious  to  need  the  suggestions  of  any  foreigner,  and  too  per 
tinacious  in  the  assertion  of  their  claims  to  seek  his  authority  for 
their  support.  "When  England,  in  her  progress  to  that  supremacy 
upon  the  ocean  which  has  been  the  steady  object  of  her  ambition 
for  centuries,  and  will  continue  to  be  so,  abandons  a  single  preten 
sion  after  she  has  advanced  it,  then  there  may  be  reason  to  believe 
she  has  adopted  a  system  of  moderation,  which  may  be  strength 
ened  or  weakened,  as  the  opinion  of  others  is  favorable  or  unfa 
vorable  to  her.  There  is  no  evidence  that  that  time  is  near.  But 
were  it  otherwise,  does  it  follow  that  in  all  discussions  between 
nations  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  believe  his  own  government 
has  attained  every  object  which  the  interest  or  honor  of  the  coun 
try  requires,  or  not  believing  it,  to  remain  silent,  and  to  refrain 
from  all  representations,  either  to  the  government  itself  or  to  the 
public,  with  a  view  to  the  ultimate  correction  of  the  error,  and  to 
the  relief  of  his  country  from  a  false  position?  I  must  confess  I 
do  not  carry  my  patriotic  devotion  thus  far.  I  agree  that  when 
nations  have  appealed  from  argument  to  force,  and  when  a  war  is 
raging,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to  put  all  other  considera 
tions  behind  him,  and  avoiding  profitless  and  party  discussions 
upon  the  past,  to  join  with  head,  heart  and  hand  to  repel  the  com 
mon  foe.  At  such  a  time  I  would  not  speak  words  of  censure 
even  to  my  countrymen,  lest  I  should  be  overheard  by  the  enemy. 
And  that  this  is  not  with  me  a  barren  doctrine,  I  trust  I  have 
given  sufficient  evidence  in  perilous  times.  But  I  was  not  prepared 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  445 

for  that  excess  of  patriotic  zeal  (pardon  me  the  expression, 
for  such  it  appears  to  me,)  which  would  carry  this  reserve  into  all 
the  actions  of  the  government,  as  well  in  peace  as  in  wrar.  I 
believe  that  in  our  recent  treaty  with  England,  sufficient  precau 
tion  was  not  taken  to  guard  against  her  claim  to  search  our  ships. 
This  belief  I  entertain  in  common  with  many  other  citizens,  in 
office  and  out  of  office  ;  and  I,  as  well  as  they,  have  expressed  it. 
It  has  been  declared  in  the  Senate,  in  the  public  journals  in  every 
district  of  our  country  ;  and  I  can  not  feel  that  this  avowal  of 
our  sentiments,  in  whatever  form  it  is  made,  whether  official  or 
unofficial,  justly  subjects  us  to  the  charge  of  taking  a  course 
which  may  hereafter  enable  other  governments  to  '  set  up  new 
pretensions.' 

"  Permit  me  now  to  advert  to  the  serious  charge  you  have 
made  against  me,  of  venturing  upon  a  statement  which  is  a  tissue 
of  mistakes.  This  statement  you  quote,  and  it  is  that  part  of  my 
letter  in  which,  after  showing  that,  to  a  certain  point  of  time,  our 
national  honor  had  been  preserved  inviolate,  I  proceed  to  show 
that  the  subsequent  course  of  events  had  not  been  equally  fortun 
ate.  I  remark  that  England  never  urged  the  United  States  to 
enter  into  a  conventional  arrangement,  by  which  the  joint  action 
of  the  tw^o  countries  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  might 
be  secured.  You  pronounce  this  statement  a  mistake,  and  assert 
that  the  proposition  came  from  our  government. 

"That  the  particular  mode  in  which  the  government  should  act 
in  concert,  as  finally  arranged  in  the  treaty,  was  suggested  by 
yourself,  I  never  doubted,  and  if  this  is  the  construction  I  am  to 
give  to  your  denial  of  my  correctness,  there  is  no  difficulty  upon 
the  subject.  The  question  between  us  is  untouched.  All  I  said 
was,  that  England  continued  to  prosecute  the  matter  ;  that  she 
presented  it  for  negotiation,  and  that  wre  therefore  consented  to  its 
introduction  ;  and  if  Lord  Ashburton  did  not  come  out  with 
instructions  from  his  government  to  endeavor  to  effect  some 
arrangement  upon  this  subject,  the  world  has  strangely  misunder 
stood  one  of  the  great  objects  of  his  mission,  and  I  have  misunder 
stood  that  paragraph  in  your  first  note,  where  you  say  that  Lord 
Ashburton  comes  with  full  powers  to  negotiate  and  settle  all 
matters  in  discussion  between  England  and  the  United  States.  But 
the  very  fact  of  his  coming  here,  and  of  his  acceding  to  any  stipu 
lations  respecting  the  slave  trade,  is  conclusive  proof  that  his 


446  LIFE  AND'  TIMES 

government  were  desirous  to  obtain  the  co-operation  of  the  United 
States.  I  had  supposed  that  our  government  would  scarcely  take 
the  initiative  in  this  matter,  and  urge  it  upon  that  of  Great  Brit 
ain,  either  in  Washington  or  London.  If  it  did  so,  I  can  only 
express  my  regret,  and  confess  that  I  have  been  led  inadvert 
ently  into  an  error. 

ic  You  then  proceed  to  remark,  in  continuation  of  this  tissue  of 
mistakes,  that  in  entering  into  this  arrangement,  the  United  States 
did  not  depart  from  the  principle  of  avoiding  European  combina 
tions  upon  a  subject  not  American,  because  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  is  equally  an  American  and  European  subject.  This 
may  be  so.  I  may  be  wrong  in  the  application  of  the  principle, 
but  such  an  erroneous  conclusion  scarcely  justifies  the  epithet  of 
an  adventurous  statement,  one  of  a  tissue  of  mistakes.  But,  apart 
from  this,  I  still  think  that  combinations  of  this  kind  are  among 
the  '  entangling  alliances '  against  which  the  great  statesman, 
whose  exposition  of  our  Constitution  will  go  down  to  posterity 
with  the  instrument  itself,  warned  his  countrymen  ;  and  the  per 
petually  recurring  difficulties  which  are  present'ng  themselves  in 
the  execution  of  conventions  between  France  and  England  upon 
this  subject,  should  be  a  caution  to  nations  against  the  introduc 
tion  of  new  maritime  principles,  whose  operations  and  results  it  is 
difficult  to  foresee. 

"  But  is  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave  trade  one  of  those 
American  objects  in  the  attainment  of  which  we  ought  to  seek  the 
co-operation  of  other  nations,  and  regulate  our  own  duties  and 
theirs  by  treaty  stipulations  ?  I  do  not  think  so.  In  the  first 
place,  the  principle  would  necessarily  lead  lis  to  form  alliance  with 
every  maritime  nation.  It  is  not  England  alone  whose  flag  rides 
over  the  seas.  Other  countries  must  co-operate,  if  any  co-opera 
tion  is  necessary  ;  and  if  we  have  made  propositions  to  England 
to  join  us  in  this  effort,  I  do  not  see  why  we  stop  there,  and  de 
prive  ourselves  of  the  aid  which  the  action  of  other  nations  would 
afford.  I  doubt  if  the  people  of  this  country  are  prepared  for 
such  extensive  combinations. 

"  But  again,  while  fully  agreeing  with  you  in  all  the  odium  you 
cast  upon  that  infamous  traffic,  it  appears  to  me  that  any  object 
interesting  to  humanity,  and  in  which  nations  may  with  propriety 
engage,  has  the  same  claim,  if  not  in  degree,  at  least  in  principle, 
upon  our  interference,  and  calls  upon  us  for  a  union  with  other 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  447 

nations  to  effect  it.  It  may  be  easily  seen,  not  where  such  a  doc 
trine  would  conduct  us — that  escapes  human  sagacity — but  to 
wards  what  ruinous  consequences  it  leads. 

"You  conclude  this  branch  of  the  subject,  by  informing  me 
that  you  are  directed  by  the  President  to  bring  to  my  '  serious  con 
sideration  and  reflection,  the  propriety  of  such  an  assumed  narra: 
tion  of  facts,  as  your  dispatch  in  this  respect  puts  forth.'  I  shall 
not  say  one  word  to  give  the  President  any  cause  of  offense,  and, 
if  I  felt  that  I  was  justly  obnoxious  to  this  censure,  I  should  sub 
mit  to  the  rebuke  in  silence.  He  would  have  a  right  to  make  it, 
and  it  would  be  my  duty  to  acquiesce  ;  but  I  have  that  confidence 
in  his  innate  love  of  justice,  that  he  will  receive  my  explana 
tions,  and  judge  me  by  my  words,  and  not  by  unauthorized  con 
structions. 

"  Now,  in  all  that  I  have  said  in  the  paragraph  to  which  you 
allude,  and  which  you  have  so  strongly  qualified,  you  have  pointed 
out  but  one  fact  as  erroneous,  and  that  is  the  assertion  that  the 
introduction  of  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade  into  the  treaty,  was 
due  to  the  application  of  England ;  and  whether  even  this  was  an 
error,  depends  upon  the  construction  to  be  given  to  your  expla 
nation.  All  else — I  repeat  it — all  else,  to  the  very  least  idea,  is 
matter  of  inference  ;  it  is  my  deduction  from  the  circumstances 
of  the  case.  I  may  be  right  or  wrong,  logically,  in  the  conclusions 
I  have  reached,  but  certainly  I  am  not  morally  responsible  for 
their  correctness,  as  I  should  be  if  I  asserted  merely  naked  facts. 
It  is,  therefore,  with  not  a  little  astonishment  I  have  read  and 
re-read  what  I  wrote,  and  the  commentary  you  have  been  pleased 
to  make  upon  it.  It  is  neither  necessary  nor  proper  that  I  should 
renew  the  general  subject  of  my  letter,  and  therefore  I  do  not  feel 
it  my  duty  to  trouble  you  with  any  remarks  respecting  the  views 
you  have  presented  me,  of  the  pretensions  of  the  British  govern 
ment  to  search  our  ships  ;  but,  when  you  proceed  to  array  me 
against  myself,  I  must  claim  the  right  to  vindicate  my  own  con 
sistency.  You  quote  me,  and  quote  correctly,  as  saying  that  up 
to  the  delivery  of  the  annual  message  of  1841,  our  national  dig 
nity  was  uncompromised.  You  then  ask  what  has  since  occurred 
to  compromise  this  dignity?  and  you  add,  emphatically,  that  I 
shall  myself  be  the  judge  of  this,  because  in  a  subsequent  part  of 
my  dispatch,  I  say  the  mutual  rights  of  the  parties  are  wholly 
unchanged  ;  and  you  ask  if  they  are  unchanged,  what  ground 


448  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

there  is  on  which  to  found  a  complaint  against  the  treaty?  I 
think  that  a  very  brief  retrospect  will  be  the  best  answer  I  can 
give  to  this  question,  and  that  it  will  redeem  me  from  the  implied 
charge  of  inconsistency. 

"  I  never  said  nor  intimated  in  my  dispatch  to  you,  nor  in  any 
manner  whatever,  that  our  government  had  conceded  to  that  of 
England  the  right  to  search  our  ships.  That  idea,  however,  per 
vades  your  letter,  and  is  very  apparent  in  that  part  of  it  which 
brings  to  my  observation  the  possible  effect  of  my  views  upon  the 
English  government;  but  in  this  you  do  me,  though  I  am  sure  un 
intentionally,  great  injustice.  I  repeatedly  stated  that  the  recent 
treaty  leaves  the  rights  of  the  parties  as  it  found  them.  My  difficul 
ty  is  not  that  we  have  made  a  positive  concession,  but  that  we  have 
acted  unadvisedly  in  not  making  the  abandonment  of  this  preten 
sion  a  previous  condition  to  any  conventional  arrangement  upon 
the  general  subject.  I  had  supposed  till  I  read  your  letter,  that 
this  view  was  too  distinctly  expressed  in  my  dispatch  to  admit  of 
any  misconstruction.  I  will  condense  into  a  small  space  what  I 
deem  it  necessary  to  say  in  defense  of  my  consistency. 

"  England  claimed  the  right,  in  order,  as  she  said,  to  carry  into 
effect  certain  treaties  she  had  formed  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave  trade,  to  board  and  search  our  vessels  upon  the  high  seas 
wherever  she  might  find  them.  Our  government,  with  energy  and 
promptness,  repelled  this  pretension.  Shortly  after,  a  British  am 
bassador  arrived  in  our  country,  having  powers  to  treat  upon  this 
matter  of  the  slave  trade.  The  negotiation  terminated  by  an  ar 
rangement  which  secures  the  co-operation  of  the  United  States 
in  the  efforts  that  England  is  making  upon  this  subject;  but  not 
a  word  is  said  upon  the  serious  claim  that  subjects  to  the  naval 
inquisition  of  a  commercial  rival  our  ships,  which  the  enterprise 
of  our  merchants  is  sending  to  every  part  of  the  globe,  and  yet 
this  claim  arises  out  of  the  very  subject  matter  embraced  in  this 
treaty.  We  negotiate  w^ith  England  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave  trade,  at  the  very  moment  her  statesmen  are  telling  us,  in  no 
measured  terms,  that  to  suppress  it  she  will  violate  our  flag,  and 
that  she  will  never  give  up  this  pretension. 

"  Now  here,  it  appears  to  me,  the  government  should  have 
stopped.  The  English  negotiator  should  have  been  told,  i  We 
abhor  as  much  as  you  do  the  traffic  in  human  beings,  and  we  will 
do  all  that  our  peculiar  institutions  permit  to  put  an  end  to  it; 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  449 

but  we  will  not  suffer  this  matter  to  be  made  a  pretext  for  wound 
ing  our  honor  and  violating  our  rights;  we  will  not  take  a  single 
step  till  you  renounce  this  claim;  we  have  denounced  it  already; 
and  if  we  should  negotiate  upon  the  subject  matter  without  settling 
this  preliminary  question,  it  may  seem  like  an  abandonment  of 
the  ground  we  have  taken,  or  an  indifference  to  the  conse 
quences.' 

"  Had  this  course  been  pursued,  the  sincerity  of  the  British 
government  would  have  undergone  a  practical  test,  from  which 
there  would  have  been  no  escape.  It  would  not  have  been  neces 
sary  to  quote  the  last  dispatch  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  to  show  what 
he  meant  in  another,  or  Lord  Palmerston  in  the  first.  If  such  a  pro 
position  had  been  made  and  accepted,  our  honor  would  have  been 
vindicated,  our  rights  secured,  and  a  bright  example  of  sincerity 
and  moderation  would  have  been  given  to  the  world  by  a  great 
nation.  If  it  had  been  rejected,  that  would  have  proved  that  our 
co-operation  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  was  a  question 
of  minor  importance,  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  preservation  of  a  pre 
tension  intended  to  introduce  an  entire  change  in  the  maritime 
police  of  the  world. 

"  Why  this  very  obvious  course  was  not  adopted,  I  am  utterly 
at  a  loss  to  conjecture;  and  that  it  was  not,  is  precisely  the  objec 
tion  to  which  the  whole  arrangement  is  "liable.  Instead  of  the 
high  ground  we  should  then  have  occupied,  we  now  find  ourselves 
seriously  discussing  the  question  whether  or  not  England  will  en 
force  this  claim.  That  she  will  do  so  when  her  interest  requires  it, 
I  have  no  more  doubt  than  I  have  that  she  has  already  given  us 
abundant  proof  that  the  received  code  of  public  law  is  but  a  feeble 
barrier  when  it  stands  in  the  way  of  power  and  ambition.  Lord 
Palmerston  and  Lord  Aberdeen  both  tell  us  she  will. 

"  You  refer  to  that  part  of  my  letter  in  which  I  observe  that  the 
effect  of  the  new  stipulation  is  to  place  our  municipal  laws,  in 
some  measure,  beyond  the  reach  of  Congress,  and  remark  that 
such  is  often  the  effect  of  commercial  treaties.  It  is  so,  and  we 
can  only  expect  to  obtain  commercial  advantages  by  stipulations 
for  corresponding  advantages,  which,  while  they  endure,  are  be 
yond  the  reach  of  ordinary  legislation.  This  is  a  matter  of  neces 
sity.  But  this  necessity  does  not  exist  in  the  punishment  of 
crimes.  We  are  able  to  enforce  our  own  laws;  and  I  do  not  see 
that  the  power  to  enforce  those  of  England  gives  us  any  just 
29 


450  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

compensation  for  permitting  her  to  interfere  in  our  criminal  code, 
whether  the  offense  is  committed  upon  the  land  or  upon  the  water. 
It  seems  to  me  a  principle  fraught  with  dangerous  consequences, 
and  which  a  prudent  government  had  better  avoid. 

"  There  is  but  one  other  topic  which  I  consider  it  necessary  to 
advert  to,  but  that  is  an  important  one,  and  I  pray  your  indul 
gence  while  I  briefly  allude  to  it. 

"  You  speak  of  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  by  the  President 
and  Senate,  and  add,  that  it  does  not  appear  to  you-  that  I  had 
any  grounds  of  complaint  because  their  opinion  was  at  variance 
with  mine.  I  submit  that  this  is  making  an  issue  for  me  which  I 
have  not  made  for  myself.  In  no  part  of  my  letter  will  be  found 
the  slightest  imputation  upon  the  President  or  Senate,  for  the  rat 
ification  of  this  treaty.  I  could  riot  make  such  an  imputation, 
for  the  plain  reason  that  I  never  censured  the  ratification.  I  am 
under  the  impression  that  if  I  had  had  a  vote  to  give,  I  should 
have  been  found  among  the  majority  upon  that  occasion.  This, 
however,  would  have  been  upon  the  condition  that  some  declara 
tion  should  be  annexed  to  the  act  of  ratification,  denouncing  the 
pretension  to  search  our  ships.  I  would  then  have  sent  the  in 
strument  to  the  British  government,  and  placed  upon  them  the 
responsibility  of  its  final  rejection  or  ratification;  and  I  am  sure 
we  should  have  had  the  opinion  of  the  world  with  us  under  such 
circumstances. 

"The  rejection  of  a  treaty  duly  negotiated,  is  a  serious  question, 
to  be  avoided,  whenever  it  can  be  without  too  great  a  sacrifice. 
Though  the  national  faith  is  not  actually  committed,  still  it  is 
more  or  less  engaged  ;  and  there  were  peculiar  circumstances, 
growing  out  of  long-standing  difficulties,  which  rendered  an  ami 
cable  arrangement  of  the  various  matters  in  dispute  with  England 
a  subject  of  great  national  interest.  But  the  negotiation  of  a 
treaty  is  a  far  different  subject.  Topics  are  omitted  or  introduced 
at  the  discretion  of  the  negotiators,  and  they  are  responsible,  to 
use  the  language  of  an  eminent  and  able  Senator,  for  '  what  it 
contains  and  what  it  omits.'  This  treaty,  in  my  opinion,  omits  a 
most  important  and  necessary  stipulation,  and  therefore,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  its  negotiation  in  this  particular  was  unfortunate  for 
the  country. 

"  In  conclusion,  I  beg  you  to  tender  the  President  my  thanks 
for  the  kind  appreciation  he  made  of  my  services  in  the  letter  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  451 

recall,  and  to  express  to  him  my  hope  that,  on  a  full  consideration 
of  the  circumstances,  he  will  be  satisfied  that,  if  my  course  was 
not  one  he  can  approve,  it,  at  all  events,  was  such  as  to  relieve 
me  from  the  charge  of  an  improper  interference  in  a  subject  not 
within  the  sphere  of  my  duties. 

"  I  must  pray  you,  as  an  act  of  justice,  to  give  the  same  pub 
licity  to  this  letter  that  you  may  give  to  my  letter  of  October  3d. 
and  to  your  answer. 

"Very  respectfully,  &c., 

"  LEWIS  CASS. 

"  Hon.  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 

"  Secretary  of  State." 

The  foregoing  letters  were  made  public  by  a  call  of  the  Senate 
upon  the  President  for  the  correspondence  relating  to  the  quintu 
ple  treaty.  When  General  Cass  was  at  Washington,  upon  his 
return  to  this  country,  which  was  after  the  receipt,  by  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  of  his  letter  of  December  llth,  1842,  he  supposed 
that  the  controversy  between  himself  and  Mr.  Webster  was  at  an 
end.  He  saw  the  Secretary  of  State  on  several  occasions,  and  no 
intimation  to  the  contrary  was  made  by  that  officer.  In  February 
he  left  Washington,  and  returned  to  Detroit.  On  the  seventh  of 
March  following,  to  his  great  surprise,  he  received  a  communica 
tion  from  Mr.  Webster,  post-marked  Washington,  February  23d, 
1843,.  but  bearing  date  December  20th,  1842,  and,  at  which  last 
date,  General  Cass  was  at  Washington.  Having  received  no 
answer  while  there,  or  intimation  that  there  would  be  any  to  his 
letter  of  December  llth,  1842,  he  considered,  and  so  stated,  that 
the  correspondence  was  terminated.  But  this  last  communication 
of  Mr.  Webster  opened  it  afresh,  although  evidently  ante-dated 
some  two  months.  It  is  fair  to  infer  that  Mr.  Webster,  desiring 
to  have  the  last  word,  prepared  and  published,  with  the  official 
correspondence,  a  reply  to  General  Cass'  letter  of  December  llth, 
and  which  was  not  seen  by  the  General  until  the  following  March, 
and  to  which,  of  course,  he  had  no  opportunity  of  replying,  prior 
to  the  authoritative  call  of  the  Senate  for  the  correspondence.  This, 
certainly,  was  a  singular  proceeding,  and,  to  use  the  mildest  term, 
very  disingenuous.  It  compelled  General  Cass  again  to  appear 
before  the  public  with  the  following  rejoinder : 


452  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

'^DETROIT,  March  Ytli,  1843. 

"SiR: — I  have  just  received  your  letter  dated  December  20th, 
1842,  and  post-marked  'Washington,  February  23d,  1843,'  which 
commences  by  stating  that  my  letter  of  the  llth  instant  (that  is, 
my  letter  of  December  llth,  1842,)  had  been  submitted  to  the 
President. 

"  I  had  no  desire  to  continue  the  correspondence  which  has 
arisen  between  us.  I  had  said  all  I  felt  called  upon  to  say  in  my 
own  defense,  and  I  had  determined  there  to  leave  the  subject. 
This  determination  I  expressed  to  you  immediately  before  I  left 
Washington  in  January,  when  you  intimated  to  me  that  you  should 
probably  answer  my  letter  of  December  llth.  I  should  not  have 
departed  from  this  resolution  had  I  not  felt  it  due  to  myself  that 
the  actual  date  of  the  receipt  of  your  letter  should  be  established. 
I  have  reason  to  suppose  that  the  correspondence  between  us  has, 
ere  this,  been  submitted  to  Congress,  and  that  it  will  thus  come 
before  the  nation.  Your  late  letter  has,  no  doubt,  made  part  of 
these  documents,  and  persons  reading  it  may  well  suppose  it  was 
written  the  20th  of  December  last,  and  received  by  me  while  I  was 
yet  at  Washington. 

"The  error  will,  no  doubt,  be  readily  explained  at  the  Depart 
ment,  for  I  need  hardly  say  I  am  sure  it  was  unintentional.  But, 
in  the  meantime,  it  may  do  me  serious  injury;  for,  while  at  the 
seat  of  government,  where  this  correspondence  was  well  known, 
I  more  than  once  stated  that  my  letter  of  December  llth  was 
unanswered. 

"  It  is  essential,  therefore,  to  me,  that  it  should  be  known  that 
this  statement  was  true ;  and  this  can  now  only  be  done  by  spread 
ing  the  correction  as  widely  as  the  error  has  been  spread. 

"This  is  my  first  and  principal  reason  for  again  writing  to  you, 
and,  without  this  reason,  I  doubt  if  I  should  have  broken  the 
silence  I  intended  to  keep,  though  there  are  passages  in  your 
letter  that  might  well  have  induced  me  to  depart  from  this  reso 
lution.  The  correspondence  has  already  grown  to  an  unreason 
able  length,  and  I  am  very  unwilling  to  prolong  it ;  but,  as  I  am 
compelled  to  write,  from  the  circumstances  adverted  to,  I  shall, 
without  further  apology,  proceed  to  examine  some  of  the  topics 
presented  in  your  last  letter,  and,  also,  to  call  to  your  observation 
some  very  offensive  remarks  contained  in  your  dispatch  of  No 
vember  14th,  and,  to  my  surprise,  repeated  in  the  recent  one. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  453 

Before  doing  this,  however,  I  shall  advert  to  one  view  presented 
in  the  November  letter,  and  which  the  haste  with  which  my  reply 
was  written  prevented  me  from  considering. 

"  Even  if  I  had  entertained  a  desire  still  further  to  discuss  the 
questions  which  have  arisen  between  us  out  of  the  treaty  of  "Wash 
ington,  the  course  which  events,  connected  with  that  treaty,  are 
now  taking,  would  have  rendered  such  a  measure  wholly  unne 
cessary  for  any  purpose  I  had  originally  in  view.  All  I  feared  and 
foretold  has  come  to  pass.  The  British  pretension  to  search  our 
ships,  instead  of  having  been  put  to  rest,  has  assumed  a  more 
threatening  and  imposing  form,  by  the  recent  declaration  of  the 
British  government  that  they  intend  to  enforce  it.  As  you  already 
know,  the  17th  of  last  September,  the  very  day  I  read  the  treaty 
in  a  New  York  paper,  I  solicited  my  recall.  I  stated  to  you  I  felt 
that  I  could  not  remain  abroad  honorably  for  myself  nor  usefully 
for  our  country ;  and  that  I  considered  the  omission  of  a  stipula 
tion  in  that  treaty,  which  settled  the  African  slave  trade  question, 
to  guard  against  the  right  of  search  or  visitation,  or  by  what  other 
name  it  may  please  the  British  government  and  country  to  express 
this  claim  to  violate  our  flag  and  to  board  our  vessels,  as  a  fatal 
error,  considering,  particularly,  that  this  pretension  had  been  first 
put  forth  and  justified  in  connection  with  that  traffic.  And  so 
viewing  the  subject,  I  felt  that  the  course  I  had  taken  in  France, 
in  opposition  to  the  ratification  of  the  quintuple  treaty,  which  was 
intended  to  engraft  this  principle  upon  the  law  of  nations,  had  not 
been  supported  by  the  government  as  I  thought  it  should  have 
been. 

"  In  my  protest  to  M.  Guizot,  of  February  13th,  1842,  I  had 
staked  my  diplomatic  situation  and  character  upon  this  support. 

u  Your  letter  of  April  5th,  1842,  conveyed  the  President's  ap 
proval  of  my  conduct,  and  this  you  consider,  in  your  letter  of 
November  14th,  1842,  as  taking  from  me  all  further  responsibility. 

"  You  say  that  '  having  delivered  my  letter  to  M.  Guizot,  and 
having  read  the  President's  approbation  of  that  proceeding,  it  is 
most  manifest  that  you  could,  in  no  degree,  be  responsible  for 
what  should  be  done  afterwards,  and  done  by  others.'  You  add, 
as  a  corollary  from  this  proposition,  that  '  the  President,  therefore, 
can  not  conceive  what  particular  or  personal  interest  of  yours  was 
affected  by  the  subsequent  negotiation  here,  or  how  the  treaty,  the 
result  of  that  negotiation,  should  put  an  end  to  your  usefulness  as 


454:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

a  public  minister  at  the  court  of  France,  or  in  any  way  affect  your 
official  character  or  conduct.' 

"  The  answer  to  this  is  so  obvious,  that  I  can  not  but  express  my 
surprise  that  it  has  escaped  your  observation.  A  diplomatic  agent, 
without  instructions,  takes  a  responsible  step,  which  he  thinks 
called  for  by  the  honor  and  interests  of  his  country.  He  states 
that  he  acts  without  the  knowledge  of  his  government,  and  that, 
if  unsupported,  he  must  return  home.  You  think  that  the  appro 
val  of  his  course  by  his  own  government  absolves  him  from  all 
further  responsibility,  and  that,  happen  what  may,  his  honor  and 
usefulness  are  unimpaired.  My  opinion  is  far  different.  If  his 
government  approve  his  course  upon  paper,  and  abandon,  in  effect, 
the  measures  he  advocates,  he  can  not  represent  his  country  as  his 
country  ought  to  be  represented  abroad.  And  I  may  safely  add, 
that  no  man,  fit  to  be  sent  upon  a  foreign  mission,  would  hesitate 
a  moment  as  to  the  course  he  ought  to  pursue.  He  would  not 
entrench  himself  behind  his  paper  approval,  for,  if  he  did,  he 
would  hear  words  of  reproach  respecting  his  government,  which 
no  man  of  honor  could  submit  to.  In  my  case  you  approved  my 
proceedings,  but,  as  I  say  and  believe,  you  did  not  guard  against 
this  pretension  of  England  to  search  our  ships,  which  occasioned 
my  interposition,  as  it  should  have  been  guarded  against ;  and 
thus,  in  fact,  left  me  unsupported. 

"  It  is  by  this  process  of  feeling  and  reasoning  that  I  reached 
the  conclusion  you  censure  in  no  measured  terms  ;  and  I  trust  you 
will  now  see  '  how  the  treaty,  the  result  of  that  negotiation,  should 
put  an  end  to  my  usefulness  as  a  public  minister  at  the  court  of 
France.' 

"  It  put  an  end  to  it  because  I  said  the  American  government 
would  resist  the  right  of  search.  The  government  said  the  same 
thing,  but,  unfortunately,  went  on  to  make  a  treaty  respecting  the 
slave  trade,  with  England,  without  saying  a  word  about  this  pre 
tension,  at  the  very  time  England  had  announced  to  the  world 
that  she  would  search  our  ships,  in  order  to  carry  into  effect  the 
treaties  she  had  negotiated  with  other  nations  upon  this  very  sub 
ject  matter.  And  now  I  am  gravely  told  that  I  might  have 
remained,  after  this,  the  representative  of  my  country,  because  my 
official  conduct  and  character  were  not  affected. 

"  I  am  not  considering  which  of  us  is  right  in  his  view  of  the 
proper  course  of  the  government  respecting  this  treaty.  I  lay  that 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  455 

out  of  the  question.  I  contend  that,  in  my  opinion,  I  was  not 
sufficiently  supported,  and  this  being  so,  that  I  ought  to  have  re 
turned.  You  contend  that  my  opinion  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
matter;  that  the  government  took  upon  itself  the  responsibility, 
and  therefore,  even  if  a  treaty  had  afterwards  been  negotiated 
'  containing  provisions  in  the  highest  degree  objectionable,  how 
ever  the  government  might  be  discredited,'  the  minister  was  free; 
and  that  his  '  usefulness  '  could  not  be  thereby  affected. 

"I  shall  not  argue  this  point  with  you.  It  is  a  question  of 
feeling,  quite  as  much  as  of  reasoning,  and  he  who  would  remain 
at  a  foreign  court  under  these  circumstances,  to  represent  a  c  dis 
credited  '  government,  has  no  sentiments  in  common  with  me  upon 
the  subject.  You  state  in  your  letter,  dated  December  20th,  that 
a  declaration  guarding  against  this  claim  to  search  our  vessels 
would  have  been  '  no  more  suitable  to  this  treaty  than  a  declaration 
against  the  right  of  sacking  our  towns  in  time  of  peace,  or  any 
other  outrage.'  You  enlarge  upon  this  proposition,  and,  in  fact, 
a  considerable  portion  of  your  letter  is  occupied  with  the  defense 
of  the  omission  of  such  a  declaration.  You  suppose  I  had 
advanced  the  idea  '  that  something  should  have  been  offered  to 
England  as  a  benefit,  but  coupled  with  such  a  declaration  or 
condition,  as  that,  if  she  received  the  boon,  it  would  have  been 
a  recognition  by  her  of  a  claim,  which  we  make  as  a  matter  of 
right.' 

"  You  add,  that  the  President,  satisfied  of  the  justice  of  the 
American  doctrine,  has  '  avoided  to  change  this  ground,  and  to 
place  the  just  right  of  the  country  upon  the  assent,  express  or 
implied,  of  any  power  whatever.'  i  The  government  thought  no 
skillfully  extorted  promises  necessary  in  any  such  cases,'  &c.  All 
this,  and  much  more  in  your  letter  upon  this  topic,  appear  to  me 
very  extraordinary.  I  never  made  a  suggestion  of  the  nature  you 
suppose.*  I  never,  for  a  moment,  presumed  the  government  would 
hold  out  to  England  a  consideration  for  the  disavowal  of  this 
pretension.  A^hat  I  really  said,  I  will  here  repeat,  from  my  letter 
to  you  of  February  15th,  1842;  but,  before  quoting  the  paragraph, 
I  will  make  a  quotation  from  what  immediately  precedes,  to  show 
that  I  had  a  correct  notion  of  what  would  be  the  course  of  Eng 
land.  The  holy  Chinese  war  is  ended,  and  the  British  army  has 
withdrawn  to  the  east  of  the  Indies.  The  pattern  republic,  as  we 
are  contemptuously  called,  can  now  be  attended  to. 


456  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"After  showing  that  this  pretension  to  search  our  ships  is  a 
claim  to  which  this  country  can  never  submit,  I  remark:  'The 
next  question  is,  will  England  yield?'  'It  is  our  safer  course  to 
believe  she  will  not,  and,  looking  to  her  line  of  policy,  that,  too, 
is  our  natural  course.  Wherever  she  has  planted  a  foot,  whether 
on  marsh,  moor,  or  mountain,  under  the  polar  circles  as  under  the 
tropics  —  I  will  not  say  never;  that  word  does  not  belong  to  the 
deeds  of  man — but  rarely  has  she  withdrawn  it.  "Whenever  she 
has  asserted  a  pretension,  she  has  adhered  to  it,  through  good 
report  and  through  evil  report,  in  prosperity  and  in  adversity, 
with  an  iron  will  and  a  firm  hand,  of  which  the  history  of  the 
world  affords  no  equal  example  since  the  proudest  days  of  the 
Roman  empire,'  &c. ;  'and  the  time  has  come  when  we  must  look 
her  designs  in  the  face,  and  determine  to  resist  or  to  yield.  War 
is  a  great  evil,  but  there  are  greater  evils  than  war,  and  among 
these  is  national  degradation.  This  we  have  never  yet  experienced, 
and  I  trust  we  never  shall.' 

"'If  Lord  Ashburton-  goes  out  with  such  modified  propositions 
upon  the  various  questions  now  pending  between  the  two  govern 
ments  as  you  can  honorably  accept,  the  result  will  be  a  subject  of 
lasting  gratification  to  our  country.  And  more  particularly  if,  as 
I  trust,  before  entering  into  any  discussion,  he  is  prepared  to  give 
such  explanations  as  will  show,  that  we  have  misunderstood  the 
intentions  of  the  British  government  respecting  this  claim  of  a 
right  to  change  the  law  of  nations,  in  order  to  accommodate  it  to 
their  treaty  stipulations  and  its  practical  consequences  — a  claim 
to  enter  and  search  our  vessels  at  all  times  and  in  all  places — this 
preliminary  proceeding  would  be  worthy  of  the  gravity  of  the 
circumstances,  and  equally  honorable  to  both  governments.' 

"  Whether,  in  all  I  said  above  respecting  the  tenacity  of  Eng 
land  in  the  prosecution  of  her  claims,  new  or  old,  I  was  justified 
by  the  characteristic  traits  of  her  history,  let  me  be  judged  by  the 
late  emphatic  declaration  of  the  chief  of  the  British  cabinet,  made 
to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  through  them  to  the  world ;  and 
which,  we  are  significantly  told,  was  cheered  by  both  sides  of  the 
House  ;  and  whether  I  am  right  in  saying  that  I  never  thought  of 
proposing  that  a  'benefit'  should  be  offered  to  England  for  the 
relinquishment  of  this  pretension,  as  you  alledge,  let  me  be  judged 
by  my  own  words. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  457 

"  My  letter  of  December  llth  is  in  accordance  with  these  views. 
After  stating  the  nature  of  this  claim,  I  continue :  'Now  here,  it 
appears  to  me,  the  government  should  have  stopped.  The  English 
negotiator  should  have  been  told,  We  abhor  as  much  as  you  do 
this  traffic  in  human  beings,  and  we  will  do  all  our  peculiar  insti 
tutions  permit,  to  put  an  end  to  it.  But  we  will  not  suffer  this 
matter  to  be  made  the  pretext  for  wounding  our  honor  and  violat 
ing  our  rights.  We  will  not  take  a  single  step,  till  you  have 
renounced  this  claim.  We  have  already  denounced  it;  and  if  we 
should  negotiate  upon  this  subject  matter,  without  settling  this 
preliminary  question,  it  would  seem  like  an  abandonment  of  the 
ground  we  have  taken,  or  an  indifference  to  the  consequences.' 

"  This  last  paragraph  touches,  in  my  opinion,  the  true  issue 
between  us  of  this  part  of  the  controversy.  You  say  that  the 
insertion  of  a  declaration  against  the  right  of  search  '  would  have 
been  no  more  suitable  to  this  treaty,  than  a  declaration  against 
the  right  of  sacking  our  towns  in  time  of  peace,'  &c.,  &c. ;  and 
hence  draw  the  conclusion  that  its  omission  was  both  honorable 
and  politic.  As  this  sin  of  omission  is  the  principal  charge  I  make 
against  this  treaty,  and  as  it  is  the  one  you  labor  most  earnestly 
to  reason  away,  I  must  be  permitted  again  briefly  to  refer  to  it. 

"The  British  government,  in  order,  as  they  said,  to  execute 
certain  treaties  they  had  formed  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade,  claimed  the  right  to  board  and  examine  American  ships. 
The  American  government  denied  this  pretension,  and  thus  stood 
the  parties  before  the  world.  Then  comes  a  British  negotiator  to 
our  shores,  to  settle  the  subjects  in  difference  between  the  two 
countries.  Two  of  these  are  settled.  One  is  this  slave  trade 
question  —  the  very  question  which  gave  rise  to  the  monstrous 
pretension  that  is  preparing  for  us  so  much  trouble.  And  this  is 
distinctly  admitted  in  the  President's  message,  which  states  that, 
'after  the  boundary,  the  question  which  seemed  to  threaten  the 
greatest  embarrassment  was  that  connected  with  the  African 
slave  trade.' 

"  You  negotiated  upon  the  subject  matter,  knowing  the  construc 
tion  the  British  government  had  given  to  its  other  slave  trade 
treaties,  and  knowing,  what  is  clear  in  itself,  as  stated  in  my  let 
ter  of  October  3d,  1842,  and  what  Sir  Eobert  Peel  has  now  fully 
confirmed,  that  'if  a  British  cruiser  meet  a  vessel  bearing  the 
American  flag,  where  there  is  no  American  ship  to  examine  her, 


458  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

it  is  obvious  that  it  is  quite  as  indispensable  and  justifiable  that 
the  cruiser  should  search  this  vessel  to  ascertain  her  nationality, 
since  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty,  as  it  was  before.'  The  error, 
therefore,  was  in  negotiating  upon  this  very  subject,  leaving  to 
the  other  party  to  say,  we  have  concluded  an  arrangement  respect 
ing  the  slave  trade  with  you,  since  our  mutual  pretensions  con 
cerning  the  right  of  search  have  been  made  known;  you  were 
aware  that  our  claim  arose  out  of  that  subject,  and,  as  you  have 
not  guarded  against  it,  we  shall  enforce  it. 

"  As  to  the  analogy  between  such  a  claim  and  one  to  sack  a 
town  in  time  of  peace,  it  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  say,  that  when 
such  a  pretension  is  solemnly  put  forth  to  the  world  by  England, 
I  shall  think  any  government  deserving  the  severest  reprobation, 
which  would  go  on  and  negotiate  upon  a  subject  matter  connected 
with  the  origin  of  such  a  claim,  without  sufficient  security  against 
it;  more  particularly  if,  as  in  this  case,  the  subject  matter  relates 
to  a  question  of  general  benevolence,  urged  upon  us,  no  doubt,  by 
the  most  philanthropic  motives^  but  which  no  just  principle  requires 
us  to  intermeddle  with,  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  first  attributes  of 
our  independence. 

"  You  make  some  remarks  upon  the  impropriety  of  requiring 
from  any  nation  a  solemn  renunciation  of  an  unjust  pretension, 
and  you  proceed  to  observe  that  the  President '  has  not  sought, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  has  sedulously  avoided,  to  change  the  ground 
and  to  place  the  just  rights  of  the  country  upon  the  assent,  ex 
press  or  implied,  of  any  power  whatever.'  '  The  government 
thought  no  skillfully  extorted  promises  necessary  in  any  such 
cases.' 

"  As  to  the  extortion  of  promise,  it  is  a  question  of  ethics,  which 
has  no  place  here.  As  to  the  propriety  of  requiring  a  nation 
formally  to  disavow  an  unjust  pretension  before  entering  into  a 
negotiation  with  her,  or,  if  she  will  not  do  so,  of  then  telling  her, 
we  shall  stand  upon  our  public  denial  of  your  claim,  and  will  not 
negotiate  with  you,  it  seems  to  me  that  such  a  course  is  equally 
honorable  and  politic.  Is  not  diplomatic  history  full  of  these 
efforts  to  procure  such  disavowals?  and  who  before  ever  expressed 
a  doubt  of  the  policy  of  these  measures  ?  Have  we  not,  time 
after  time,  endeavored  to  induce  England  to  stipulate,  that  she 
would  not  impress  seamen  from  our  ships  ?  And  did  you  not,  in 
the  course  of  the  late  negotiation  with  Lord  Ashburton,  strive 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  459 

to  procure  the  solemn  abandonment  of  this  claim  ?  There  is  con 
clusive  proof  of  this  in  your  letter  to  the  British  Minister,  of  Au 
gust  8th,  1842,  where  you  say,  after  having  conversed  with  him, 
that  'the  government  of  the  United  States  does  not  see  any  utility 
in  opening  such  negotiation,  unless  the  JBritish  government  is 
prepared  to  renounce  the  practice  in  all  future  wars? 

"  You  remark,  also,  in  the  same  letter,  that  '  both  before  and 
since  the  war,  negotiations  have  taken  place  between  the  two  gov 
ernments,  with  the  hope  of  finding  some  means  of  quieting  these 
complaints'  (of  impressment).  You  allude,  also,  to  the  conven 
tion  formed  for  this  purpose  by  Mr.  King,  in  1803,  and  to  the 
c  utter  failure  of  many  negotiations  upon  this  subject.' 

"Were  all  these  fruitless  efforts,  so  long  carried  on,  liable  to  the 
objection  you  raise,  that  any  nation,  calling  upon  another  to  disa 
vow  an  unjust  pretension,  weakens  its  own  cause,  and  '  that  no 
interpolation  of  a  promise  to  respect  them,  (that  is,  our  rights  and 
dignity,)  ingeniously  woven  into  treaties,  would  be  likely  to  afford 
such  protection.' 

"  Now,  what  becomes  of  the  analogy  you  seek  to  establish,  and 
which,  by  a  reductio  ad  dbsurdum,  is  intended  to  show  that  these 
conventional  disavowals  of  contested  pretensions  are  '  skillfully 
extorted  promises,'  inconsistent  with  our  dignity  and  interests? 
What  becomes  of  the  claim  to  sack  our  towns  in  time  of  peace, 
and  of  '  protests,'  which  you  liken  to  Chinese  figures  painted  on 
cities,  to  frighten  away  the  enemy  ? 

"From  the  time  of  Washington  to  this  day,  almost  every  ad 
ministration  has  sought  to  procure  from  the  British  government 
a  solemn  relinquishment  of  her  claim  to  impress  our  seamen,  and 
never  before  was  it  discovered  that  the  effort  was  unworthy  and 
dishonorable. 

"And,  during  all  the  period  of  the  long  war  between  England 
and  France,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century  and  at  the  beginning 
of  this,  when  the  laws  of  nations  and  the  rights  of  neutrals  were 
equally  contemned,  how  many  attempts  were  made  by  our  gov 
ernment  to  induce  that  of  Great  Britain  to  abandon  her  unjust 
pretensions,  and  to  stipulate  that  she  would  no  more  exercise 
them  ?  and  that,  too,  for  a  '  boon.'  Our  public  documents  are 
filled  with  proofs  of  this.  I  shall  refer  to  one  or  two,  which  even 
you  will  deem  conclusive. 

"In  a  letter  from  Mr.  Madison  to  Messrs.  Monroe  and  Pinkney, 


460  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

dated  May  20th,  1807,  our  negotiators  are  told  that,  c  without  a 
provision  against  impressment,  substantially  such  as  is  contem 
plated  in  your  original  instructions,  no  treaty  is  to  be  concluded.' 

"  Again,  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Madison  to  Mr.  Monroe,  dated 
January  5th,  1804,  the  former  remarks  that  cthe  plan  of  a  con 
vention,  contemplated  by  the  President,  is  limited  to  the  cases  of 
impressment  of  our  seamen,  of  blockades,  of  visiting  and  search 
ing  our  vessels,  of  contraband  of  war,  and  of  the  trade  with  hostile 
colonies,  with  a  few  other  cases,  affecting  our  maritime  rights, 
embracing,  however,  as  inducements  to  Great  JBritain  to  do  us 
justice  therein,  a  provision  for  the  surrender  of  deserting  seamen 
and  soldiers,  and  for  the  prevention  of  contraband  supplies  to  her 
enemies.' 

"  Then  follows  the  plan  of  a  convention  for  these  purposes. 

"  And  this  project  was  the  work  of  Mr.  Madison,  directed  by 
Mr.  Jefferson,  and  addressed  to  Mr.  Monroe.  The  '  rights  and 
dignity '  of  the  United  States  were  as  safe  in  their  hands  as  they 
will  ever  be  in  mortal  hands.  And  even  if  I  had  recommended, 
as  I  have  not,  a  '  boon,'  or  '  favor,'  or  '  benefit,'  to  be  given  to 
England,  in  consideration  of  her  reliriquishment  of  this  offensive 
claim,  I  should  not  have  wanted  higher  precedents  to  justify  me. 

"  You  object  to  the  suggestion  I  made,  that  a  declaration  should 
have  accompanied  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  denying  the  right 
to  search  our  ships  ;  and  you  ask,  apparently  emphatically,  if 
this  had  been  done,  and  if  the  British  'government  with  equal 
ingenuity  had  appended  an  equivalent  written  declaration  that  it 
should  not  be  considered  as  sacrificing  any  British  right,  how 
much  more  defined  would  have  been  the  right  of  either  party, 
or  how  much  more  clear  the  meaning  and  interpretation  of  the 
treaty ! ' 

"I  am  very  unwilling  to  believe  you  do  not  wish  to  deal  sin 
cerely  with  me  in  this  matter;  and  I  must,  therefore,  attribute  the 
strange  error  you  have  committed  in  the  construction  of  my  lan 
guage,  to  a  hasty  perusal  of  it.  Had  you  read  it  with  due  care, 
you  would  have  found  that  I  spoke  not  of  an  ex  parte  declaration, 
but  of  a  declaration  mutually  assented  to,  and  which  thereby 
would  have  become  a  portion  of  the  treaty:  a  declaration,  putting 
a  construction  upon  the  instrument,  which  would  thus  have  been 
ratified  with  a  knowledge  of  it.  After  meeting  your  assertion,  that 
the  tendency  of  my  letter  was  to  impute  blame  to  the  President 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  461 

and  Senate  for  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  and  showing  that 
it  was  not  the  ratification  but  the  negotiation  I  censured,  I  add, 
1 1  am  under  the  impression,  if  I  had  had  a  vote  to  give,  I  should 
have  been  found  among  the  majority  upon  that  occasion.  This, 
however,  would  have  been  upon  the  condition  that  some  declara 
tion  should  be  annexed  to  the  act  of  ratification,  denouncing  the 
pretension  to  search  our  ships.  I  would  thus  have  sent  the  instru 
ment  to  the  British  government,  and  placed  upon  them  the 
responsibility  of  its  final  rejection  or  ratification,  and  I  am  sure 
we  should  have  had  the  opinion  of  the  world  with  us  under  such 
circumstances.'  I  need  add  nothing  to  this  branch  of  the  subject. 
It  is  clear,  that  I  spoke  here  of  a  conditional  ratification,  depend 
ing  upon  the  assent  to  be  given  by  the  other  party  to  the  declara 
tion  concerning  the  claim  of  search.  There  would  have  been  here 
no  room  for  the  diplomatic  retort  you  suggest.  There  could  have 
been  no  counter  declaration,  for  then  the  whole  arrangement 
would  have  been  void.  As  I  said  in  my  letter  of  December  llth, 
'Had  this  course  been  pursued,  the  sincerity  of  the  British 
government  would  have  undergone  a  practical  test,  from  which 
there  would  have  been  no  escape.  It  would  not  have  been 
necessary  to  quote  the  last  despatch  of  Lord  Aberdeen  to  show 
what  he  meant  in  another,  or  Lord  Palmerston  in  the  first.  If 
such  a  proposition  had  been  made  and  accepted,  our  honor  would 
have  been  vindicated,  our  rights  secured,  and  a  bright  example  of 
sincerity  and  moderation  would  have  been  given  to  the  world  by 
a  great  nation.  If  it  had  been  rejected,  that  would  have  proved 
that  our  co-operation  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  was  a 
question  of  minor  importance,  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  preservation 
of  a  pretension  intended  to  introduce  an  entire  change  into  the 
maritime  police  of  the  world.'  '  Why  this  very  obvious  course 
was  not  adopted,  I  am  utterly  at  a  loss  to  conjecture;  and  that  it 
was  not,  is  precisely  the  objection  to  which  the  whole  arrangement 
is  liable.  Instead  of  the  high  ground  wre  should  then  have 
occupied,  we  find  ourselves  seriously  discussing  the  question 
whether  or  not  England  will  enforce  this  claim.' 

"There  was  a  very  un courteous  tone  pervading  your  letter  to 
me  of  November  14th,  1842 ;  a  kind  of  official  loftiness,  which, 
however  it  may  suit  other  meridians,  does  not  belong  to  an 
American  functionary  writing  to  an  American  citizen.  My  answer 
to  that  letter  was  very  hastily  written.  It  was  prepared,  as  you 


462  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

will  perceive  by  the  date  and  by  your  receipt  of  it,  the  very  day 
the  postmaster  of  New  York  handed  me  your  communication. 

"I  was  aware  that  the  subject  ought  to  occupy  more  time,  and 
that  justice  was  not  done  to  it.  But  you  had  intimated  pretty 
distinctly  in  your  letter,  that  our  correspondence  was  to  be  pub 
lished,  and  I  was  apprehensive  it  might,  somehow  or  other,  find 
its  way  to  the  public  before  I  could  correct  the  erroneous  impres 
sion  which  your  letter  was  calculated  to  produce.  Under  these 
circumstances,  my  attention  was  drawn  to  the  general  course  of 
reasoning,  rather  than  to  the  mode  in  which  this  was  conveyed ; 
and,  although  there  were  one  or  two  paragraphs,  so  plainly 
uncourteous,  that  they  could  not  escape  my  observation,  still  I 
passed  them  by,  having  little  taste  for  a  war  of  words  ;  but,  in 
your  letter  dated  December  20th,  and  received  February  23d, 
these  offensive  expressions  are  repeated,  and  the  same  process  is 
adopted  to  prove  me  guilty  of  misstatement,  which  is  contained 
in  the  preceding  letter.  I  met  this  attempt  at  that  time  without 
any  reference  to  the  language  which  you  used;  I  shall  meet  it 
again  ;  but  I  shall  take  leave  to  precede  my  defense  by  reminding 
you  of  the  comity  which  an  American  Secretary  of  State  owes  to 
his  countrymen.  You  say  'the  President  is  not  a  little  startled 
that  you  should  make  such  totally  groundless  assumptions  of  fact, 
and  then  leave  a  discreditable  inference  to  be  drawn  from  them. 
He  directs  me  not  only  to  repel  this  inference,  as  it  ought  to  be 
repelled,  but  also  to  bring  to  your  serious  consideration  and 
reflection  the  propriety  of  such  an  assumed  narrative  of  facts  as 
your  dispatch,  in  this  respect,  puts  forth.' 

'"The  President  can  not  conceive  how  you  should  have  been 
led  to  adventure  upon  such  a  statement  as  this.  It  is  lut  a  tissue 
of  mistakes?  'All  these  statements,  thus  by  you  made,  and  which 
are  so  exceedingly  erroneous,'  &c. 

"And, in  your  last  letter,  you  say  that,  'in  attempting  to  escape 
from  some  of  the  mistakes  of  this  tissue,  you  have  fallen  into 
others,'  &c. 

"  Following  your  example,  it  would  have  been  easy  to  find  a 
retort  for  these  expressions,  which  would  want  neither  point  nor 
truth.  But  my  own  self-respect,  and,  still  more,  my  respect  for 
that  great  tribunal  of  public  opinion,  which  is  to  judge  between 
us,  forbid  me  from  imitating  your  course  upon  this  occasion.  I 
would  remind  you,  that  there  is  nothing  in  your  official  position, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  463 

nothing  in  our  relative  situation,  which  can  justify  this  lofty 
assumption  of  superiority.  I  doubt  if  a  parallel  can  be  found  in 
diplomatic  history  since  Kapoleon  swayed  the  destinies  of  the 
world.  But  the  use  which  you  make  of  the  President's  name  in  this 
undignified  language,  is  even  more  to  be  regretted  than  the  epithets 
themselves.  That  high  functionary  should  not  be  invoked,  when 
a  private  citizen  is  thus  assailed.  Under  different  circumstances, 
such  conduct  might  be  imitated  by  the  other  party,  and  a  system 
of  crimination  and  of  recrimination  introduced  into  the  corres 
pondence  of  the  Department,  equally  injurious  to  the  public 
interest,  and  incompatible  with  the  public  honor.  Upon  the 
present  occasion  no  such  result  will  happen.  1  have  too  much 
respect  for  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  my  country,  and  too  much 
regard  for  the  distinguished  individual  who  occupies  that  high 
post,  to  introduce  his  name  unnecessarily  into  this  discussion; 
and,  notwithstanding  you  have  appealed  to  him,  I  shall  still  con 
sider  the  language  as  yours,  and  not  as  his.  Many  others  would 
not  be  as  forbearing.  I  say  the  '  language,'  for  it  is  that  which  I 
censure.  I  do  not  question  your  right,  nor  the  right  of  any  other 
person,  freely  to  examine  and  to  meet  statements  and  argu 
ments  at  discretion;  but  let  this  be  done  with  the  courtesy  of  a 
gentleman. 

"  I  shall  now  proceed,  as  briefly  as  possible,  to  examine  these 
charges  of  an  assumed  narrative  of  facts;  of  groundless  assump 
tions,  and  of  a  tissue  of  mistakes,  which  you  have  once  and  again 
preferred  against  me.  But,  first,  let  us  see  what  is  the  grave 
fault  you  alledge  I  have  committed.  I  will  state  it  in  your  own 
words : 

"  'Before  examining  the  several  objections  suggested  by  you,  it 
may  be  proper  to  take  notice  of  what  you  say  upon  the  course  of 
the  negotiation.  In  regard  to  this,  having  observed  that  the  na 
tional  dignity  of  the  United  States  had  not  been  compromised 
down  to  the  time  of  the  President's  message,  at  the  last  session, 
you  proceed  to  say:  But  England  then  urged  the  United  States  to 
enter  into  a  conventional  arrangement,  by  which  we  might  be 
pledged  to  concur  with  her  in  measures  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave  trade.  Until  then,  we  had  executed  our  own  laws  in  our 
own  way.  But,  yielding  to  the  application,  and  departing  from 
our  former  principle,  of  avoiding  European  combinations  upon 
subjects  not  American,  we  stipulated,  in  a  solemn  treaty,  that  we 


464  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

would  carry  into  effect  our  own  laws,  and  fixed  the  minimum 
force  we  would  employ  for  that  purpose.' 

"  After  this  quotation,  you  thus  continue:  c  The  President  can  not 
conceive  how  you  should  have  been  led  to  adventure  upon  such 
a  statement  as  this.  It  is  but  a  tissue  of  mistakes.  The  United 
States  yielded  to  no  application  from  England;  the  proposition  for 
abolishing  the  slave  trade,  as  it  stands  in  the  treaty,  was  an  Amer 
ican  proposition;  it  originated  with  the  executive  government  of 
the  United  States,  which  cheerfully  assumes  all  its  responsibility. 
It  stands  upon  its  own  mode  of  fulfilling  its  duties,  and  accom 
plishing  its  objects.  Nor  have  the  United  States  departed,  in  this 
treaty,  in  the  slightest  degree  from  their  former  principles,  of 
avoiding  European  combinations  upon  subjects  not  American  ; 
because  the  abolition  of  the  African  slave  trade  is  an  American 
subject  as  emphatically  as  it  is  an  European  subject,  and,  indeed, 
more  so,  inasmuch  as  the  government  of  the  United  States  took 
the  first  great  step  in  declaring  that  trade  unlawful,  and  in  at 
tempting  its  extinction.  The  abolition  of  this  traffic  is  an  object 
of  the  highest  interest  to  the  American  people  and  the  American 
government ;  and  you  seem  strangely  to  have  overlooked  the  im 
portant  fact,  that  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  by  the  treaty  of  Ghent, 
the  United  States  bound  themselves,  by  a  solemn  compact  with 
England,  to  continue  '  their  efforts  for  its  entire  abolition,'  both 
parties  pledging  themselves,  by  that  treaty,  to  use  their  best 
endeavors  to  accomplish  so  desirable  an  object.' 

" '  Again,  you  speak  of  an  important  concession  made  to  the 
renewed  application  of  England.  But  the  treaty,  let  it  be  repeated 
makes  no  concession  whatever  to  England.  It  complies  with  no 
demand,  conforms  to  no  request.  All  these  statements,  thus  by 
you  made,  and  which  are  so  exceedingly  erroneous,  seem  calcu 
lated  to  hold  up  the  idea  that,  in  this  treaty  your  government  has 
been  acting  a  subordinate  or  even  a  complying  part.'  And  then 
follows  the  grandiloquent  passage  I  have  already  quoted,  com 
mencing  in  such  a  solemn  style,  that  the  President  was  '  startled' 
at  all  these  grievous  offenses  of  mine. 

u  Thus  stands  your  charge  in  the  letter  of  November  llth,  1842. 
It  is  renewed  in  that  of  December  20th.  In  my  answer  to  the 
first  I  vindicated  myself,  and  I  thought  successfully,  against  your 
complaint,  and  never  supposed  it  would  again  rise  up  in  judgment 
against  me.  I  told  you,  that  you  had  qualified  as  a  tissue  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  465 

mistakes  a  paragraph  which  contained  one  statement,  as  a  fact,  to 
wit:  that  England  had  urged  our  government  to  enter  into  a 
treaty  stipulation  for  putting  an  end  to  the  slave  trade,  to  which 
we  yielded.  I  told  you  still  further,  why  I,  as  well  as  the  world, 
supposed  that  the  application  for  this  stipulation  came  from  Eng 
land.  She  had  pursued  this  object  steadily  for  forty  years,  and 
she  had  sent  out  a  special  minister  charged  to  negotiate  upon  that 
as  well  as  upon  other  subjects.  We  had  no  interest  to  form  a 
slave  trade  convention.  You  refer  to  the  treaty  of  Ghent  as 
creating  obligations  upon  this  matter,  but  that  treaty  makes  not 
the  slightest  allusion  to  any  further  arrangements,  and  has  no 
more  connection  with  the  treaty  of  Washington  than  with  the 
convention  respecting  armed  vessels  upon  the  lakes.  It  was  com 
plete  in  itself,  and  neither  required  nor  looked  to  any  other 
stipulations  between  the  parties.  And  we  had  executed  it  in  good 
faith. 

"  For  these  reasons,  I  supposed  that  Lord  Ashburton  came  out  to 
propose  to  us  to  enter  into  another  treaty  upon  this  subject ;  and 
I  thus  stated  it  as  an  historical  fact.  In  my  answer,  I  further 
called  to  your  observation  that  the  rest  of  the  paragraph  was  mat 
ter  of  inference  or  deduction,  not  admitting  qualifications  applic 
able,  not  to  inferences,  but  to  assertions.  As  I  shall,  by  and  by, 
have  occasion  to  refer  again  to  this  branch  of  the  subject,  I  shall 
not  pursue  it  any  further  at  present. 

"  In  your  last  letter  you  reiterate,  in  substance,  what  you  had 
previously  said,  and  add,  that  'it  would  appear  from  all  this,  that 
that  which  in  your  first  letter  appeared  as  a  direct  statement  of 
fact,  of  which  you  would  naturally  be  presumed  to  have  had 
knowledge,  sinks  at  last  into  inference  and  conjecture.'  Now. 
here  is  a  very  obvious  error,  which,  by  the  slightest  attention  to 
what  I  said,  would  have  been  avoided;  but  I  will  not  qualify  the 
mistake  as  a  tissue  of  anything.  I  did  not  say  that  the  statement 
of  facts  to  which  you  refer  was  all  matter  of  inference.  I  said, 
expressly,  that  the  statement  respecting  the  desire  of  England, 
that  we  should  enter  into  this  negotiation,  was  put  forward  as  a 
well-known  fact,  but  that  c  all  else — I  repeat  it,  all  else — to  the 
very  least  idea,  is  matter  of  inference.'  Let  the  correctness  of 
this  assertion  be  judged  by  a  reference  to  the  paragraph.  You 
continue:  '  But  in  attempting  to  escape  from  some  of  the  mis 
takes  of  this  tissue,,  you  have  fallen  into  others.' 
30 


466  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  You  then  refer  to  my  statement,  that  England  continued  to 
prosecute  the  matter,  and  that  we  consented  to  its  introduction. 
This,  however,  it  is  very  clear,  is  but  the  same  idea  before  sug 
gested  and  combated  in  your  first  letter.  You  say  '  the  English 
minister  no  more  presented  the  subject  for  negotiation  than  the 
government  of  the  United  States  presented  it.' 

"  You  then  ask  me  to  '  review  my  series  of  assertions  on  this 
subject,  and  see  whether  they  can  possibly  be  regarded  merely  as 
a  statement  of  your  own  inferences.1 

"It  would  be  but  a  waste  of  time  to  repeat  what  I  have  already 
said,  that  I  assumed  as  an  historical  fact,  believed  by  everybody, 
that  Lord  Ashburton  came  to  urge  the  negotiation  of  this  treaty, 
and  that  upon  this  point  we  yielded  to  the  desire  of  England. 
When  you  say  this  is  one  of  the  '  inferences '  to  which  I  refer, 
you  furnish  me  with  language  and  statements  which  are  not  my 
own. 

"  But,  after  all,  why  this  strange  pertinacity  in  dwelling  upon  this 
point?  Why  this  studied  and  repeated  attempt  to  prove  me  guilty 
of  a  tissue  of  mistakes,  because  I  believed  Lord  Ashburton  sub 
mitted  propositions  upon  the  question  of  the  slave  trade,  and  that 
our  government  acceded  to  them  ?  I  have  already  shown  that 
this  opinion  was  a  natural  one,  and  held  in  common  with  the 
country,  and  I  trust  I  shall  show  this  still  more  clearly.  But  even 
if  not  so,  how  does  this  change  the  state  of  things  ?  Does  it  prove 
that  the  negotiator  was  more  sagacious,  or  the  treaty  more  useful 
and  honorable?  The  result  is  the  same,  and  the  inquiry  is  there 
fore  confined  to  the  process.  You  will  please  to  recollect,  I 
objected  that  we  had  yielded  to  the  application  of  England,  and 
made  a  treaty  upon  this  subject,  without  guarding  against  a  dis 
honorable  pretension  she  had  advanced  respecting  it. 

"This  is  the  whole  charge  which  has  provoked  all  this  'start 
ling '  reproof.  To  this  you  answer,  as  though  this  answer  took 
away  all  censure,  that  the  c  British  Minister  no  more  presented 
the  subject  for  negotiation  than  the  government  of  the  United 
States  presented  it ; '  that  is,  in  other  words,  that  the  matter  was 
jointly  conducted  and  terminated.  And  is  it  possible  you  can 
believe  that  this  circumstance  takes  away  the  grave  responsibility 
of  an  improvident  arrangement,  which  left  us  worse  than  it  found 
us?  and,  what  is  sincerely  to  be  deplored  by  every  American, 
which  led  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  annual 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  467 

message  to  Congress — a  document  read  by  the  world — to  put  a  con 
struction  upon  this  instrument  which  the  English  Prime  Minister 
has  contradicted  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  and  in  no  measured 
terms?  The  President,  in  his  message  of  1841,  says  that  this 
claim  of  '  visit  and  inquiry  '  was  '  regarded  as  the  right  of  search, 
presented  only  in  a  new  form,  and  expressed  in  different  words,'  and 
he  adds  that  he  had  denounced  it  as  inadmissible  by  the  United 
States.  He  then  proceeds  to  speak  of  the  recent  treaty,  and  thus 
continues  :  '  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  ground  assumed  in 
the  message,  (to  wit,  that  the  United  States  would  never  submit 
to  this  new-fangled  claim  of  '  visit  and  inquiry,')  has  been  fully 
maintained,  at  the  same  time  that  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty  of 
Ghent  are  to  be  carried  out  in  good  faith  by  the  two  countries, 
and  that  all  pretense  is  removed  for  interference  with  our  com 
merce  for  any  purpose  by  a  foreign  government? 

"  This  construction  the  English  government  deny,  and  boldly 
avow  their  adherence  to  the  claim  to  board  and  examine  our  ves 
sels.  Now,  where  can  you  find  one  word  in  the  treaty  which  but 
intimates  that  this  question  respecting  '  visitation '  has  been  even 
taken  up  or  touched  ?  Unfortunately,  no  such  word  is  there  ;  nor 
is  there  any  principle  of  sound  construction  which  can  supply  its 
place.  What  I  said  to  you,  in  my  letter  of  October  3d,  upon  this 
topic,  may,  perhaps,  produce  more  impression  now  than  it  did 
then.  It  has  been  marvelously  confirmed.  I  remarked  :  'In 
carefully  looking  at  the  7th  and  8th  articles  of  the  treaty,  provid 
ing  for  the  suppression  of  this  traffic,  I  do  not  see  that  they  change 
in  the  slighest  degree  the  pre-existing  rights  claimed  by  Great 
Britain  to  search  our  ships.  That  claim,  as  advanced  both  by 
Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Aberdeen,  rests  on  the  assumption 
that  the  treaties  between  England  and  other  European  powers 
upon  this  subject  could  not  be  executed  without  its  exercise,  and 
that  the  happy  concurrence  of  these  powers  not  only  justified,  but 
rendered  it  indispensable.  By  the  recent  treaty  we  are  to  keep  a 
squadron  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  We  have  kept  one  there  for 
years  ;  during  the  whole  time,  indeed,  of  these  efforts  to  put  a 
stop  to  this  most  iniquitous  commerce.  The  effect  of  the  treaty, 
therefore,  is  to  render  it  obligatory  upon  us,  by  a  convention,  to 
do  what  we  have  long  done  voluntarily — to  place  our  municipal 
laws  in  some  measure  beyond  the  reach  of  Congress,  and  to 
increase  the  strength  of  the  squadron  employed  on  this  duty. 


468  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  '  But  if  a  British  cruiser  meet  a  vessel  bearing  the  American 
flag  where  there  is  no  American  ship  of  war  to  examine  her,  it  is 
obvious  that  it  is  quite  as  indispensable  and  justifiable  that  the 
cruiser  should  search  this  vessel  to  ascertain  her  nationality,  since 
the  conclusion  of  this  treaty  as  it  was  before.  The  mutual  rights 
of  the  parties  are  in  this  respect  wholly  untouched  ;  their  preten 
sions  exist  in  full  force,  and  what  they  could  do  prior  to  this 
arrangement  they  may  do  now  ;  for  though  they  have  respectively 
sanctioned  the  employment  of  a  force  to  give  effect  c  to  the  laws, 
rights,  and  obligations  of  the  two  countries,'  yet  they  have  not 
prohibited  the  use  of  any  other  measures  which  either  party  may 
be  disposed  to  adopt.' 

"  What  was  opinion  when  I  wrote,  has  now  become  fact. 

"  In  all  this  I  beg  not  to  be  misunderstood.  I  do  not  wish 
again  to  subject  myself  to  the  charge  you  made  against  me  of 
favoring  the  pretensions  of  England.  That  is  one  of  the  last  of 
fenses  I  desire  to  commit,  or,  if  I  know  myself,  that  I  am  likely  to 
commit.  I  think  the  pretension  she  advances  to  search  our  ves 
sels,  and  to  call  this  search  a  '  visitation,'  is  one  of  the  most  injuri 
ous  and  unjustifiable  claims  of  modern  days.  I  would  meet  the 
first  exercise  of  it  by  war.  It  leads  directly  to  impressment,  and 
subjects  our  whole  commercial  marine  to  the  mercy  of  a  jealous 
rival.  It  is  but  another  step  in  her  march  towards  universal 
domination.  I  do  not  believe  our  government  have  acknowledged 
this  claim,  or  ever  thought  of  acknowledging  it.  I  believe  the 
President  and  all  his  cabinet  are  too  honorable  and  too  patriotic 
ever  to  harbor  a  thought  of  their  surrendering  one  of  our  proudest 
national  rights.  But,  as  I  said  before,  it  is  an  act  of  omission,  and 
not  of  commission,  I  censure.  It  is  because  a  treaty  has  been 
made  embracing  the  slave  trade,  and  because  no  security  is  found 
there  against  the  exercise  of  this  pretension,  which  threatened,  as 
the  President  said  in  his  message,  the  greatest  embarrassment, 
and  was  c  connected  with  the  African  slave  trade.' 

"But  to  return  to  your  charge  of  my  want  of  good  faith  in  this 
'  tissue  of  mistakes.'  In  any  discussion  concerning  the  origin  and 
nature  of  the  propositions  which  led  to  the  7th  and  8th  articles  of 
the  treaty  of  AVashington  respecting  the  slave  trade,  you  have 
greatly  the  advantage  over  any  antagonist.  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  and  without  precedent,  probably,  in  modern  diplomacy,  that 
not  one  written  word  is  to  be  found  in  the  documents  relating  to 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  469 

this  treaty,  which  passed  between  the  negotiators,  and  which  led 
to  this  new  and  important  stipulation.  I  presume  these  function 
aries  met  often,  and  conversed  upon  the  various  topics  pending 
between  them,  and  that  then  some  protocol  of  their  meeting,  or 
some  correspondence,  was  prepared,  embodying  their  views.  One 
would  suppose  that  this  course  was  necessary,  as  w^ell  for  them 
selves  as  for  the  information  of  their  governments,  and,  I  may 
add,  in  the  case  of  the  American  negotiator,  for  the  information 
of  the  people — equally  his  sovereign  and  the  sovereign  of  the  gov 
ernment  he  represented.  Was  all  this  omitted,  or  has  it  been 
suppressed  ?  As  was  said  by  a  Senator  from  Pennsylvania,  in 
the  debate  upon  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  and  said  with  as 
much  truth  as  beauty:  '  The  tracks  of  the  negotiators  were  upon 
sand,  and  the  returning  tide  has  effaced  them  forever.' 

"In  the  question  relating  to  impressment  there  is  no  such  reserve. 
"We  have  a  letter  on  that  vital  subject  from  each  party  ;  and  yet 
this  correspondence  led  to  nothing,  and  when  it  was  prepared,  it 
was  known  it  would  lead  to  nothing.  Why  it  is  there,  it  passes 
my  comprehension  to  judge.  When,  in  conversation  with  the 
British  negotiator,  you  found  he  was  not  prepared  to  make  any 
concession  upon  this  subject,  why  introduce  it  at  all,  and  give  his 
government  another  opportunity  to  assert  its  pretension,  and  to 
avow  its  determination  to  enforce  it?  What  was  gained  by  this  ? 
You  could  hardly  expect  to  shed  new  light  upon  a  question  dis 
cussed  by  Jefferson  and  Madison  ;  and  you  could  hardly  expect 
that  any  declaration  of  resistance  to  the  practice  could  be  more 
emphatic  than  the  resistance  of  the  last  war,  and  the  numerous 
remonstrances  against  the  doctrine  with  which  our  diplomatic 
history  abounds.  An  important  subject  is  introduced  into  the 
treaty  without  any  discussion,  and  another,  still  more  important, 
is  discussed  without  introduction,  and  with  the  full  knowledge 
that  it  would  not  be  introduced.  Allow  me  again  to  spread  before 
you  the  paragraph  you  quote,  and  which  contains  the  ;  tissue  of 
mistakes'  which  occupies  so  conspicuous  a  place  in  your  letter  : 

"'  But  England  then  unred  the  United  States  to  enter  into  a 

O  o 

conventional  arrangement,  by  which  we  might  be  pledged  to 
concur  with  her  in  the  measures  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade.  Till  then  we  had  executed  our  own  laws  in  our  own  way; 
but,  yielding  to  this  application,  and  departing  from  our  former 
principle  of  avoiding  European  combinations  upon  subjects  not 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

American,  we  stipulated  in  a  solemn  treaty  that  we  would  carry 
into  effect  our  own  laws,  and  fixed  the  minimum  force  we  would 
employ  for  that  purpose.' 

"  This  is  the  whole  charge,  as  you  make  it.  This  is  the  paragraph 
in  reference  to  which  you  say,  '  the  President  can  not  conceive 
how  you  should  have  been  led  to  adventure  upon  such  a  statement 
as  this.'  Now  let  us  analyze  this  matter,  and  see  if  it  is  as 
'startling'  as  you  suppose.  How  many  facts  are  here  stated? 
and,  of  these,  how  many  are  denied  or  doubted  ? 

"First. — England  urged  us  to  make  a  treaty  for  the  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade. 

"Second. — We  yielded  to  this  application. 

"Third. — Before  then,  we  had  executed  our  own  laws  in  our 
own  way. 

"  Fourth. — We  departed  thereby  from  an  old  principle  of  avoid 
ing  European  combinations  upon  subjects  not  American. 

"Fifth. — We  stipulated  we  would  carry  into  effect  our  own  laws. 

"  Sixth. — We  fixed  the  minimum  force  we  would  employ  for 
that,  purpose. 

"Here  is  the  whole  indictment.     Now  for  the  defense. 

"  I  suppose  I  may  pass  over  the  second  fact.  It  depends  entirely 
upon  the  first,  and  is,  in  truth,  a  part  of  it.  If  England  urged 
this  treaty  upon  us,  and  we  thereupon  assented  to  the  negotiation 
of  it,  we  of  course  yielded  to  the  application.  I  suppose  I  may 
pass  over  the  third  fact :  no  one  will  dispute  its  truth;  or,  if  it 
is  denied,  let  it  be  shown  when,  before  now,  our  laws  were  enforced 
by  virtue  of  treaty  stipulations.  I  suppose  I  may  pass  over  the 
fourth.  It  is  matter  of  opinion,  as  I  said  in  my  former  letter — of 
inference.  No  one  can  place  it  in  that  category  of  facts,  for  the 
truth  of  which  he  who  advances  them  is  morally  responsible. 
You  say  that  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  is  interesting  to 
the  United  States,  and  that  therefore  we  have  not  departed,  in  the 
formation  of  the  treaty,  from  the  wholesome  maxim  of  non-com 
bination.  I  say  it  is  interesting,  also,  but  that  our  duties  can  be 
fully  performed  without  any  European  combination ;  and  that 
such  a  mutual  arrangement  is  injurious,  and  violates  one  of  the 
articles  of  our  political  faith  :  and.  in  proof  of  the  danger  of  these 
arrangements,  I  refer  to  the  'perpetually  recurring  difficulties 
which  are  presenting  themselves  in  the  execution  of  the  conven 
tions  between  France  and  England  upon  this  subject.'  I  suppose 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  471 

I  may  pass  over  the  fifth  fact,  for  no  one  can  question  that,  by  the 
treaty,  we  do  stipulate  to  carry  into  effect  our  own  laws.     The 
eighth  article  expressly  declares  that  the  object  is  '  to  enforce  the 
laws,'  &c.,  of  each  of  the  two  countries.     I  suppose,  also,  I  may 
pass  over  the  sixth  fact,  for  the  same  eighth  article  provides  that 
the  squadron  to  be  employed  in  suppressing  the  slave  trade  shall 
'  carry  in  all  not  less  than  eighty  guns.'     Here  is  the  minimum. 
We  thus  remove  five  of  these  condemned  facts  from  the  act  of 
accusation.     There  remains  one  to  support  the  charge  you  have 
made,  and  to  justify  the  unqualified  language  you  have  employed. 
And  what  is  this  solitary  proof  of  my  bad  faith?     Here  it  is.     I 
said  that  England  had  urged  our  government  to  enter  into  stipu 
lations  for  suppressing  the  slave  trade,  to  which  we  had  yielded. 
I  am  '  startled '  myself  at  the  importance  you  attach  to  my  views 
of  this  matter,  and  to  the  gravity  of  the  reproof  these  have  led  to. 
I  have  already  remarked,  that  all  the  world  supposed  Lord  Ash- 
burton  came  here  with  propositions  upon  this,  as  well  as  upon 
some  other  subjects,  in  dispute  between  the  two  governments  ; 
and,  at  the  moment  I  am  writing,  I  find  in  the  papers  an  extract 
of  a  letter  from  Mr.  Everett  to  you,  presented  to  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  Mr.  Gushing,  which  fully  confirms  my  previous 
impressions.     In  that  letter  Mr.  Everett  says,  he  was  told  by  Lord 
Aberdeen,  on  the  27th  of  December,  1841,  that  Lord  Ashburton 
was  going  to  the  United  States  '  with  full  power  to  settle  any  point 
in  discussion,  embodying  what  was   called  the  right  of  search, 
which  was   the   most  difficult.'      And   another  incident   comes 
opportunely  to  confirm  all  this.     It  is  the  statement  of  a  Senator 
who,  from  his  position,  ought  to  know  the  circumstances,  and  who, 
from  his  high  character,  is  entitled  to  all  credit:    Colonel  King 
said,  in  the  Senate,  on  the  23d  ultimo,  speaking  of  this  claim  to 
visit  our  vessels,  '  It  was  intolerable.     Here,  then,  was  a  direct 
point  of  collision,  and  that  was  what  brought  Lord  Ashburton  to 
this  country  with  the  view  of  adjusting  this  difficulty.' 

"I  may  express  the  surprise  I  felt  when  I  read  the  following 
paragraph  in  your  last  letter,  urged  with  as  much  emphasis  as 
though  the  merits  of  the  treaty,  and  of  our  whole  controversy, 
turned  upon  this  point;  truly,  when  such  undue  importance  is 
given  to  a  topic  so  little  meriting  it,  when  its  discussion  occupies 
seven  folio  pages  of  your  last  letter,  and  three  pages  of  its  prede 
cessor,  and  when  the  view  you  present  is  most  elaborately  prepared, 


472  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

I  may  well  presume  that  a  substantial  defense  of  your  various 
positions  is  not  easily  found.  This  is  the  paragraph  : 

"  'Suppose  your  letter  to  go  before  the  public  unanswered  and 
uncontradicted ;  suppose  it  to  mingle  itself  with  the  general 
political  history  of  the  country,  as  an  official  letter  among  the 
archives  of  the  Department  of  State;  would  not  the  general  mass 
of  readers  understand  you  as  reciting  facts,  rather  than  as  drawing 
your  own  conclusions?  as  stating  history,  rather  than  as  presenting 
an  argument?  It  is  of  an  incorrect  narrative  that  the  President 
complains  ;  it  is  that,  in  your  hotel  in  Paris,  you  should  undertake 
to  write  a  history  of  a  very  delicate  part  of  a  negotiation  carried 
on  at  Washington,  with  which  you  had  nothing  to  do,  and  of  which 
you  had  no  authentic  information,  and  which  history,  as  you 
narrate  it,  reflects  not  a  little  on  the  independence,  wisdom,  and 
public  spirit  of  the  administration.' 

"  Strange,  indeed,  that  this  '  history,'  and  '  narrative,'  and  '  deli 
cate  part  of  a  negotiation,'  &c.,  &c.,  &c.,  are  to  be  charged  to  a 
simple  suggestion,  or  assertion,  if  you  please,  that  Lord  Ashburton 
came  over  to  make  propositions  to  the  government  respecting  the 
slave  trade,  which  were  accepted. 

"  But,  before  quitting  this  topic,  I  shall  appeal  to  your  own 
authority.  You  remarked  to  me,  in  your  letter  of  November  14th, 
that  '  the  United  States  yielded  to  no  application  from  England. 
The  proposition  for  abolishing  the  slave  trade,  as  it  stands  in  the 
treaty,  was  an  American  proposition  :  it  originated  with  the  exec 
utive  government  of  the  United  States,  which  cheerfully  assumed 
its  responsibility.'  You  remarked,  in  your  letter  of  December 
20th  :  '  Now  the  English  minister  no  more  presented  the  subject 
for  negotiation  than  the  government  of  the  United  States  presented 
it ;  nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  United  States  consented  to  its 
introduction  in  any  other  sense  than  it  may  be  said  that  the  Brit 
ish  minister  consented  to  it.'  All  this  is  too  diplomatic  for  me. 
T  can  neither  clearly  comprehend  what  is  meant  in  the  last  quota 
tion,  nor,  so  far  as  I  comprehend  it,  can  I  reconcile  it  with  the 
other.  Whether  either  fairly  contradicts  my  suggestion,  that  the 
introduction  of  the  slave  trade  stipulation  into  the  treaty  was  due 
to  the  application  of  England,  i  leave  to  those  who  are  more  com 
petent  to  judge  your  language  than  I  am,  to  determine.  At  first, 
it  is  a  guarded  proposition,  that  the  provision,  as  it  stands  in  the 
treaty,  is  the  work  of  the  American  government ;  and,  at  last,  this 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  473 

provision  owes  its  paternity  as  much  to  one  government  as  to 
the  other. 

"  But  I  may  well  appeal  to  your  own  candor  to  say  if  the  special 
pleading  in  the  first  quotation  meets  the  issue  between  us.  I  said 
we  consented  to  the  introduction  of  the  slave  trade  stipulation  into 
the  treaty  upon  the  application  of  England,  and  you  do  not  spare 
your  reproof  for  this  assertion  through  ten  pages  of  your  letters, 
because  the  proposition,  as  it  stands  in  the  treaty,  was  an  Ameri 
can  proposition. 

"  But,  if  you  mean  by  all  this,  that  Lord  Ashburton  did  not 
make  any  proposition  to  our  government  upon  this  subject,  but 
that  you  pressed  it  upon  him,  as  you  would  seem  to  intimate,  in 
order  to  repel  the  suggestion  I  made,  then  I  must  be  permitted  to 
say  that  there  is  nothing  more  extraordinary  in  all  our  diplomatic 
history.  I  shall  not  enlarge  upon  this  topic,  but  merely  ask  what 
benefit  an  American  negotiator  saw  for  his  country  in  this  arrange 
ment,  connecting  us  with  another  nation,  and  exposing  us,  both  in 
principle  and  practice,  to  consequences  which  human  sagacity  can 
not  even  conjecture?  I  wrill  ask,  in  the  wTords  of  the  President's 
message,  what  adjustment  of  a  difficulty  of  great  magnitude  and 
importance,  in  relation  to  this  matter,  took  place,  if  it  was  not  this 
very  question  ?  What  other  '  embarrassment  (still  in  the  words 
of  the  message,)  was  connected  with  the  African  slave  trade  ?' 
Both  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Aberdeen,  in  1841,  expressly 
disavowed  the  right  to  search  American  vessels,  with  a  view  to 
prevent  their  engaging  in  the  slave  trade.  They  both  declared, 
and  Sir  Robert  Peel  repeated  the  declaration  in  his  late  speech, 
(I  quote  the  words  of  the  last  :)  'The  right  of  search,  connected 
with  American  vessels,  we  entirely  disclaim.  Nay,  more  ;  if  we 
knew  that  an  American  vessel  was  furnished  with  all  the  mate 
rials  requisite  for  the  slave  trade,  &c.,  still  we  should  be  bound  to 
let  that  vessel  pass  on.'  And  that  our  government  knew  these 
views,  is  distinctly  stated  by  the  President,  in  his  message,  who 
says  that  Lord  Aberdeen  ;  expressly  disclaimed  all  right  to  detain 
an  American  ship  on  the  high  seas,  even  if  found  with  a  cargo  of 
slaves  on  board,  and  restricted  the  pretension  to  a  mere  claim  to 
visit  and  inquire?  '  This  claim,'  the  President  adds, '  was  regarded 
as  the  right  of  search  presented  only  in  a  new  form  and  expressed 
in  different  words,  and  I,  therefore,  felt  it  my  duty  to  declare,  in 
my  annual  message  to  Congress,  that  no  such  concession  could  be 


474  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

made  ;  and  that  the  United  States  had  both  the  ability  and  incli 
nation  to  enforce  their  own  laws,'  &c.  I  repeat,  then,  what  other 
point  remained  to  be  adjusted  upon  this  general  subject,  but  this 
very  claim  of  visitation?  and  if  this  was  not  adjusted,  as  it  is  now 
clear  it  was  not,  what  'adjustment'  did  take  place?  And  why 
was  the  stipulation  introduced  into  the  treaty,  as  though  we  could 
not  keep  a  squadron  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  execute  our  own 
laws,  without  binding  ourselves  in  a  solemn  convention  with  Great 
Britain  to  do  so? — and  all  this,  you  intimate,  without  even  a 
request  on  her  part ! 

"  I  here  close  this  controversy ;  and  I  shall  close  the  correspond 
ence  by  a  few  remarks  upon  the  serious  position  in  which  our 
country  is  now  placed.  It  affords  me  no  pleasure  to  find  that  all 
I  foretold,  respecting  the  course  of  the  British  government  in  rela 
tion  to  this  pretension  to  search  our  ships,  has  been  signally 
confirmed  by  the  recent  declaration  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  The 
accomplishment  has  soon,  too  soon,  followed  the  prediction.  I 
said,  in  my  letter  to  you  of  February  15th,  1842,  as  I  have  already 
stated,  that  England  rarely,  if  ever,  abandoned  a  pretension,  and 
that,  in  my  opinion,  she  would  enforce  this.  And  in  my  letter  to 
you  of  December  llth,  1842,  speaking  of  the  probability  that  she 
would  carry  into  effect  her  doctrine,  I  said  :  'That  she  will  do  so 
when  her  interest  requires  it,  I  have  no  more  doubt  than  I  have 
that  she  has  already  given  abundant  proofs  that  the  received  code 
of  public  law  is  but  a  feeble  barrier  when  it  stands  in  the  way  of 
power  and  ambition.  Both  Lord  Palrnerston  and  Lord  Aberdeen 
tell  us  she  will.'  And  now  a  greater  than  either  has  said  so,  and, 
as  the  London  Times  expresses  it,  he  has  said  it  in  the  most  em 
phatic  manner.  And  what,  then,  is  our  position  ?  Sir  Robert 
Peel  has  declared  that  the  British  government  never  will  re 
linquish  this  claim  to  search  our  vessels,  calling  it  a  visitation' 
and  the  London  Times,  the  great  exponent  of  the  principles  and 
purposes  of  the  English  government  and  aristocracy,  said,  on  the 
31st  of  last  December,  a  month  before  this  declaration,  that  'Eng 
land  has  not  abandoned  one  tittle  of  her  claim  (to  search  our 
vessels) ;  the  treaty  does  not  afford  the  smallest  presumption  that 
she  has;  and  the  United  States  would  find  that  the  right  would 
continue  to  be  unflinchingly,  (aye,  that  is  the  word,)  unflinchingly 
exercised.'  And  it  adds,  that  this  '  essential  right  of  the  British 
navy'  would  never  be  relinquished.  Sir  Robert  Peel  is  a  cautious 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  475 

statesman.  He  does  not  deal  in  abstractions.  He  does  not  make 
declarations,  in  the  face  of  the  world,  to  remain  inoperative,  par 
ticularly  when  such  declarations  are  cheered  by  both  sides  of  the 
House,  in  a  manner  to  show,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  they  are  re 
sponded  to  by  the  public  feeling  of  the  country.  And  the  Times, 
well  informed  of  the  views  of  the  government  a  month  before  they 
were  communicated  to  the  nation,  would  not  have  said  that  the 
rigid  would  ~be  unflinchingly  exercised,  if  it  were  to  remain  a  dead 
letter. 

"  We  all  know  to  what  this  pretension  leads,  and  to  what  it  is 
intended  to  lead:  that  it  will  virtually  subject  our  whole  commer 
cial  marine  to  the  English  navy.  It  is  an  insult  to  the  common 
sense  of  the  world  to  talk  about  a  difference,  in  their  effects,  be 
tween  a  search  for  one  purpose,  and  a  search  for  another;  and  to 
call  a  search  to  ascertain  the  character  of  a  vessel,  and  to  carry 
her  in  for  condemnation — at  the  will  of  a  midshipman,  perhaps, 
if  he  believes,  or  affects  to  believe,  she  belongs  to  one  country 
and  claims  to  belong  to  another — to  that  great  gulf,  always  ready 
to  swallow  American  property,  a  British  court  of  admiralty, — to 
call,  I  say,  such  a  search  a  visitation,  and,  by  this  change  of  name, 
to  justify  the  pretension — all  this  was  reserved  for  the  nineteenth 
century.  For,  what  is  a  'visitation?'  It  is  not  enough  to  look 
at  the  flag;  for  any  'bunting, '  as  Lord  Palmerston  calls  it,  may 
be  hoisted.  It  is  not  enough  to  look  at  the  men,  for  all  marines 
contain  foreigners  as  well  as  natives.  It  is  not  enough  to  look  at 
the  papers,  for  these  may  be  simulated.  It  is  not  enough  to  look 
at  the  log-book,  for  that  may  be  false  or  forged.  It  is  not  enough 
to  look  at  the  cargo,  for  that  proves  nothing.  But  it  is  obvious 
that  all  these  will  be  looked  at  to  satisfy  the  inquisitor  and  his 
inquisition. 

"The  London  Sun  said,  last  year,  very  justly,  'If  the  Americans 
sanction  the  examination  of  their  ships,  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
ascertaining  if  a  vessel  bearing  the  American  flag  is  lona  fide  an 
American  vessel,  they  sanction  a  rigid  examination  of  the  vessel 
herself.'  And  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  right  to  examine 
pre-supposes  the  right  to  send  in,  if  the  examination  is  not  satis 
factory  to  the  officer,  and  to  condemn,  if  not  satisfactory  to  the 
judge.  What  follows,  let  our  history  from  1793  to  1815  tell. 

"  But  this  is  the  least  injury  sought  to  be  entailed  upon  us. 
Heretofore,  agreeably  to  her  own  doctrine,  England  could  only 


476  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

impress  our  seamen  in  time  of  war;  for  she  claimed  the  right  to 
board  our  vessels,  merely  as  a  belligerent  right,  which  ceased  when 
she  was  at  peace.  And  she  conceded — and  so  said  the  Prince 
Regent,  in  his  celebrated  declaration  of  January  9, 1813,  in  answer 
to  the  manifesto  of  the  American  government — that  a  British 
cruiser  could  not  board  an  American  ship  for  the  purpose  of  im 
pressment  ;  but  that,  having  once  entered  under  a  legal  right, 
then  the  boarding  officer  could  seize  whoever  he  pleased,  to  be 
transferred  to  a  foreign  navy,  there  to  fight  against  his  own  coun 
try.  Now,  the  British  government  has  devised  a  plan  by  which 
our  vessels  may  be  boarded  in  time  of  peace,  and  thus  the  whole 
seamen  of  the  United  States  may  be  placed  at  the  disposition  of 
England,  in  peace  and  war. 

"  "We  now  understand  the  full  value  of  impressment,  and  why 
Lord  Ashburton  would  not  relinquish  it;  and  we  understand  what 
the  London  Times  means  when  it  says  that  '  this  right  of  visita 
tion,  which  is  to  be  '  unflinchingly  exercised,'  is  essential  to  the 
British  navy.' 

"  No  pretension,  in  modern  times,  has  advanced  more  rapidly 
than  this.  It  is  but  a  year  or  two  since  Lord  Stowell,  the  well- 
known  English  Admiralty  judge,  solemnly  decided  that  '  no 
nation  can  exercise  a  right  of  visitation  (mark  that -word!)  and 
search  upon  the  common  and  unappropriated  part  of  the  ocean, 
except  upon  the  belligerent  claim.'  And  still  later,  the  Duke  of 
"Wellington  said,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  'that  if  there  was  one 
point  more  to  be  avoided  than  another,  it  was  that  relating  to  the 
visitation  of  vessels  belonging  to  the  (American)  Union.'  The 
first  time  we  heard  of  this  pretension,  as  a  serious  claim,  was  from 
Lord  Palmerston,  on  the  27th  of  August,  1841,  and  the  next  was 
from  Lord  Aberdeen,  on  the  13th  of  October  following  ;  and 
it  was  then  put  forth  as  '  indispensable  and  justifiable,'  in  the 
execution  of  certain  slave  treaties  formed  with  the  'States  of 
Christendom.'  Now  the  British  government  claim  that  it  has 
become  a  settled  part  of  the  law  of  nations.  And  our  ships  are  to 
be  searched,  says  Sir  Robert  Peel,  to  ascertain  if  a  '  grievous 
wrong  has  not  been  done  to  the  American  flag.'  This  is  really 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  assumptions  of  modern  days.  Our 
flag  is  to  be  violated,  to  see  if  it  has  been  abused  !  The  whole 
country  knows  where  the  '  grievous  wrong'  would  be,  if  this 
principle  were  carried  into  practice. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  477 

"  There  arc  a  thousand  reasons,  founded  upon  common  ancestry, 
upon  language,  upon  institutions,  and  upon  interest,  why  we  should 
earnestly  desire  peace  with  the  English  people;  but  will  their 
government  permit  it?  This  I  doubt.  England  has  great  power, 
and  she  is  not  slow  to  exercise  it.  She  has  great  pride,  and  she 
is  not  slow  to  indulge  it.  We  are  in  the  way  both  of  her  ambi 
tion  and  of  her  interest;  and  ambition  and  interest  need  never 
march  far  in  search  of  pretexts  for  war. 

u  It  becomes  every  American  to  ask,  if  he  is  prepared  to  yield 
this  right  of  search.  For  myself,  I  think  it  is  better  to  defend  the 
outworks  than  the  citadel;  to  fight  for  the  first  inch  of  territory 
rather  than  for  the  last;  to  maintain  our  honor  when  attacked, 
rather  than  to  wait  till  we  have  none  to  be  attacked  or  maintained; 
and  such,  I  trust  and  hope,  will  be  the  unwavering  determination 
of  the  government  and  of  the  country. 

"  "What  I  anticipated,  when  1  commenced  this  letter, has  come  to 
pass.  The  documents  called  for  by  Colonel  Benton  have  been 
sent  into  the  Senate,  as  I  perceive  by  the  last  papers.  Your 
recent  letter  will  now  go  out  with  the  others,  and  reach  the  Amer 
ican  people.  I  have  no  means  of  clearing  myself  from  the  diffi 
culties  you  have  spread  round  me,  but  by  submitting  my  views, 
as  you  have  submitted  yours,  to  the  decision  of  the  country.  I 
am  now  a  private  citizen.  Twice,  since  I  became  such,  you 
have  presented  to  me,  in  elaborately  prepared  documents,  your 
sentiments  upon  some  important  topics,  arising  out  of  the  late 
late  treaty.  These  documents  now  make  part  of  the  political  his 
tory  of  the  country.  There  are,  therefore,  no  considerations  of 
duty,  nor  of  propriety,  to  restrain  me  from  appealing  to  the  same 
great  tribunal  to  judge  between  us, — from  endeavoring  to  redeem 
myself  from  some  severe  charges  you  have  made  against  me.  I 
have  been  written  at,  but  the  public  have  been  wrritten  to.  I  shall, 
therefore,  not  hesitate  to  authorize  the  immediate  publication  of 
this  letter,  being  little  disposed  to  leave  it  to  be  buried  in  the 
archives  of  the  Department  of  State. 

"  At  the  moment  of  signing  my  letter,  the  President's  message  of 
February  27th,  1843,  respecting  the.  treaty  of  Washington  and  the 
right  of  search,  has  reached  me.  I  think  every  American  should 
go  with  the  President  in  his  reprobation  of  this  doctrine.  I  refer, 
however,  to  the  message,  to  say,  that  had  it  been  in  my  possession 
when  the  body  of  this  letter  was  prepared,  I  should  have  quoted 


478  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

it  instead  of  quoting  the  other  messages,  because  in  this  the  views 
are  more  elaborately  prepared  than  in  those,  showing  that  the 
claim  of  visitation  was  perfectly  comprehended  by  our  govern 
ment  when  this  treaty  was  negotiated;  that  it  was  denounced  as 
wholly  inadmissible,  and  that  the  treaty  was  supposed  to  have 
made  '  a  practical  settlement  of  the  question.' 

"  One  or  two  reflections  force  themselves  upon  my  mind,  which 
I  shall  submit  to  you,  even  at  this  late  moment. 

"  In  the  first  place,  this  claim  to  search  our  vessels,  under  the 
pretense  of  visiting  them,  though  connected  in  its  origin,  or  rather 
announced  as  connected,  with  the  African  slave  trade,  is  co-exten 
sive  with  the  ocean.  The  principles  upon  which  it  rests,  so  far  as 
they  rest  on  any,  are  of  universal  application  ;  for  wherever  a 
British  cruiser  meets  a  vessel  bearing  the  American  flag,  such 
cruiser  may  wTish  to  know  if  a  'grievous  wrong'  has  been  com 
mitted,  and  whether  she  is  truly  what  she  appears  to  be. 

"  Such  are  the  necessary  consequences  of  this  doctrine,  and  such 
we  now  ascertain  is  the  extent  to  which  it  is  to  be  pushed.  It  is 
distinctly  announced  by  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  his  late  speech,  that 
this  right  of  visitation  is  not  necessarily  connected  with  the  slave 
trade,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  the  Times,  which  says,  '  that  this 
right  has  obviously  no  intrinsic  or  necessary  connection  with  the 
slave  trade,'  and  '  that  it  is  a  part  of  the  marine  code  of  nations.' 

"  How,  then,  could  a  conventional  arrangement,  obliging  us  to 
keep  a  squadron  upon  the  coast  of  Africa,  guard  against  its  exer 
cise,  or  '  supersede,'  in  the  words  of  the  message,  '  any  supposed 
necessity,  or  any  motive,  for  such  examination  or  visit?'  Again  : 
how  could  it  guard  against  these  effects,  even  if  the  operation  of 
the  doctrine  were  limited  to  search  or  visitation  in  slave  trade 
latitudes  ?  England  said  to  us  —  We  have  made  a  treaty  with 
France,  by  which  we  have  a  right  to  search  her  ships,  and  to  send 
them  in  for  condemnation,  if  they  are  engaged  in  the  slave  trade. 
If  we  can  not  search  your  ships,  we  can  not  execute  this  treaty, 
because  a  French  vessel,  by  hoisting  an  American  flag,  will  place 
herself  beyond  the  reach  of  our  cruisers;  therefore,  we  shall  visit 
your  ships. 

"]STow,  it  is  manifest,  that  our  squadron  upon  the  coast  of 
Africa  will  not  change  in  the  slightest  degree  this  state  of  things. 
A  French  vessel  may  still  hoist  an  American  flag,  and  thus  protect 
a  cargo  of  slaves,  so  far  as  this  protects  it,  in  any  part  of  the  great 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  479 

ocean,  from  the  African  coast  to  the  coast  of  Brazil.  Is  this 
squadron  of  eighty  guns,  or  is  any  vessel  of  it,  to  be  everywhere? 
And  where  it  is  not,  what  will  prevent  any  ship  from  placing  an 
American  flag  at  its  mast-head? 

"  I  am  stating,  not  defending,  the  British  doctrine,  and  I  do  not 
enter  here  into  those  obvious  considerations  which  demonstrate  its 
fallacy  and  injustice.  This  I  have  attempted  elsewhere,  but  with 
what  success  it  does  not  become  me  to  judge.  I  attempted  to 
show,  that  because  any  of  the  'states  of  Christendom'  choose  to 
form  treaties  for  the  attainment  of  objects,  military,  commercial, 
or  philanthropic^  such  mutual  arrangements  give  them  no  right  to 
change  the  established  laws  of  nations,  and  to  stop  and  search  our 
vessels  upon  the  great  highway  of  the  world.  It  is  the  slave  trade 
to-day,  but  it  may  be  the  sugar  trade  to-morrow,  and  the  cotton 
trade  the  day  after.  But,  besides,  it  is  obvious  that  all  the  cases 
put  by  the  British  political  casuists,  in  support  of  this  new  doctrine, 
are  mere  questions  of  identity,  where  he  who  does  the  deed  and 
boards  the  vessel  acts,  not  upon  his  right,  but  upon  his  responsi 
bility,  and,  like  the  sheriff  who  arrests  a  person  upon  a  writ,  is 
justified,  or  not,  according  to  the  result. 

"  But  it  is  clear  that  this  claim,  as  asserted,  is  not  at  all  incon 
sistent  WTith  our  new  treaty  stipulation  ;  that  this  stipulation  does 
not  render  unnecessary  the  exercise  of  the  claim;  and,  therefore, 
as  it  does  not  expressly,  so  neither  does  it  by  fair  implication, 
'make  a  practical  settlement'  of  the  question;  nor  does  'the 
eighth  article  '  remove  '  all  possible  pretext,  on  the  ground  of  mere 
necessity,  to  visit  and  detain  our  ships  upon  the  African  coast, 
because  of  the  all  edged  abuse  of  our  flag  by  slave  traders  of  other 
nations.' 

"  Very  respectfully,  &c., 

"LEW.  CASS. 

"  Hon.  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 

u  Secretary  of  State,  Washington." 

Mr.  Webster  never  answered  this  letter.  He  merely  informed 
General  Cass,  in  a  brief  note,  that  he  had  glanced  at  portions  of 
it,  and,  after  more  attentive  perusal,  if  occasion  required,  he 
would  reply  to  it  at  length.  This  "  occasion  "  he  never  found  :  and, 
to  this  day,  the  reasoning  and  argument  of  General  Cass  stand 
without  even  an  attempt  at  refutation. 


480  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

The  English  ministry  construed  the  clauses  in  the  treaty  of 
Washington  as  General  Cass  supposed  they  would.  The  important 
question  of  the  right  of  search  was  left  just  where  it  was  found 
when  the  negotiation  was  opened.  The  parties  to  the  treaty 
differed  in  their  understanding  of  its  meaning,  and  the  govern 
ment  of  Great  Britain  did  not  conceal  its  intention  to  deny  the 
construction  put  upon  it  by  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
In  fact,  it  went  farther,  and  took  the  ground  that  the  question  of 
search  did  not  enter  into  the  negotiation,  and  was  not  even  dis 
cussed  :  and  that,  as  for  concession,  it  was  neither  asked  nor  given. 
And  a  denial  of  these  high  positions  of  Britain' — reflecting  as 
they  do  upon  the  conduct  of  our  government,  when  Jefferson  and 
Madison  were  in  the  ascendant — will  be  sought  for  in  vain  among 
the  archives  of  the  American  government,  for  the  four  years  pre 
ceding  the  advent  of  Mr.  Polk  to  the  Chief  Magistracy.  The 
apprehensions,  therefore,  entertained  by  General  Cass,  when  he 
first  saw  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  Washington,  were  fully 
realized.  It  was  the  dictate  of  patriotism,  and  a  proper  regard  for 
the  honor  of  his  country,  and  for  the  memory  of  the  distinguished 
statesmen  with  whom  he  had  been  for  so  many  years  intimately 
and  officially  associated,  that  prompted  him  to  retire  from  the 
American  Legation  at  Paris.  He  did  right,  and  so  said  the  over- 

O  O          ' 

whelming  voice  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  With  this 
cheering  approbation,  he  could  well  bear  with  composure  the 
attacks  of  his  political  opponents,  and  the  abuse  of  foreign  peers 
and  presses. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  481 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

General  Cass  retires  from  the  French  Court — Public  Dinner — Arrival  at  Boston — Enthusiasm  of  the 
People — Their  Address  to  General  Cass — Arrival  at  New  York — Public  Demonstrations — Letter  of 
Mr.  Dickerson — General  Cass'  Reply — The  Public  Press — Arrival  at  Washington — Tour  to  Detroit 
— Reception  at  Home. 

"When  it  was  known  in  France  that  General  Cass  had  asked 
leave  to  retire  from  the  diplomatic  service,  his  fellow-citizens 
from  the  United  States,  in  France,  were  loud  in  their  regrets. 
They  were  unanimous  in  sentiment  relative  to  the  course  he  had 
pursued  on  the  quintuple  treaty.  They  were  proud  of  their  Min 
ister,  and  again  and  again  congratulated  him  on  the  glorious 
result  of  his  efforts.  If  in  their  power,  they  would  prevail  upon 
him  to  remain  ;  but  they  were  equally  unanimous  in  sentiment, 
that  a  continuance  of  his  residence  at  that  court  was  incompatible 
with  his  own  honor,  and  that  his  determination  to  embark  for  the 
United  States,  after  they  were  advised  of  the  treaty  of  Washing 
ton,  was  his  only  alternative.  They,  however,  invited  him  to 
partake  of  a  public  dinner  before  his  departure,  as  an  evidence  of 
their  esteem.  This  was  accepted,  and  the  American  consul  at 
Havre,  Mr.  Beasley,  presided  at  the  festive  board.  So  great  was 
the  desire  to  be  present  on  this  occasion,  that  many  American 
residents  and  travelers,  then  in  Paris,  were  unable  to  gain  admis 
sion.  The  festivity  terminated  in  the  presentation  of  an  elegant 
address  to  General  Cass,  to  which  he  made  a  suitable  response  ; 
and  bidding  them  a  hearty  farewell,  departed  for  the  United 
States  with  his  family,  leaving  Mr.  Ledyard,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Legation,  as  charge  d'affairs  till  a  minister  arrived. 

After  a  short  voyage  across  the  ocean  in  the  steamer  Columbia, 
he  landed  in  the  city  of  Boston  on  the  6th  of  December,  1842, 
and  on  the  succeeding  day  was  greeted  with  the  following  letter, 
signed  by  numerous  prominent  citizens  of  this  metropolis  of  New 
England,  from  the  hands  of  a  large  committee. 
31 


482  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  BOSTON,  December  Tth,  1842. 

"SiR: — The  undersigned,  citizens  of  New  England,  would 
congratulate  your  Excellency  on  your  safe  return  to  your  native 
country,  after  your  faithful  services  and  energetic  proceedings  at 
an  important  crisis  in  your  distinguished  mission  ;  and  respect 
fully  request  that  you  will  give  them  and  their  fellow-citizens  an 
opportunity  of  expressing  personally  the  high  respect  which  your 
public  career  and  private  virtues  have  uniformly  inspired. 

"  Keturning,  as  you  do,  with  the  approbation  of  that  generous 
people  who  were  the  first,  and,  for  a  long  time,  the  only  friends  of 
our  fathers,  we  should  prefer  that  the  meeting  should  be  at  such 
a  time  as  would  suit  your  convenience,  in  Faneuil  Hall — the  spot 
in  which,  of  all  others,  Americans  would  desire  to  welcome  her 
deserving  ones." 

General  Cass'  arrangements  were  such  as  to  preclude  delay,  and 
he  was  constrained  to  decline  this  proffered  hospitality.  His 
fellow- citizens,  nevertheless,  thronged  his  apartments  at  the  hotel 
during  his  brief  sojourn  in  that  city,  without  distinction  of  party. 
This  was  but  the  first  in  a  series  of  public  manifestations  of  appro 
bation.  His  faithful  services  and  energetic  proceedings  at  an 
important  crisis  in  his  mission,  had  endeared  him  to  every  Amer 
ican  heart,  and  there  was  all  over  the  country  a  spontaneous 
exhibition  of  admiration  for  the  man  who  stood  forth,  unsustained 
by  his  own  government,  against  the  potentates  of  the  old  world. 

He  immediately  passed  on  to  New  York,  en  route  for  Washing 
ton.  He  had  scarcely  reached  his  lodgings  in  New  York,  before 
he  was  waited  upon  by  many  citizens,  to  congratulate  him  upon 
his  safe  arrival  upon  the  shores  of  his  native  land,  and  to  tender 
him  a  public  manifestation.  The  authorities  of  the  city  came  to 
pay  him  their  respects,  and  tendered  him  the  use  of  the  Governor's 
rooms  in  the  City  Hall.  With  a  grateful  appreciation  of  all  this 
kindness,  he  was  compelled  to  forego  the  pleasure  of  its  enjoyment. 
He  desired  to  hasten  on  quietly  to  the  Federal  capital.  But  to 
his  own  amazement,  his  fellow-citizens  treated  him  as  the  man  of 
the  nation.  He  felt  that  he  had  acted  wisely  in  France,  and  yet 
he  did  not  take  to  himself  any  special  glory  for  having  done 
simply  what  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  do.  Not  so  was  his  con 
duct  viewed  by  the  people  among  whom  he  now  began  to  move. 
Hardly  conscious  of  it  himself,  to  them  it  was  the  sublimity  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  483 

patriotism,  to  see  the  single-handed  representative  of  a  Republic 
stand  before  the  magnates  of  Europe,  in  one  of  its  proudest  capi 
tals,  and  unawed  by  the  blandishments  of  its  power,  and  the 
learning  of  its  nobility,  there  bid  them  defiance,  and  in  the  thunder 
tones  of  an  American  freeman,  proclaim  that  his  country  would 
never  allow  her  ships,  with  the  stars  and  stripes  streaming  from 
the  mast-head,  to  be  stopped  on  their  peaceful  course  by  any  or 
all  of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  This  sensation  thrilled  the  Amer 
ican  heart.  The  vibration  was  felt  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the 
Republic. 

Mahlon  Dickerson,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  a  previous 
Democratic  administration,  hearing  that  General  Cass  had  landed 
in  Boston,  hastened  from  his  home  in  New  Jersey  to  intercept 
him  in  New  York.  He  would  have  him  tarry  at  Trenton,  as  he 
passed  along  the  route  southward,  for  the  people  of  Jersey  wanted 
to  take  by  the  hand  their  distinguished  fellow-citizen.  This  was 
out  of  the  question,  and  Mr.  Dickerson  handed  to  General  Cass 
the  following  letter : 

"NEW  YORK,  December  10th,  1842. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : — You  must  have  observed,  since  your  arrival 
at  Boston,  that  you  have  been  recommended,  in  many  of  the  public 
papers  in  different  parts  of  the  United  States,  as  a  candidate  for 
the  chief  executive  office  of  the  republic,  and,  particularly,  that 
you  were  nominated  to  that  office  at  a  large  Democratic  meeting 
at  Harrisburgh,  on  the  21st  ultimo.  The  manner  in  which  your 
nomination  is  mentioned  by  some  of  the  Whig  papers,  is  such  as 
to  excite  a  suspicion,  r.mong  those  who  do  not  know  you,  that  you 
favor  Whig  principles,  and  some  have  said  that  your  views  on  a 
national  bank  are  identical  with  those  of  the  Whigs.  I  know  that 
there  is  no  ground  for  such  suspicions,  and  that  you  are  entirely 
willing  that  your  views  upon  those  subjects  should  be  known  to 
all  parties.  From  the  long  and  friendly  relations  which  have 
existed  between  us,  before  as  well  as  during  the  time  we  were 
fellow-members  of  the  cabinet  of  President  Jackson,  and  ever  since, 
I  take  the  liberty  of  asking  from  you  such  explanation  of  your 
views  upon  these  subjects  as  shall  be  entirely  satisfactory  to  your 
political  friends.  With  the  highest  respect  and  esteem,  I  am  your 
friend  and  humble  servant, 

Ci  MAHLON  DICKEKSON. 

"To  GENERAL  LEWIS  CASS." 


484:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

And  to  this  General  Cass  promptly  replied  as  follows  : 


YORK,  December  10th,  1842. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  —  I  have  received  your  letter  of  this  day,  and 
have  no  difficulty  in  giving  you  a  prompt  and  unequivocal  answer 
to  the  questions  you  present  to  me. 

"  I  am  a  member  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  have  been  so 
from  my  youth.  I  was  first  called  into  public  life  by  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  thirty-six  years  ago,  and  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  principles 
laid  down  by  him.  From  the  faith,  as  taught  and  received  in  his 
day,  I  have  never  swerved  a  single  instant.  So  much  for  my 
general  sentiments. 

"With  respect  to  a  national  bank,  I  think  the  feelings  and 
experience  of  the  country  have  decided  against  it,  and  that  no 
such  institution  should  be  chartered  by  the  general  government. 
I  will  add,  that  my  residence  in  France,  and  a  careful  observation 
of  the  state  of  that  nation,  have  satisfied  me  that,  while  a  due 
degree  of  credit  is  highly  useful  in  the  business  concerns  of  a 
country,  a  sound  specie  basis  is  essential  to  its  permanent  pros 
perity. 

''With  great  regard,  I  am,  dear  sir,  truly  yours, 

"LEWIS  CASS. 
"  HOST.  MAHLON  DICKERSON." 

It  is  true,  as  mentioned  in  Mr.  Dickerson's  letter,  several  news 
papers,  in  many  sections  of  the  country,  had  mentioned  the  name 
of  General  Cass  in  connection  Avith  the  Presidency,  and  a  large 
assemblage  of  Democrats,  residing  in  Harrisburgh,  in  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  that  vicinity,  had  expressed  their  desire  that 
he  should  be  the  Democratic  candidate  at  the  Presidential  election 
in  1844.  To  all  these  expressions  of  partiality  for  himself  for  this 
high  office,  whilst  he  was  not  insensible  of  the  great  honor  done 
him,  he  had  but  one  reply  to  make,  and  that  was,  that  the  office 
of  President  of  the  United  States  was  neither  to  be  sought  nor 

o 

declined.  But  when  the  cherished  political  principles  of  his  life 
were  assailed  —  no  matter  from  what  quarter  —  it  would  have  been 
inconsistent  with  his  entire  previous  career,  as  the  reader  of  these 
pages  is  already  aware,  if  he  had  not  promptly  faced  his  foes. 
Hence,  he  stooped  to  give  the  above  reply  to  his  old  friend  Dick- 
erson.  He,  in  fact,  was  not  then  aspiring  for  the  nomination,  and 
entertained  not  the  slightest  expectation  of  canvassing  for  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  485 

Presidency  in  1844,  or  at  any  other  time.  His  mind  was  upon 
the  valuable  work  which  he  had  just  performed  for  his  country 
men  in  the  other  hemisphere,  and  he  was  highly  gratified  with  the 
voice  of  approval  which  he  was  constantly  hearing. 

In  consequence  of  receiving,  at  New  York,  the  duplicate  of  Mr. 
Webster's  letter,  before  adverted  to,  his  stay  in  that  city  was  pro 
longed  a  few  days,  and,  on  the  fourteenth  of  December,  he  received, 
at  the  Governor's  room  in  the  City  Hall,  the  calls  of  large  delega 
tions  of  citizens.  They  were  far  from  being  formal  calls.  The 
people  came  in  masses,  and  paid  him  the  homage  of  their  respect. 

Congress  was  in  session  when  he  reached  Washington,  and  the 
members  visited  his  rooms,  and  gave  him  a  cordial  welcome. 
From  thence  homeward  to  Detroit,  as  he  passed  through  the  prin 
cipal  cities  and  towns  in  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  all  classes  came 
forward  to  see  him.  His  route  was  through  these  States  in  accord 
ance  with  the  previously  expressed  wishes  of  their  citizens.  They 
desired  to  receive  and  take  by  the  hand  the  man  who  had  led  the 
volunteers  to  war  in  1812,  and  who,  thirty  years  afterwards,  en 
countered  and  baffled  the  same  enemy  whom  he  assisted  to  over 
throw  on  the  river  Thames.  His  route  was  a  continuous  triumph, 
the  more  valuable  because  it  was  the  spontaneous  tribute  of  esteem 
to  one  who  was  then  a  private  citizen,  devoid  of  the  allurements 
of  official  station ;  and,  as  he  approached  Michigan,  the  people 
became  enthusiastic  in  their  preparations  to  receive  him.  The 
municipal  authorities,  and  various  civil  associations,  united  with 
private  citizens  to  show,  in  an  impressive  manner,  their  high 
appreciation  of  the  benefits  they,  as  citizens,  had  received  from 
his  services. 

The  citizens  of  Detroit  vied  with  each  other  and  their  neighbors 
in  Ohio  in  their  arrangements  to  receive  him.  A  committee  met 
him  on  the  way  at  Upsilanti,  and  escorted  him  to  Detroit,  where 
he  arrived  on  the  fourteenth  of  February.  A  large  concourse  of 
citizens,  with  the  Governor  of  the  State,  members  of  the  Legisla 
ture  and  military  and  civic  associations,  had  assembled  to  greet 
and  welcome  him  to  his  home  in  the  City  of  the  Straits.  The 
proceedings  were  creditable  to  the  people  of  Detroit,  and  gratify 
ing  to  the  object  of  their  attentions.  With  an  emotion  that  betrayed 
how  deeply  he  was  affected  by  these  congratulations  and  manifes 
tations  of  regard  from  his  old  neighbors,  he  spoke  of  the  welcome 
his  countrymen  had  given  him,  after  seven  years'  absence  beyond 


486  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  seas,  and  remarked — "from  the  time  I  set  foot  upon  my  native 
shore  at  Boston,  to  this  last  manifestation  of  good  will,  I  have  to 
acknowledge  the  spontaneous  proofs  of  regard  everywhere  shown 
to  me,  and  the  recollection  of  which  will  disappear  but  with  the 
termination  of  life." 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony  of  reception,  he  was  escorted 
by  the  battalion  of  Frontier  Guards,  and  a  long  procession  of  citi 
zens,  to  his  rooms  at  Dibble's  Exchange. 

We  have  before  observed  that  the  personal  relations  subsisting 
between  General  Cass  and  Louis  Phillippe  were  of  a  cordial  char 
acter.  They  became  so  in  consequence  of  the  extraordinary  exer 
tions  made  by  the  American  Minister  to  gain  the  ear  of  the  king 
in  the  diplomatic  circle  ;  and  each  became  more  and  more  person 
ally  interested  with  the  other  as  the  acquaintance  progressed  ; 
the  former,  because  the  king,  from  his  own  knowledge,  could 
appreciate,  and  did  appreciate,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  an 
enraptured  traveler,  the  expansive  country  which  the  Minister  had 
the  honor  to  represent  at  the  French  capital. 

Louis  Phillippe  appeared  to  take  delight  in  recounting  his 
reminiscences  of  the  mountains,  valleys,  and  forests  of  America  ; 
and,  what  may  seem  surprising  to  most  republicans,  held  in  high 
personal  respect  the  laws  and  institutions  of  the  United  States. 
Impressed  with  these  sensations,  it  is  not  for  us  to  apologize  for 
his  career  on  the  throne  of  excitable  France.  A  bright  morning 
of  hope  dawned  upon  the  commencement  of  his  reign  ;  the  dark 
pall  of  (to  him)  an  endless  night  shrouded  its  termination. 

A  letter  from  him  to  General  Cass,  given  below,  shows  that  we 
do  not  mistake  his  views,  or  their  social  position  to  each  other. 

"NEUILLY,  13th  July,  1838. 

"  MY  DEAK  GENERAL  : — I  return,  with  many  thanks,  the  letter 
you  were  so  good  as  to  leave  for  me  with  General  D'Houdetot.  I 
have  also  to  thank  Mr.  Lewis,  since  the  contents  of  his  letter  gave 
me  such  satisfaction  that  I  read  it  over  to  the  queen  and  to  my 
family.  The  general  suffrage  of  the  American  nation  in  favor  of 
my  son,  is  very  gratifying  to  us.  I  only  regret  that  he  could  not 
stay  longer  in  America,  but  I  will  send  him  there  again. 

uln  the  first  place,  to  express  his  gratitude  and  mine  for  the 
attentions  of  which  he  has  been  the  object,  and  also  to  express  the 
high  sense  I  entertain  of  the  recollections  kept  of  me  in  America, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  487 

and  which  were  so  kindly  manifested  to  my  son,  and,  in  the  next 
place,  my  dear  General,  because  my  own  experience  has  taught 
me  that  America  and  England  are  good  schools,  and  that  much 
may  be  learnt  in  that  intercourse  which  could  not  be  acquired 
elsewhere. 

"  Believe  me,  sir,  very  sincerely, 

"  Your  affectionate 

"  LOUIS    PlIILLIPPE. 

"GENERAL  CASS,  &c.,  &c.,  &c." 


488  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTEE  XXX. 

Private  Affairs — General  Cass'  Pecuniary  Troubles — His  Wish — Named  for  the  Presidency — Letter  to 
the  Indiana  Committee — The  Cincinnati  Meeting — General  Jackson's  Letter. 

After  an  absence  of  twelve  years,  seven  of  which  were  spent  in 
foreign  lands,  General  Cass  again  found  himself  at  his  home  in 
Detroit.  During  this  time  great  changes  had  occurred.  Many 
of  his  old  cherished  neighbors  and  personal  friends  had  gone  the 
way  of  all  flesh  ;  some  had  removed  further  west.  The  city  limits 
were  enlarged,  new  streets  opened,  and  buildings  erected.  The 
young  men  of  the  schools  had  grown  to  manhood,  and  now  were 
the  business  men  of  the  town.  New  faces  met  him  upon  every 
hand.  Still  the  old  landmarks  remained,  and  the  same  wide  river 
flowed  along  the  quays.  It  was  Detroit,  and  he  was  glad  once 
more  to  be  at  home.  Nearly  forty  years  had  elapsed  since  his 
public  career  began,  and  now,  for  the  first  time  during  all  that 
eventful  period,  he  was  divested  of  official  care  and  responsibility. 
He  was  a  private  citizen.  He  could  now  devote  some  attention 
to  his  private  affairs ;  and,  unfortunately,  it  was  needed. 

The  five  hundred  acres  of  land,  known  as  the  Cass  farm,  pur 
chased  in  1816  for  twelve  thousand  dollars,  had,  to  a  great  extent, 
been  subdivided  into  city  squares,  streets,  and  lots,  and  sold  to 
divers  purchasers  upon  credit.  The  pecuniary  embarrassments 
that  convulsed  the  business  relations  of  the  country,  had  overtaken 
them;  and,  in  most  instances,  the  land  reverted  to  General  Cass, 
encumbered  with  taxes  and  municipal  assessments.  He  had  been 
under  the  necessity,  while  a  resident  in  France,  to  resort  to  his 
private  resources  to  meet  the  expenditures.  The  salary  was  insuf 
ficient.  He  came  home,  therefore,  in  straightened  circumstances, 
pecuniarily.  He  had  hoped  to  find  his  debtors  prosperous,  and 
able  to  hold  the  lots  of  land  sold  to  them.  It  was  otherwise.  To 
add  to  his  perplexities,  thirty -two  thousand  dollars — a  part  of  it  his 
paternal  inheritance — deposited  in  the  Bank  of  Michigan  when 
he  was  about  to  depart  for  Europe,  were  irrevocably  lost,  by  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  489 

failure  and  utter  bankruptcy  of  that  institution.  To  avail  himself 
of  the  use  of  his  landed  estate,  it  was  necessary  to  discharge  the 
liens  of  the  State  and  city,  and  make  improvements.  He  had  not 
the  money  at  his  command  to  do  this,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
resort  to  a  loan.  He  applied  to  his  friend  Ward,  a  banker  in 
"Wall  street,  for  the  limited  sum  of  three  thousand  dollars.  The 
application  was  flatly  denied.  This  was  the  more  inexplicable  to 
the  General,  for  the  security  was  abundant  ;  he  had,  in  other  days, 
rendered  Mr.  Ward  some  kind  offices,  and  the  banker,  he  thought, 
had  the  money.  A  kind  friend,  however,  voluntarily  came  forward, 
upon  whom  General  Cass  had  not  the  slightest  claims,  and  fur 
nished  the  desired  accommodation.  With  this  he  stemmed  the  tide 
of  adversity. 

It  required  effort,  however,  to  do  so.  He  was  sixty  years  of 
age,  with  a  family  of  children,  for  whom  he  would  be  glad  to  leave 
an  inheritance  that  should  shield  them  from  want.  At  any  rate, 
he  would  wish  to  feel,  when  he  left  them,  that  his  son  and  three 
daughters,  two  of  whom  were  married,  were  not  entirely  thrown 
upon  the  charities  of  the  people.  To  the  attainment  of  this,  he 
proposed  to  devote  the  residue  of  his  life.  Pecuniary  misfortune, 
for  the  first  time,  had  crossed  his  path.  And  when,  seven  years 
before,  he  bade  his  native  land  adieu  for  a  season,  he  had  consoled 
himself  with  the  reflection,  that,  let  what  would  happen,  he  had 
placed  the  proceeds  of  his  father's  estate  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Muskingum,  where  they  would  be  kept  safe  for  his  own  descend 
ants.  Alas!  the  uncertainty  of  all  human  expectation. 

But,  although  out  of  office,  he  soon  found  that  it  was  quite  diffi 
cult  to  withdraw  his  mind  from  public  concerns.  The  people 
appeared  to  be  indisposed  to  allow  him  to  remain  in  retirement; 
and  constantly  he  was  in  the  receipt  of  letters  asking  for  his  views 
upon  political  topics.  Circumstances  beyond  his  own  control 
made  his  name  prominent  among  the  number  of  eminent  states 
men  from  whom  the  selection  of  the  next  chief  magistrate  would 

O 

be  made.  His  own  wish  was  to  be  let  alone.  If  he  ever,  in  the 
course  of  events,  was  to  occupy  the  Presidential  chair,  he  would 
prefer  to  postpone  the  time.  He  desired  official  repose,  and  an 
opportunity  to  pay  some  little  attention  to  his  own  private  affairs. 
But  the  more  he  protested  the  greater  was  the  ardency  of  his 
friends.  He  vacillated,  and  finally  concluded  to  let  events  take 
their  own  course. 


4:90  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

As  be  reached  Columbus,  Ohio,  on  his  way  homeward,  he  was 
met  with  a  letter  from  the  Democratic  State  Convention  of  the 
State  of  Indiana.  This  letter  requested  his  views  upon  four  points, 
namely — :the  propriety  of  a  national  bank,  the  distribution  of  the 
public  lands  among  the  States,  the  subject  of  a  protective  tariff, 
and  constitutional  amendments.  He  did  not  object  to  giving  his 
views  specifically  and  fully,  but  he  was  aware  that  their  publicity 
would  create  the  impression  that  he  was  not  indifferent  in  his  as 
piration  to  the  Presidency.  Still,  he  was  told  that  his  sentiments 
would  do  good  in  shaping  public  opinion  upon  these  subjects — 
especially  in  Indiana,  where  he  was  so  well  and  so  favorably 
known, — and  therefore  it  was  his  duty  to  give  them,  without  stop 
ping  to  calculate  their  effect  upon  the  Presidency,  so  far  as  he  was 
personally  concerned.  The  Democratic  party  in  Indiana  were  in 
a  minority  in  that  State;  it  was  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  west, 
and  the  ascendancy  of  correct  political  principles,  in  all  that  region, 
was  desirable.  The  source  from  whence  the  request  came  entitled 
it  to  his  respect,  and  he  gave  the  following  reply. 

"COLUMBUS,  Ohio,  Feb.  8th,  1843. 

"  GENTLEMEN  : — Your  letter,  enclosing  the  resolutions  of  the 
Democratic  Convention  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  was  addressed  to 
me  at  Washington,  but  did  not  reach  that  city  till  after  I  had  left 
there.  It  was  then  forwarded  to  me  at  this  place,  and  in  conse 
quence  of  having  stopped  on  the  route,  considerable  delay  has 
occurred  in  its  receipt.  I  make  this  explanation  to  account  for 
that  delay. 

"  I  shall  now  proceed  to  answer  the  questions  proposed  by  the 
convention,  briefly,  but  frankly,  satisfied  it  will  be  more  agree 
able  to  yourselves,  and  your  colleagues  of  the  convention,  that  I 
should  be  explicit,  than  that  I  should  be  led  into  tedious  dis 
sertations. 

"  "With  respect  to  a  national  bank,  I  have  to  remark  that  I  have 
always  entertained  doubts  of  the  power  of  Congress  to  charter 
such  an  institution.  The  indirect  process  by  which  this  power  is 
deduced  from  a  very  general  provision  of  that  instrument,  has 
never  been  satisfactory  to  me.  But  there  is  the  less  necessity  for 
entering  more  in  detail  into  the  constitutional  question,  as  it  seems 
to  me  the  public  voice  has  pronounced  itself,  and  justly,  against 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  491 

the  incorporation  of  any  national  bank  by  Congress.     No  such 
institution  should,  in  my  opinion,  be  established. 

"  In  answer  to  the  second  question,  which  relates  to  the  distri 
bution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  among  the  several 
States,  I  reply,  that  I  think  no  such  distribution  should  be  made. 
I  will  state,  in  a  few  words,  the  grounds  of  this  opinion.  The 
necessary  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  must  come  from  the  people,  and  it  must  be  supplied  by 
direct  or  indirect  taxation,  or  by  the  sale  of  public  property.  The 
general  sentiment  is  opposed  to  direct  taxation  by  the  general 
government  in  time  of  peace;  and  of  course  there  are  left  but  the 
other  two  sources  of  supply  to  meet  its  expenses.  Their  proceeds 
must  constitute  the  revenue  of  the  country;  and  if  one  of  them  is 
abstracted  or  diminished,  an  additional  burthen  is  thrown  upon 
the  other.  Whatever  sum  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  govern 
ment  may  require,  if  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  make  no 
part  of  it,  the  whole  must  be  raised  by  taxation.  If  they  make  part 
of  it,  then  the  amount  of  taxation  is  diminished  by  the  sum  sup 
plied  by  these  proceeds.  It  follows  that  any  proposition  to  divert 
the  proceeds  of  these  lands  from  the  support  of  government,  is,  in 
fact,  but  a  proposition  to  lay  taxes  on  the  people.  If  a  permanent 
annual  revenue  of  eighteen  millions  of  dollars  is  necessary  for  an 
economical  administration  of  the  government,  and  if  two  millions 
of  these  are  produced  by  the  sale  of  public  lands,  let  the  source  of 
this  supply  be  diverted  to  some  other  object,  and  these  two  mil 
lions  must  be  provided  by  the  imposition  of  taxes.  All  this  is  too 
clear  to  need  further  illustration.  A  proposition  then  to  distribute 
the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  among  the  several  States,  is,  in 
effect,  but  a  proposition  to  increase  the  taxation  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States  through  the  medium  of  the  general  government, 
in  order  that  the  amount  thus  increased  may  be  paid  into  the 
treasuries  of  the  respective  States.  To  me  it  appears  perfectly 
clear,  that  whatever  may  be  the  annual  sum  produced  by  the  sale 
of  lands,  that  sum  is  a  part  of  the  revenue  of  the  country,  and  that 
it  is  just  as  competent  for  Congress  to  take  any  other  two  millions, 
supposing  that  to  be  the  amount,  from  the  public  treasury,  and 
divide  them  among  the  States,  as  to  select  for  that  purpose  the 
dollars  actually  produced  by  the  land  sales.  It  seems  to  me  that 
such  a  course  of  action  would  be  injurious  in  practice,  dangerous  in 
principle,  and  without  warrant  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 


492  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

States.  The  theory  of  our  political  institutions  is  familiar  to  us  all. 
The  governments  of  the  confederated  States  have  their  respective 
rights  and  duties  clearly  defined,  and  each  within  its  proper  sphere 
is  independent  of  the  others:  each  raises  and  expends  its  revenue, 
and  performs  all  the  functions  of  a  sovereign  State.  What  right 
has  one  to  interfere  with  another,  unless  in  cases  marked  out  by  the 
Constitution  itself?  If  the  general  government  can  provide  a 
revenue  for  the  respective  States,  and  does  provide  one,  it  is  clear 
that  one  great  distinctive  feature  of  our  political  system  will  dis 
appear,  and  that  the  relations  between  the  confederation  as  such, 
and  the  individual  States  composing  it,  will  be  wholly  changed. 
Human  sagacity  can  not  foretell  what  would  be  the  entire  result  of 
this  state  of  things,  but  it  is  easy  to  predict  that  this  new  applica 
tion  of  the  money  power  would  give  to  the  government  of  the 
United  States  a  strength  never  contemplated  by  the  American 
people,  and  irreconcilable  with  our  constitutional  organization, 
and  that  it  would  lead  to  a  habit  of  dependence  on  the  part  of  the 
States,  by  which  their  efficiency  to  resist  any  encroachments  of  the 
general  government  would  be  paralized.  Without  pushing  these 
considerations  further,  I  conclude  this  branch  of  the  subject  by  re 
peating  that,  in  rny  opinion,  no  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
public  lands  should  be  made. 

"  The  subject  of  the  protective  tariff  has  been  so  long  and  ably 
discussed,  that  it  would  be  useless  for  me  to  do  more  than  to  give 
you  the  result  of  my  views.  I  think,  then,  that  the  revenue  of  the 
government  ought  to  be  brought  down  to  the  lowest  point  compat 
ible  with  the  performance  of  its  constitutional  functions;  and  that 
in  the  imposition  of  duties  necessary,  with  the  proceeds  of  the 
public  lands,  to  provide  this  revenue,  incidental  protection  should 
be  afforded  to  such  branches  of  American  industry  as  may  re 
quire  it.  This  appears  to  me  not  only  constitutional,  but  called 
for  by  the  great  interests  of  the  country;  and  if  a  protective  tariff 
upon  this  principle  were  wisely  and  moderately  established,  and 
then  left  to  its  own  operation,  so  that  the  community  could  calcu 
late  upon  its  reasonable  duration,  and  thus  avoid  ruinous  fluctua 
tions,  we  might  look  for  as  general  an  acquiescence  in  the  arrange 
ment  as  we  can  ever  expect  in  questions  of  this  complicated  kind, 
when  local  feelings  have  been  enlisted,  which  a  prudent  legislature 
must  consult  more  or  less,  and  endeavor  to  reconcile. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  493 

"  A  proposition  to  amend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
is  one  which  I  should  always  receive  with  great  caution.  There 
is  already  in  our  country  too  great  a  disposition  to  seek,  in 
changes  of  the  laws  and  Constitution,  remedies  for  evils  to  which 
all  societies  are  more  or  less  liable,  instead  of  leaving  them  to 
find  their  own  cure  in  the  operation  of  the  ordinary  causes  which 
act  upon  communities.  It  is  often  better  to  suffer  a  partial  in 
convenience,  than  rashly  to  alter  the  fundamental  principles  of  a 
political  system.  Stability  is  better  than  change,  when  change  is 
not  decidedly  called  for.  I  am  not  aware  that  the  exercise  of  the 
veto  power  has,  for  many  years,  produced  any  injury  to  the  public 
service.  On  the  contrary,  I  think  in  those  cases  where  it  has  been 
recently  interposed,  it  has  been  properly  applied,  and  that  its 
action  has  been  approved  by  a  great  majority  of  the  people.  I 
see,  therefore,  no  practical  evil  which  demands,  in  this  respect,  a 
change  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Should  cases  of 
that  nature  occur,  it  will  then  be  time  to  seek  the  proper  remedy. 

"With  great  respect,  gentlemen,  I  have  the  honor  to  be  your 
obedient  servant, 

"  LEWIS  CASS. 

"To  ETHAN  A.  BROWN,  JOHN  LAW,  NATHANIEL  WEST,  JOHN 

"  PETTIT,  JESSE  D.  BRIGHT,  and  A.  C.  PEPPER,  Esquires." 


In  the  spring  of  this  year,  a  large  political  meeting  was  held  in 
Cincinnati,  at  which  an  address  and  resolutions  were  adopted, 
expressing  great  partiality  for  General  Cass  for  the  Presidency. 
Mr.  Yan  JBuren,  Mr.  Calhoun,  Mr.  Buchanan,  Colonel  Benton, 
and  Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson,  were  named  for  the  same  posi 
tion.  All  of  them  were  fully  qualified  to  administer  the  govern 
ment,  and  members  of  the  same  party.  The  meeting  alluded  to, 
in  canvassing  their  respective  qualifications,  acknowledged  their 
fitness  for  the  position,  but  expressed  the  conviction  that  there 
was  a  sectionality  attached  to  each  of  them,  with  the  exception  of 
the  first  named,  which  would  not  fail  to  have  its  influence  when 
they  came  before  the  whole  people  at  the  polls.  As  to  Mr.  Yan 
Buren,  he  had  once  held  the  post,  with  high  credit  to  himself  and 
country,  it  was  true,  but  he  had,  as  his  term  approached  its  close, 
again  been  presented  to  the  suffrages  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and 
they,  by  a  paramount  majority,  had  declined  to  vote  for  his 


4:94  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

continuance.  This  fact,  it  was  thought,  would  weaken  him  if  once 
more  brought  out,  and  the  Presidential  canvass  again  terminate  in 
his  defeat.  To  the  permanent  success  of  the  Democratic  party, 
this  meeting  proclaimed  that  it  was  necessary  to  nominate  the  man 
who  "  could  go  before  the  American  people,  commanding  the  most 
heartfelt  enthusiasm,  and  combining  the  most  elements  of  success; 
and  such  a  man  is  Lewis  Cass — a  man  who  exemplifies  in  his  own 
person  and  history  one  of  the  best  traits  of  our  institutions." 

Meetings  of  a  similar  character,  and  expressive  of  the  same 
sentiments,  were  held  in  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Indeed,  in  a 
few  months  they  became  general  and  enthusiastic.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  object  of  all  these  attentions  was  quietly  attending  to  his 
own  private  affairs  at  his  home  in  Detroit.  He  had  not  seen 
General  Jackson  since  his  return  from  France,  and  thought  of 
visiting  his  venerable  friend  at  the  Hermitage  in  Tennessee,  when 
he  received  the  following  letter,  full  of  approval  of  his  course  at 
the  Court  of  St.  Cloud. 

"HERMITAGE,  July,  1843. 

"My  DEAR  SIR: —  I  have  the  pleasure  to  acknowledge  your 
friendly  letter  of  the  25th  of  May  last.  It  reached  me  in  due 
course  of  mail,  but  such  were  my  debility  and  afflictions,  that  I 
have  been  prevented  from  replying  to  it  until  now;  and  even  now 
it  is  with  difficulty  that  I  write.  In  return  for  your  expressions 
with  regard  to  myself,  I  have  to  remark  that  I  shall  ever  recollect, 
my  dear  General,  with  great  satisfaction,  the  relations,  both  private 
and  official,  which  subsisted  between  us  during  the  greater  part 
of  my  administration.  Having  full  confidence  in  your  abilities 
and  republican  principles,  I  invited  you  to  my  cabinet,  and  I  never 
can  forget  with  what  discretion  and  talents  you  met  those  great 
and  delicate  questions  which  were  brought  before  you  whilst  you 
presided  over  the  Department  of  War,  which  entitled  you  to  my 
thanks,  and  will  be  ever  recollected  with  the  most  lively  feeling  of 
friendship  by  me. 

"  But  what  has  endeared  you  to  every  true  American,  was  the 
noble  stand  which  you  took,  as  our  minister  at  Paris,  against  the 
quintuple  treaty,  and  which,  by  your  talents,  energy,  and  fearless 
responsibility,  defeated  its  ratification  by  France  —  a  treaty  in 
tended  by  Great  Britain  to  change  our  international  laws,  make 
her  mistress  of  the  seas,  and  destroy  the  national  independence, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  495 

not  only  of  our  own  country,  but  of  all  Europe,  and  enable  her  to 
become  the  tyrant  on  every  ocean.  Had  Great  Britain  obtained 
the  sanction  to  this  treaty,  (with  the  late  disgraceful  treaty  of 
"Washington  —  so  disreputable  to  our  national  character,  and 
injurious  to  our  national  safety,)  then,  indeed,  we  might  have  hung 
up  our  harps  upon  the  willow,  and  resigned  our  national  indepen 
dence  to  Great  Britain.  But,  I  repeat,  to  your  talents,  energy, 
and  fearless  responsibility,  we  are  indebted  for  the  shield  thrown 
over  us  from  the  impending  danger  which  the  ratification  of  the 
quintuple  treaty  by  France  would  have  brought  upon  us.  For  this 
act,  the  thanks  of  every  true  American,  and  the  applause  of  every 
true  republican,  are  yours;  and  for  this  noble  act  I  tender  you 
my  thanks. 

"  Receive  assurance  of  my  friendship  and  esteem. 

"ANDREW  JACKSON." 

It  would  be  difficult  for  one  to  write  a  letter  expressing  sincerer 
or  warmer  friendship  and  respect.  And  it  was  the  more  gratify 
ing  to  General  Cass'  feelings,  because  it  so  effectually  annihilated 
the  impudent  rumor  set  afloat  by  impudent  persons,  that  he  stood 
at  a  low  mark  with  General  Jackson,  and  that  the  latter  had  posted 
him  to^France  to  get  rid  of  him.  The  truth  is  —  and  so  it  was 
known  to  be  by  General  Jackson's  intimate  friends  in  Tennessee 
• — that  General  Cass  was  the  adviser,  on  extraordinary  occasions, 
all  the  while  he  was  Secretary  of  "War.  But  what  gave  greater 
value  to  this  letter,  in  the  estimation  of  General  Cass,  at  this 
particular  time,  was  the  unqualified  approval  it  contained  of  his 
course  towards  Britain's  claim  to  the  right  of  search,  and  of  its 
unqualified  disapproval  of  the  disgraceful  treaty  of  Washington. 
It  was  on  this  subject  that  General  Cass  felt  the  greatest  interest 
then,  and  in  relation  to  which  he  had  the  greatest  desire  to  hear 
from  valued  friends.  General  Jackson,  in  the  quiet  groves  of  the 
Hermitage,  had  watched  the  progress  of  British  diplomacy,  and 
duly  estimated  the  herculean  difficulties  with  which  our  minister 
Lad  been  environed.  And  as  a  friend  both  to  him  and  his  country, 
the  venerable  patriot  felt  that,  if  his  government  would  not  stand 
by  him,  the  people  would  do  so,  and  for  one,  he  did,  with  all  his 
heart. 


496  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

General  Cass  delivers  an  Oration  at  Fort  Wayne — The  Celebration — Preparations  for  the  Presidential 
Election — The  Candidates — The  Texas  Question — General  Cass'  views — The  National  Democratic 
Convention  of  1844 — Letter  of  General  Cass  to  the  Delegates  from  Michigan — The  Whig  Convention 
—The  Democratic  Ticket— Support  of  General  Cass— The  Result. 

On  the  fourth  of  July,  1843,  General  Cass  delivered  an  oration 
at  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the 
completion  of  the  Wabash  and  Erie  Canal — the  union  of  the  lakes 
and  of  the  Mississippi.  Thousands  of  his  fellow-citizens,  far  and 
near,  came  out  to  see  and  hear  him.  It  was  a  proud  day  for  the 
States  of  Ohio  and  Indiana — the  two  sister  and  contiguous  States 
that  projected  and  completed  the  great  communication  —  and  it 
was  a  proud  day  for  him.  Onward,  he  told  them,  was  the  mighty 
word  of  our  age  and  country.  He  entertained  his  vast  audience 
with  sublime  thoughts  and  words  of  eloquence.  He  told  them 
what  the  country  they  inhabited  was,  forty  years  before,  £nd  u  to 
day,"  said  he,  "  a  new  work  is  born  ;  a  work  of  peace  and  not  of 
war.  We  are  celebrating  the  triumph  of  art,  and  not  of  arms. 
Centuries  hence,  we  may  hope  that  the  river  you  have  made 
will  still  flow  both  east  and  west,  bearing  upon  its  bosom  the 
riches  of  a  prosperous  people,  and  that  our  descendants  will  come 
to  keep  the  day  which  we  have  come  to  mark.  Associations  are 
powerful  in  the  older  regions  of  the  Eastern  continent.  They, 
however,  belong  to  the  past.  Here  they  are  fresh  and  vigorous, 
and  belong  to  the  future.  There,  hope  is  extinct,  and  history  has 
closed  its  record.  Here  we  have  no  past.  All  has  been  done 
within  the  memory  of  man.  Our  province  of  action  is  the  pres 
ent,  of  contemplation,  the  future.  No  man  can  stand  upon  the 
scene  of  one  of  those  occurrences  which  has  produced  a  decisive 
effect  upon  the  fate  of  nations,  and  which  history  has  rendered 
familiar  to  us  from  youth,  without  being  withdrawn  from  the 
influence  of  the  present,  and  carried  back  to  the  period  of  conflict, 
of  doubt,  and  of  success,  which  attended  some  mighty  struggle. 
All  this  is  the  triumph  of  mind,  the  exertion  of  intellect,  which 


OF  LEWIS  CASS, 

elevates  us  in  the  scale  of  being,  and  furnishes  us  with  another 
and  pure  source  of  enjoyment.  Even  recent  events,  round  which 
time  has  not  gathered  its  shadows,  sanctify  the  places  of  their 
origin.  What  American  can  survey  the  field  of  battle  at  Bunker 
Hill,  or  at  New  Orleans,  without  recalling  the  deeds  which  will 
render  these  names  imperishable?  Who  can  pass  the  islands  of 
Lake  Erie,  without  thinking  upon  those  who  sleep  in  the  waters 
below,  and  upon  the  victory  which  broke  the  power  of  the  enemy, 
and  led  to  the  security  of  an  extensive  frontier  ?  There,  no  mon 
ument  can  be  erected,  for  the  waves  roll,  and  will  roll,  over  them. 
I  have  stood  upon  the  plain  of  Marathon,  the  battle-field  of  liberty. 
It  is  silent  and  desolate.  Neither  Greek  nor  Persian  is  there  to 
give  life  and  animation  to  the  scene.  It  is  bounded  by  sterile 
hills  on  one  side,  and  lashed  by  the  eternal  waves  of  the  ^Egean 
sea  on  the  other.  But  Greek  and  Persian  were  once  there,  and 
that  dreary  spot  was  alive  with  hostile  armies  who  fought  the  great 
fight  which  rescued  Greece  from  the  yoke  of  Persia.  And  I  have 
stood  also  upon  the  hill  of  Sion,  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  the  scene  of 
our  Redeemer's  sufferings,  and  crucifixion,  and  ascension.  But  the 
scepter  has  departed  from  Judah,  and  its  glory  from  the  capital 
of  Solomon.  The  Assyrian,  the  Egyptian,  the  Greek,  the  Roman, 
the  Arab,  the  Turk,  and  the  crusader,  have  passed  over  this  chief 
place  of  Israel,  and  have  reft  it  of  its  power  and  beauty.  But 
here  we  are  in  the  freshness  of  youth,  and  can  look  forward,  with 
rational  confidence,  to  ages  of  progress  in  all  that  gives  power  and 
pride  to  man,  and  dignity  to  human  nature.  No  deeds  of  glory 
hallow  this  region;  but  nature  has  been  bountiful  to  it  in  its  gifts, 
and  art  and  industry  are  at  work  to  improve  and  extend  them. 
You  can  not  pierce  the  barrier  which  shuts  in  the  past  and  sepa 
rates  you  from  by-gone  ages :  but  you  have  done  better  than 
that,  you  have  pierced  the* barriers  which  isolated  you  and  sepa 
rated  you  from  the  great  highway  of  nations.  You  have  opened 
a  vista  to  the-  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  From  this 
elevated  point,  two  seas  are  before  us,  which  your  energy  and 
perseverance  have  brought  within  reach.  It  is  better  to  look 
forward  to  prosperity  than  back  to  glory.  To  the  mental  eye,  no 
prospect  can  be  more  magnificent  than  here  meets  the  vision.  I 
need  not  stop  to  describe  it.  It  is  before  us,  in  the  long  regions 
of  fertile  land  which  stretch  off  to  the  east  and  west,  to  the  south 
and  north;  in  all  the  advantages  which  Providence  has  liberally 
32 


498  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

bestowed  upon  them,  and  in  the  changes  and  improvements  which 
man  is  making.  The  forest  is  fading  and  falling,  and  towns  and 
villages  are  rising  and  flourishing;  and,  better  still,  a  moral,  intel 
ligent,  and  industrious  people  are  spreading  themselves  over 
the  whole  face  of  the  country,  and  making  it  their  own  and  their 
home. 

"And  what  changes  and  chances  await  us?  Shall  we  go  on, 
increasing,  and  improving,  and  united  ?  or  shall  we  add  another 
to  the  list  of  the  republics  which  have  preceded  us,  and  which 
have  fallen  the  victims  of  their  own  follies  and  dissensions?  My 
faith  in  the  stability  of  our  institutions  is  enduring,  my  hope  is 
strong:  for  they  rest  upon  public  virtue  and  intelligence.  There 
is  no  portion  of  our  country  more  interested  in  their  preservation 
than  this,  and  no  one  more  able  and  willing  to  maintain  them. 
We  may  here  claim  to  occupy  the  citadel  of  freedom.  No  foreign 
foe  can  approach  us.  And  while  the  West  is  true  to  itself  and 
its  country,  its  example  will  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  the 
whole  confederation;  and  its  strength,  if  need  be,  will  defend  it." 

Throughout  the  year  1843,  the  public  mind  became  absorbed  in 
the  Presidential  election,  and  the  politicians  of  both  the  Whig  and 
Democratic  parties  were  active  in  preparing  for  the  nominating 
conventions.  The  Whigs  were,  to  a  great  extent,  disappointed 
with  the  national  administration.  They  had  achieved  success  in 
1840,  but  Harrison's  death  disconcerted  all  their  plans,  and  it  was 
a  barren  victory.  Mr.  Tyler  vetoed  the  bill  for  the  re-charter  of 
the  United  States  bank,  despite  the  protest  of  Mr.  Clay  and  other 
eminent  statesmen  of  the  Whig  school.  This  act  of  Mr.  Tyler's 
produced  an  immediate  collision,  and  resulted  in  an  abandonment 
of  the  administration  by  the  Whigs,  in  most  of  their  strongholds 
throughout  the  Union.  To  sustain  himself,  Mr.  Tyler  removed 
many  of  the  supporters  of  Harrison  from  office,  and  substituted 
Democrats  in  their  stead.  This  course  of  policy  brought  down 
upon  him  the  opprobrium  of  the  Whig  press:  but  as  the  Democrats 
approved  of  the  veto,  this,  with  the  bestowal  of  the  patronage, 
awakened  much  sympathy.  But  the  political  policy  of  the  Pre 
sident  diverted  many  Whigs  from  their  accustomed  allegiance, 
and  encouraged  the  Democrats  to  look  forward  to  the  election 
of  1844  with  more  sanguine  expectation  of  success.  This,  as 
an  inevitable  consequence,  caused  greater  emulation  among  the 
Democratic  aspirants  for  official  station,  and  thus,  as  the  time 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  499 

approached  for  the  primary  assemblages,  unprecedented  activity 
prevailed;  especially  so  in  the  northern  States,  where  the  caucus 
dictates  what  shall  be  done,  and  from  whose  decree,  by  common 
consent,  there  was  no  appeal,  so  far  as  the  internal  arrangements 
of  the  party  were  concerned. 

The  Presidency  was  the  theme  of  political  conversation  in  every 
locality.  It  was  soon  well  settled  that  Mr.  Clay  would  be  the 
nominee  of  the  Whigs,  and  all  that  remained  for  a  formal  presen 
tation  of  his  name  to  the  people  was  the  holding  of  a  national  con 
vention.  The  partizans  of  the  President  were  known  as  the  Tyler 
party,  acting  under  a  distinct  organization,  leaving  the  Whigs 
proper  a  unit  in  their  action  and  councils.  The  condition  of  the 
Democratic  party  was  different.  Many  were  partial  to  Mr.  Van 
Buren.  They  regarded  his  defeat  in  1840  as  more  truly  ascrib- 
able  to  corruption  and  deception,  than  want  of  confidence  in  him 
personally,  or  opposition  to  the  measures  of  his  administration ; 
and  they  believed  that  the  people,  in  their  "  sober  second  thought," 
would  reverse  the  decision,  if  an  opportunity  was  afforded  in  1844. 
Besides,  they  felt  that  it  would  be  a  just  rebuke  to  fraud  and 
incompetency;  and  that  no  more  unwelcome  punishment  could  be 
inflicted  upon  the  Whig  party,  than  to  elect  the  man  whom  they 
had  beaten  so  badly  in  the  previous  campaign.  His  warmer 
adherents  declared  that  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren  would 
produce  in  the  Democratic,  ranks  "  ardor  and  enthusiasm,"  and 
that  the  masses  would  rally  with  an  alacrity  and  enthusiasm  that 
would  be  resistless.  Among  his  friends  were  many  able  states 
men  and  adroit  political  tacticians  :  men  of  experience  in  man 
agement  and  thoroughly  conversant  with  all  the  facilities  for 
manufacturing  public  opinion,  Conventions,  in  many  States, 
were  held  early,  and  the  delegates  to  the  National  Democratic 
convention  appointed  in  the  regular  way.  Resolutions  were 
passed  indicating  a  preference  for  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  and  it  was 
ascertained,  in  the  winter  of  1844,  some  three  months  prior  to  the 
time  designated  for  the  holding  of  the  convention,  that  a  majority 
of  the  delegation  was  favorable  to  Mr.  Yan  Buren. 

When  the  canvass  for  the  nomination  had  reached  this  point, 
the  people  began  to  pause,  and  reflect  upon  the  chances  of  success. 
It  was  apparent  that  the  heart  of  the  masses  did  not  respond  to 
the  preference  which  had  thus  been  given  in  the  conventions ; 
and  far-seeing  politicians  began  to  doubt  the  propriety  of  the 


500  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

nomination  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren  when  the  national  convention  should 
assemble.  They  feared  defeat ;  it  stared  them  in  the  face ;  and 
more  or  less  murmurings  were  heard.  The  people  began  to  get 
together  and  give  utterance  to  this  feeling  of  distrust.  Meetings 
of  towns  and  counties  were  held  in  various  sections  of  the  country, 
in  effect  nullifying  the  action  of  their  delegates  in  convention,  and 
declaring  their  choice  to  lie  in  some  other  direction. 

In  the  meantime,  the  President  had  opened  a  negotiation  with 
the  authorities  of  Texas,  with  reference  to  the  admission  of  that 
country  into  the  Union  as  a  sovereign  State.  Public  opinion  was 
divided  upon  the  question  of  annexation.  Statesmen  and  poli 
ticians  differed.  Some  were  in  favor  of  admission  if  slavery  was 
abolished  in  the  territory;  others,  not  at  present,  but  by  and  by; 
whilst  a  third  class  pronounced  for  immediate  annexation,  taking 
the  country  and  its  institutions  as  they  were.  The  first  class  of 
objectors  belonged  to  the  Whig  and  Abolition  parties ;  the  other 
two  to  the  Democratic.  Hence,  the  latter  party  was  inharmonious 
upon  an  important  measure — upon  a  question  of  principle.  Large 
and  enthusiastic  meetings  were  held  in  many  places,  and  the  ques 
tion,  \vho,  of  the  men  named  for  the  Presidency  were  in  favor  of 
the  immediate  annexation  of  Texas,  assumed  shape,  and  letters  of 
inquiry,  and  the  answers  thereto,  wTere  published  to  the  world. 
A  majority  declared  for  immediate  annexation.  Mr.  Yan  Buren 
was  opposed  to  it.  The  Sage  of  the  Hermitage,  though  not  a  can 
didate  for  office,  came  forth  from  his  retirement,  and  energetically 
advocated  the  measure. 

General  Cass  was  among  the  number  interrogated,  and,  in  a 
responsive  letter  to  Mr.  Hannegan,  then  in  Congress,  he  declared 
his  opinion  in  the  following  unequivocal  language : 

"DETROIT,  May  10th,  1844. 

"  DEAR  SIB  : — In  answer  to  your  inquiry  whether  I  am  favorable 
to  the  immediate  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States,  I  reply 
that  I  am.  As  you  demand  my  opinion  only  of  this  measure,  and 
briefly  the  reasons  which  influence  me,  I  shall  confine  myself  to 
these  points. 

"I  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  policy  of  uniting  coterminous  coun 
tries  situated  like  ours  and  Texas,  with  no  marked  geographical 
features  to  divide  them,  and  with  navigable  streams  penetrating 
the  limits  of  both  ;  nor  upon  the  common  origin  of  the'  people  who 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  501 

inhabit  them  ;  upon  the  common  manners,  language,  religion, 
institutions,  and,  in  fact,  their  identity  as  a  branch  of  the  human 
family.  Nor  shall  I  urge  the  material  interests  involved  in  the 
measure,  by  the  free  intercourse  it  would  establish  between  the 
various  sections  of  a  vast  country  mutually  dependent  upon  and 
supplying  one  another.  These  considerations  are  so  obvious  that 
they  need  no  elucidation  from  me. 

"  But,  in  a  military  point  of  view,  annexation  strikes  me  as  still 
more  important,  and  my  mind  has  been  the  more  forcibly  im 
pressed  with  this  idea  from  reading  the  able  letter  of  General 
Jackson  upon  this  subject,  which  has  just  come  under  my  obser 
vation.  With  the  intuition  which  makes  part  of  the  character  of 
that  great  man  and  pure  patriot,  he  has  foreseen  the  use  which  a 
European  enemy  might  make  of  Texas  in  the  event  of  a  war  with 
the  United  States.  A  lodgment  in  that  country  would  lay  open 
the  whole  south-western  border  to  his  depredations.  We  could 
establish  no  fortress  nor  occupy  any  favorable  position  to  check 
him,  for  the  immense  frontier  may,  in  a  vast  many  places,  be 
crossed  as  readily  as  a  man  passes  from  one  part  of  his  farm  to 
another.  The  advantages  an  active  enemy  would  enjoy,  under 
such  circumstances,  it  requires  no  sagacity  to  foretell. 

"These  considerations  recall  to  my  memory  an  article  which 
made  its  appearance  just  before  I  left  Europe,  in  a  leading  tory 
periodical  in  England,  which  is  understood  to  speak- the  senti 
ments  of  a  powerful  party.  This  is  Frazer's  Magazine,  and  a  more 
nefarious  article  never  issued  from  a  profligate  press.  It  ought 
to  be  stereotyped,  and  circulated  from  one  end  of  our  country  to 
the  other,  to  show  the  designs  which  are  in  agitation  against  us, 
and  to  teach  us  that  our  safety,  in  that  mighty  contest  which  is 
coming  upon  us,  is  in  a  knowledge  of  our  danger,  and  in  a  deter 
mination,  by  union  and  by  a  wise  forecast,  to  meet  it  and  defeat 
it.  The  spirit  of  this  article  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  its  title, 
which  is  '  A  War  with  the  United  States  a  Blessing  to  Mankind.' 
I  can  not  refer  to  it  at  this  moment,  but  must  speak  of  it  from 
recollection.  I  have  often  been  surprised  it  has  not  attracted  more 
attention  in  our  country.  Its  object  was  to  excite  a  war  with  the 
United  States,  and  to  lay  down  the  plan  of  a  campaign  which 
would  soonest  bring  it  to  a  fortunate  conclusion  for  England.  The 
basis  of  this  plan  was  the  organization  of  a  necessary  black  force 
in  the  West  India  islands,  and  its  debarkation  upon  our  southern 


502  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

coast.  The  consequences  which  our  enemies  fondly  hoped  for  in 
such  a  case,  but  with  an  entire  ignorance  of  the  true  state  of  the 
country,  were  foretold  with  a  rare  union  of  philanthropy  and 
hatred.  I  wish  I  had  the  number  at  hand,  to  cull  some  choice 
passages  for  your  reflection.  The  result  was  to  be  the  destruction 
of  the  Southern  States,  the  ruin  or  depression  of  others,  and  the 
dissolution  of  this  great  and  glorious  confederacy,  on  which  the 
last  hopes  of  freedom  through  the  world  now  rest. 

"  What  more  favorable  position  could  be  taken  for  the  occupa 
tion  of  English  black  troops,  and  for  letting  them  loose  upon  the 
Southern  States,  than  is  afforded  by  Texas  ?  Incapable  of  resist 
ing,  in  an  event  of  a  war  between  us  and  England,  she  would  be 
taken  possession  of  by  the  latter  under  one  or  another  of  those 
pretenses  every  page  of  her  history  furnishes,  and  the  Territory 
would  become  the  depot  whence  she  would  carry  on  her  opera 
tions  against  us,  and  attempt  to  add  a  servile  war  to  the  other 
calamities  which  hostilities  bring  with  them.  He  who  doubts 
whether  this  would  be  done,  has  yet  to  learn  another  trait  in  the 
annals  of  national  antipathy.  It  would  be  done,  and  would  be 
called  philanthropy. 

"Every  day  satisfies  me  more  and  more  that  a  majority  of  the 
American  people  are  in  favor  of  annexation.  Were  they  not.  the 
measure  ought  not  to  be  effected.  But  as  they  are,  the  sooner  it 
is  effected  the  better.  I  do  not  touch  the  details  of  the  negotiation. 
That  must  be  left  to  the  responsibilities  of  the  government,  as  also 
must  the  bearing  of  the  question  upon  its  reception  by  other  coun 
tries.  Those  are  points  I  do  not  here  enter  into. 
"  I  am,  dear  Sir,  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  LEWIS  CASS. 

"  HON.  EDWAKD  HANNAGAN." 

The  Democratic  national  convention  convened  at  Baltimore, 
in  May,  1844.  The  ballotings  disclosed  the  fact  that  Messrs.  Yan 
Buren,  Cass,  Richard  M.  Johnson,  Buchanan,  Woodbury,  Cal- 
houn,  and  Stewart,  severally  had  supporters  in  the  convention. 
The  first  two,  respectively,  received  the  most  votes.  The  conven 
tion  adopted  the  rule  of  the  conventions  of  1832  and  1835, 
requiring  the  nominee  to  be  chosen  by  two-thirds  of  the  members 
voting.  There  were  two  hundred  and  fifty  delegates,  and  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  503 

requisite  two-third  number  was  one  hundred  and  seventy-six.  On 
the  first  ballot,  Mr.  Yan  Buren  had  much  the  largest  vote,  but  not 
within  twenty  of  the  required  number.  As  the  balloting  pro 
ceeded,  General  Cass  gained  strength,  and  on  the  seventh  ballot, 
received  twenty-four  votes  more  than  Mr.  Yan  Buren.  On  the 
eighth  ballot,  Massachusetts  cast  five,  Pennsylvania  two,  Maryland 
one,  Alabama  nine,  Louisiana  six,  and  Tennessee  thirteen  votes 
for  James  K.  Polk  of  Tennessee.  The  announcement  of  the  result 
of  this  ballot  created  a  sensation.  The  name  of  Mr.  Polk  had  not 
before  been  mentioned  publicly  for  the  Presidency,  and  bringing 
it  forward  at  this  juncture,  presented  an  opportunity  to  the  sup 
porters  of  Messrs.  Cass  and  Yan  Buren,  of  uniting  upon  a  candi 
date  that  would  be  acceptable,  under  the  circumstances,  to  the 
friends  of  those  gentlemen  throughout  the  country.  The  conven 
tion  proceeded  to  the  ninth  ballot,  during  which  the  JSTew  York 
and  Yirginia  delegations  withdrew  for  consultation.  ]S"ew  York 
had  uniformly  and  unanimously  supported  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  and 
Yirginia  had  steadily  cast  her  vote  for  General  Cass  :  upon  their 
return  into  the  convention,  both  States  cast  their  vote  for  Mr. 
Polk. 

That  there  might  be  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  an  unanimous 
choice  of  a  candidate  by  the  convention,  General  Cass  had  author 
ized  his  name  to  be  withdrawn  ;  and  at  this  stage  of  the  proceed 
ings,  Edward  Bradley,  a  delegate  from  Michigan,  produced  the 
following  letter,  which  was  read  to  the  convention  and  received 
with  applause. 

"DETROIT,  May  19th,  1844. 

"GENTLEMEN: — It  is  possible  that  my  name,  among  others,  may 
come  before  the  convention  which  is  about  to  meet  at  Baltimore. 
I  am  at  a  distance,  and  can  do  nothing  to  meet  the  contingencies 
which  may  arise  during  its  discussion.  You  will  all  do  me  the 
justice,  I  am  sure,  to  say  that  I  have  taken  as  little  part  in  passing 
events  as  it  was  possible  for  any  man  in  my  position  to  take.  I 
have  sat  still,  quietly  awaiting  the  result,  and  determined  to  be 
satisfied  with  it,  whatever  it  might  be. 

"  Though  your  first  choice  for  President  has  been  directed  to 
the  eminent  statesman  who  has  already  so  ably  administered  the 
government,  still  it  is  possible  that  circumstances  affecting  neither 
his  services  nor  his  merits  may  induce  you  to  seek  some  other 


504  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

candidate,  and  in  that  event,  if  State  pride  should  not  supply  my 
other  deficiencies  and  lead  your  attention  to  me,  it  may  yet  create 
some  interest  in  my  position,  and  a  desire  that  I  should  dishonor 
neither  myself,  our  party,  nor  the  State.  I  have  thought,  there 
fore,  I  might  so  far  calculate  upon  your  indulgence,  as  to  briefly 
lay  before  you  my  sentiments  under  existing  circumstances,  and 
to  ask  your  aid  in  carrying  my  intentions  into  effect. 

"  I  never  sought  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States.  When 
in  France,  I  declined  being  a  candidate,  in  answer  to  an  applica 
tion  made  to  me  by  a  respectable  committee  of  citizens  of  Phila 
delphia.  When  I  returned,  I  found  my  name  was  before  the 
country,  and  the  matter  seemed  to  have  passed  beyond  my  con 
trol.  I  often  regretted  this,  and  frequently  vacillated  respecting 
the  course  I  ought  to  adopt,  till  time  and  events  took  from  me  the 
power  of  decision.  I  mention  these  impressions  to  show  you  that 
in  reaching  the  conclusion  at  which  I  have  now  arrived,  and 
am  about  to  announce  to  you,  I  have  made  no  sacrifice  of  feeling, 
and  shall  experience  no  regret. 

"  We  can  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  dissensions  exist  in 
the  ranks  of  our  party,  which  threaten  its  defeat.  Without  form 
ing  any  opinion  respecting  their  origin  and  progress,  their  exist 
ence  is  enough  to  excite  the  solicitude  of  all  who  believe  that  the 
prosperity  of  the  country  is  closely  connected  with  the  success  of 
the  Democratic  party. 

"  1  hope  and  trust  that  a  wise  spirit  of  conciliation  will  animate 
the  Baltimore  convention,  and  that  its  decision  will  restore  to  us 
harmony  and  confidence.  But  I  have  determined  not  to  be  in  the 
way  of  this  desirable  result.  And  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  letter 
to  announce  to  you  this  resolution.  Should  it  be  thought  by  the 
convention,  with  reasonable  unanimity,  that  the  party  had  better 
present  my  name  to  the  country,  I  shall  submit,  and  prepare  my 
self  for  the  contest.  But  if  there  is  such  a  division  of  opinion  on 
the  subject  as  to  show  that  a  hearty  and  united  exertion  would 
not  be  made  in  my  favor,!  beg  you  to  withdraw  my  name  without 
hesitation.  We  shall  need  all  our  force  in  the  coming  struggle. 
If  that  is  exerted,  we  shall  succeed  ;  if  not,  we  shall  fail.  I  will 
neither  put  to  hazard  the  Democratic  party,  nor  have  any  agency 
in  bringing  the  election  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  —  one 
of  the  trials  to  be  most  deprecated  under  our  Constitution. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  505 

"These,  gentlemen,  are  my  views,  and,  if  necessary,  I  beg  you 
to  announce  them,  and  to  declare  me  not  a  candidate,  in  case  there 
is  not  reasonable  hope  that  the  party  will  unite  in  my  favor.  I 
do  not  doubt  that  in  such  an  event  my  friends  will  abandon  all 
personal  predilection,  and  prove  their  devotion  to  principles,  by 
a  zealous  support  of  the  nominee  of  the  convention. 
"  With  great  regard 

"  I  am,  gentlemen, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"LEWIS  CASS. 

"  To  the  Delegates  from  the  State  of 

"  Michigan,  to  the  Baltimore  Convention." 

In  compliance  with  the  request  contained  in  this  letter,  the 
delegates  from  Michigan  withdrew  the  name  of  General  Cass  from 
the  list  of  candidates,  and  the  delegates  from  New  York  withdrew 
the  name  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren.  Mr.  Polk  was  then  unanimously 
nominated  for  President.  This  was  followed  by  the  nomination 
of  Silas  Wright  for  Vice  President ;  but  this  gentleman,  who  was 
in  Washington,  peremptorily  declined,  and  George  M.  Dallas,  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  nominated  in  his  stead. 

The  Whig  convention  nominated  Mr.  Clay  for  President,  and 
Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  of  JSTew  Jersey,  for  Yice  President. 
The  Presidental  canvass  was  now  fairly  opened.  It  was  Polk — 
surnamed  Young  Hickory — and  Dallas,  on  the  one  side;  and  Clay 
and  Frelinghuysen  on  the  other.  The  contest,  from  the  start,  was 
animated  all  over  the  Union.  Annexation  of  Texas  and  the  tariff 
were  the  two  leading  issues.  The  Whigs  evaded  the  bank 
question,  and  the  Democrats,  considering  that  subject  defunct, 
did  not  press  it,  although  it  was  often  referred  to  in  their  speeches 
and  resolutions. 

The  friends  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren  —  especially  his  confidential 
friends  —  were  disappointed  at  the  result  of  the  convention,  and 
chagrined.  They  knew  that  a  majority  of  the  delegates  were 
instructed,  impliedly  or  expressly,  to  cast  their  votes  for  him,  and 
they  had  anticipated  a  different  result.  But,  after  reflection  upon 
the  cause  of  this  discomfiture,  it  was  evident  that  the  Texas 
question  had  intervened,  and  to  this  alone  was  to  be  ascribed  the 
preference  of  the  convention. 


506  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

As  soon  as  the  announcement  of  the  ticket  reached  the  people 
at  home,  they  rallied  to  its  support  with  enthusiasm.  Katification 
meetings  were  held  in  all  the  large  cities  and  towns,  and  arrange 
ments  immediately  made  to  perfect  a  thorough  organization. 
"When  the  news  reached  Detroit,  the  democracy  of  that  city,  over 
looking  their  own  disappointment  in  not  having  their  distinguished 
and  favorite  candidate  presented  to  the  electors  of  the  country, 
rallied  en  masse  to  respond  to  the  nomination.  General  Cass  came 
forward  from  his  retirement,  and  addressed  his  fellow  Democrats, 
and  asked  for  the  ticket  an  energetic  and  hearty  support.  "  He 
had  come  there,"  he  said,  "  to  take  part  in  the  proceedings,  to 
express  his  hearty  concurrence  in  the  nominations  made  by  the 
Baltimore  Democratic  convention,  and  to  announce  the  determina 
tion  faithfully  to  support  them.  The  Democratic  party  had  just 
passed  through  a  crisis  which  served  to  prove  the  integrity  of  its 
principle,  and  the  internal  strength  of  its  cause.  After  many 
differences  of  opinion,  differences,  however,  about  men,  and  not 
measures,  the  convention  had  chosen  a  man  wThose  private  char 
acter  was  irreproachable,  and  who,  in  various  public  stations,  had 
given  proof  of  his  ability,  and  firmness,  and  devotion  to  those 
principles  which  the  Democratic  party  deemed  essential  to  the 
prosperity  of  our  own  country  and  the  perpetuation  of  her  free 
institutions.  Nothing  now  is  wanting  to  ensure  success,  but  united 
exertion,  and  that  we  must  and  will  have.  Let  us  put  behind  us 
the  divisions  and  preferences  of  the  past,  and  join  in  one  common 
effort  to  promote  the  triumph  of  our  cause.  Victory  is  in  our 
power,  and  let  us  attain  it.  Let  every  one  feel  and  fulfill  his 
duty." 

General  Cass  did  not  confine  his  efforts  in  support  of  the  nomi 
nation  to  his  own  home.  He  took  the  stump,  and  traversed 
Michigan,  Indiana,  and  Ohio,  urging  the  people,  with  argument 
and  eloquence,  to  cast  their  votes  for  Polk  and  Dallas.  The  cam 
paign  is  noted  for  the  very  large  gatherings  of  the  people  to  hear 
what  was  to  be  said  on  both  sides ;  and  as  the  day  of  election 
approached,  the  two  political  parties  vied  with  each  other  to  get 
up  the  largest.  In  August  an  immense  concourse  of  the  friends  of 
the  Democratic  ticket  assembled  at  Nashville,  and  many  of  the 
most  distinguished  advocates  of  this  ticket  came  there  from  the 
different  sections  of  the  Union.  Among  them  was  General  Cass: 
and  he  availed  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  visit  his  respected 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  507 

friend  at  the  Hermitage.     General  Jackson  was  right  glad  to  see 
him,  and  he  had  a  delightful  visit. 

O 

In  his  journey  to  and  from  Nashville,  General  Cass  met  with 
many  of  his  old  comrades  in  the  wars.  And  numerous  are  the 
interesting  anecdotes  related.  The  following  we  re-produce,  as 
evincive  of  character. 

When  at  Norwalk,  Ohio,  while  a  number  of  revolutionary 
soldiers  were  being  introduced  to  the  General,  one  asked  if  he 
remembered  him.  Upon  receiving  a  reply  in  the  negative,  the 
old  soldier  gave  the  following  account  of  their  first  meeting:  "In 
the  spring  of  1813,  Fort  Meigs  wras  besieged  by  the  British  and 
Indians,  and  the  Ohio  militia  were  called  out  to  march  to  the  relief 
of  the  fort.  General  Cass  was  appointed  to  the  command.  The 
marshes  and  woods  were  filled  with  water,  making  the  roads  al 
most  impassable.  The  commanding  general  had  not  yet  arrived, 
but  was  daily  expected.  On  the  second  day  of  the  march,  a  young 
soldier,  from  exposure  to  the  weather,  was  taken  sick.  Unable  to 
march  in  the  ranks,  he  followed  along  in  the  rear.  When  at  a 
distance  behind,  attempting,  with  difficulty,  to  keep  pace  with  his 
comrades,  two  officers  rode  along,  one  a  stranger,  and  the  other 
the  colonel  of  the  regiment.  On  passing  him,  the  colonel  re 
marked  :  '  General,  that  poor  fellow  there  is  sick ;  he  is  a  good 
fellow  though,  for  he  refuses  to  go  back ;  but  I  fear  that  the  Indians 
will  scalp  him,  or  the  crows  pick  him,  before  we  get  to  Fort  Meigs.' 
The  officer  halted,  and  dismounted  from  his  horse.  When  the 
young  soldier  came  up,  he  addressed  him  :  '  My  brave  boy,  you 
are  sick  and  tired;  I  am  well  and  strong;  mount  my  horse  and 
ride.'  The  soldier  hesitated.  '  Do  not  wait,'  said  the  officer,  and 
lifting  him  on  his  horse,  with  directions  to  ride  at  night  to  the 
General's  tent,  he  proceeded  to  join  the  army.  At  night,  the  young 
soldier  rode  to  the  tent,  where  he  was  met  by  the  General  with  a 
cheerful  welcome,  which  he  repaid  with  tears  of  gratitude.  That 
officer  was  General  Cass,  and  the  young  soldier  is  the  person  now 
addressing  you.  My  name  is  John  Laylin."  The  General,  re 
membering  the  circumstance,  immediately  recognized  him.  Mr. 
Laylin  added  :  "  General,  that  deed  was  not  done  for  the  world  to 
look  upon  ;  it  was  done  in  the  woods,  with  but  three  to  witness  it." 

Another.  The  carriage  containing  General  Cass  was  one  day 
stopped  by  a  man  who  said,  "  General,  I  can 't  let  you  pass  without 
speaking  to  you.  You  don't  know  me?"  General  Cass  replied 


508  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

that  lie  did  not.  "Well,  sir,"  said  the  man,  "I  was  the  first  man 
in  your  regiment  to  jump  out  of  the  boat  on  the  Canadian  shore." 
"  No,  you  were  not,"  said  the  General,  "  I  was  the  first  man  myself 
on  shore."  "True,"  said  the  other,  "I  jumped  out  first  into  the 
river,  to  get  ahead  of  you,  but  you  held  me  back,  and  got  ahead 
of  me" 

On  his  way  back  to  Detroit,  he  daily  harangued  the  people 
that  assembled  in  crowds  to  see  him,  to  stand  fast  to  their  political 
integrity,  and  give  the  nominees  of  the  Democratic  convention  a 
cordial  and  effective  support.  He  called  upon  them  to  discard  all 
jealousy — to  sever  themselves  from  all  disaffection — and,  in  solid 
column,  move  forward  to  victory.  Such  an  exhibition  of  disin 
terestedness  influenced  many  a  wavering  Democrat  to  pursue 
firmly  the  line  of  duty,  and  sacrifice  his  personal  inclinations 
upon  the  altar  of  principle.  It  was  said  that  these  personal  efforts 
of  General  Cass  determined  the  electoral  vote  of  Indiana.  It  was 
cast  for  Polk  and  Dallas,  as  well  as  the  vote  of  Michigan.  Mr. 
Polk,  in  many  localities,  was  comparatively  unknown  among  the 
masses  of  the  people. 

These  efforts,  as  well  as  the  cheerful  acquiescence  and  approval 
expressed  by  the  other  gentlemen  whose  names  had  been  presented 
to  the  Democratic  convention,  beyond  question  contributed  pow 
erfully  to  the  success  which  followed,  in  the  elevation  of  James  K. 
Polk  to  the  Chief  Magistracy,  by  an  expressive  majority  over  the 
popular  and  eloquent  Whig  leader,  Henry  Clay. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  509 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

General  Cass  elected  Senator  — President  Polk  — His  Message  — The  Monroe  Doctrine  — General  Cass' 
Views — His  Speech  to  the  Senate. 

The  official  term  of  Augustus  S.  Porter,  as  a  senator  of  the 
United  States  from  the  State  of  Michigan,  was  to  expire  on  the 
third  of  March,  1845.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  Mr.  Polk 
was  elected,  a  canvass  commenced,  and  speculation  was  rife  with 
rumors  in  relation  to  his  cabinet.  It  was  well  understood  that 
none  of  the  then  heads  of  Departments  at  Washington  would  be 
invited  to  remain.  An  entire  change  would  take  place.  The 
names  of  many  eminent  men  were  suggested.  Public  expecta 
tion  pointed  to  General  Cass  as  the  premier.  But  the  people  of 
Michigan  desired  to  have  the  benefit  of  his  services  in  the  Senate, 
and  were  desirous  that  the  Legislature  should  elect  him  as  the 
successor  of  Mr.  Porter.  There  was  no  occasion  for  any  anxiety 
on  this  point,  for  long  before  the  day  for  the  Legislature  to  act, 
it  wTas  perfectly  apparent  what  that  action  would  be.  Indeed, 
there  was  but  one  sentiment  on  the  subject ;  and  in  due  course 
of  time,  the  Legislature,  in  compliance  with  public  opinion, 
elected  General  Cass  to  serve  as  a  senator  of  the  United  States 
from  Michigan,  for  six  years  from  the  fourth  of  March,  1845. 
Every  Democratic  member  of  the  Legislature,  save  two  in  the 
Senate,  voted  for  him,  and  his  election  was  regarded  as  unanimous. 
He  proceeded  to  Washington,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  at  the  executive  session  called  upon  the 
inauguration  of  Mr.  Polk. 

The  first  session  of  the  29th  Congress  commenced  on  the  first 
Monday  of  December,  1845,  and  this  was  the  first  regular  meeting 
of  Congress  under  the  new  administration.  General  Cass  was  in 
attendance  at  the  commencement  of  the  session.  He  entered  upon 
a  new  field  of  official  labor.  His  experience  as  a  legislative 
debater  was  limited,  for  it  was  comprised  in  the  single  term  he 


510  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

served  as  a  member  of  Assembly  in  the  Ohio  Legislature  in 
1S06-7.  He  was  now  associated  with  the  ablest  men  of  the  land. 
The  brightest  intellects  of  the  country  were  there — minds  long  ac 
customed  to  parliamentary  tactics,  and  of  commanding  influence. 
He  appreciated  his  position  and  its  embarrassments.  He  was 
fully  aware,  also,  that  nothing  he  might  say  or  do  in  that  body 
would  escape  the  attention  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  was,  there 
fore,  to  act  carefully,  and  at  the  same  time  be  up  to  his  duty,  with 
firmness  and  intelligence. 

The  President,  in  his  annual  message,  informed  Congress  that 
it  was  his  determination,  in  regard  to  the  interference  of  foreign 
powers  in  American  affairs,  to  adhere  to  the  Monroe  doctrine. 
He  reminded  the  two  Houses  that  neither  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  nor  their  government,  could  view  with  indifference  the 
attempt  of  any  European  power  to  interfere  with  the  independent 
action  of  the  nations  on  this  continent.  The  subject  was  recom 
mended  to  the  attention  of  congress,  and  senator  Allen,  of  Ohio, 
a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  asked  leave 
to  introduce  into  the  Senate  a  joint  resolution  declaratory  of  the 
principles  by  which  the  government  of  the  United  States  would 
be  guided  in  respect  to  the  interposition  of  the  powers  of  Europe 
in  the  political  affairs  of  America  on  this  continent.  The  question 
upon  granting  leave,  came  up  for  discussion  on  January  26th, 
1846.  It  produced  a  debate  which  extended  through  many  days. 
The  leading  members  took  part  in  the  debate.  General  Cass 
advocated  the  motion.  Messrs.  Webster,  Calhoun,  Berrien,  Cor- 
win,  and  Crittenden,  opposed  it.  General  Cass  supported  the 
proposition  upon  the  ground  that  it  was  the  correct  course  to 
pursue  in  reference  to  the  relations  of  the  United  States  with 
England  —  that  this  country  "could  lose  nothing  at  home  or 
abroad  by  establishing  and  maintaining  an  American  policy — a 
policy  decisive  in  its  spirit,  moderate  in  its  tone,  and  just  in  its 
objects — proclaimed  and  supported  firmly,  but  temperately." 

The  object  of  the  recommendation  in  the  President's  message, 
and  of  this  resolution,  was  to  stay  the  consummation  of  the  de 
signs  of  the  British  government  on  the  western  continent.  That 
government  wras  at  the  bottom  of  all  movements  the  tendency  of 
which  was  the  transfer  of  balance  of  power  to  monarchy,  and 
especially  to  itself,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  treaty  of 
Washington  had  encouraged  this  aspiration.  Island  after  island, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  511 

country  after  country,  we»e  falling  before  the  ambition  of  Eng 
land.  She  was  planting  her  standard  wherever  there  was  a  people 
to  be  subdued  or  the  fruits  of  industry  to  be  secured.  With  pro 
fessions  of  philanthropy,  she  was  untiringly  pursuing  the  designs 
of  an  infinite  ambition,  and  no  statesman  could  shut  his  eyes  to 
the  fact,  that  she  was  encircling  the  globe  with  her  stations,  where- 
ever  she  could  best  accomplish  her  schemes  of  aggrandizement. 
No  nation,  since  the  fall  of  the  Koman  power,  had  displayed 
greater  disregard  for  the  rights  of  others,  or  more  boldly  aimed 
at  universal  domination.  Many  of  the  public  men  of  the  United 
States,  and  among  the  number  was  General  Cass,  were  of  the 
opinion  that,  in  dealing  with  her,  it  was  far  better  to  resist  aggres 
sion,  whether  of  territory,  of  impressment,  or  of  search,  when  first 
attempted,  than  to  yield,  in  the  hope  that  forbearance  would  be 
met  in  a  just  spirit,  and  lead  to  an  amicable  compromise.  And 
they  were  right.  A  system  of  concession  would  have  been,  of  all 
delusions,  the  most  fatal,  and  we  should  have  awoke  from  it  a 
dishonored  if  not  a  ruined  people. 

In  his  remarks  upon  this  resolution,  General  Cass  most  truly 
stated : 

"But  wrhat  is  proposed  by  this* resolution?  It  proposes,  Mr. 
President,  to  repel  a  principle  which  two  of  the  greatest  powers 
of  the  earth  are  now  carrying  into  practice  upon  this  continent,  so 
far  as  we  can  discover  any  principle  involved  in  the  war  which 
the  French  and  British  are  now  waging  against  Buenos  Ayres ; 
and  a  principle  solemnly  announced  by  the  French  prime  minis 
ter  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  clearly  in  doctrine,  but  cautiously 
in  the  remedy.  I  need  not  advert  to  the  declaration  made  upon 
that  occasion  by  M.  Guizot — a  declaration  equally  extraordinary 
and  memorable.  An  honorable  member  of  this  body  has  the 
debate  in  full ;  and  I  trust  that,  in  the  further  discussion  which 
this  subject  must  undergo,  and  will  undergo,  in  this  body  in  one 
form  or  another,  he  will  read  the  remarks  of  the  French  premier, 
and  give  us  the  able  viewrs  I  know  he  entertains  of  them.  I  will 
only  add,  that  these  remarks  are  eminently  characteristic  of  a 
peculiar  class  of  statesmen,  who  are  always  seeking  some  new  and 
brilliant  thought — something  with  which  to  dazzle  the  world  as 
much  as  it  dazzles  themselves — some  paradox  or  other  as  a  shroud 
wherewith  to  wrap  their  dying  frame.  Plain,  common  sense,  and 


512  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  true  condition  of  men  and  communities,  are  lost  in  diplomatic 
subtleties. 

"But  what  is  this  balance  of  power  which  is  to  cross  the  Atlan 
tic  and  take  up  its  abode  in  this  new  world  ?  It  is  the  assumption 
of  a  power  which  has  deluged  Europe  in  blood,  and  which  has 
attempted  to  stifle  the  first  germs  of  freedom  in  every  land  where 
they  have  started  up ;  which  has  blotted  Poland  from  the  map  of 
nations ;  which  has  given  a  moiety  of  Saxony,  in  spite  of  the 
prayers  of  the  people,  to  Prussia;  which  has  extinguished  Venice 
and  Genoa;  which  added  Belgium  to  Holland,  notwithstanding 
the  repugnance  of  its  inhabitants,  who  eventually  rose  in  their 
revolutionary  might,  and  asserted  and  achieved  their  own  inde 
pendence  ;  which  transferred  Norway  from  Denmark,  to  which  it 
was  attached  by  old  ties  and  by  a  mild  government,  to  Sweden, 
who  had  to  send  an  army  and  to  call  upon  the  navy  of  England 
to  aid  her  to  take  possession  of  this  gift  of  the  holy  alliance  ; 
which  keeps  Switzerland  in  an  eternal  turmoil,  and  which  sent  a 
French  army  into  Spain  to  put  down  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  an 
Austrian  army  to  Italy  for  the  same  purpose ;  and  which  watches 
and  wards  off  the  very  first  instincts  of  human  nature  to  meliorate 
its  social  and  political  condition. 

"  It  is  the  assumption  of  a  power  which  enables  five  great  nations 
of  Europe — they  are  quintuple  at  present — to  govern  just  as  much 
of  the  world  as  will  not  or  can  not  resist  their  cupidity  and  ambi 
tion,  and  to  introduce  new  principles,  at  their  pleasure  and  to 
their  profit,  into  the  code  of  nations ;  to  proclaim  that  the  slave 
trade  is  piracy  by  virtue  of  their  proclamation,  and  that  their 
cruisers  may  sweep  the  ocean,  seizing  vessels,  and  crews,  and 
cargoes,  and  committing  them  to  that  great  vortex  which  has 
swallowed  up  such  a  vast  amount  of  our  property  and  issued  so 
many  decrees  against  our  rights — a  court  of  admiralty;  and,  by- 
and-bye,  will  enable  them  to  proclaim,  if  not  resisted,  that  the 
cotton  trade  shall  be  piracy,  or  that  the  tobacco  trade  shall  be 
piracy,  or  that  anything  els-e  shall  be  piracy  which  ministers  to 
our  power  and  interest  and  does  not  minister  to  theirs. 

"The  honorable  senators  on  the  other  side,  wrho  took  part  in  the 
discussion  respecting  the  national  defenses,  I  believe,  without  ex 
ception,  expressed  their  satisfaction  at  the  President's  message. 
And  yet  no  man  can  doubt  that,  if  the  measures  suggested  by  him 
are  carried  into  effect,  and  if  England  does  not  recede  greatly  from 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  513 

all  her  former  positions,  war  must  come.  Still  we  are  called  panic- 
makers  and  seekers  of  war.  As  the  thermometer  of  the  stock  ex 
change  rises  and  falls,  a  representative  of  the  people  is  wise  or 
rash  in  the  measures  he  proposes,  or  honest  or  dishonest  in  the 
motives  that  actuate  him.  It  is  not  my  habit  to  cast  reflections 
upon  any  class  of  employment,  but,  without  violating  this  rule,  I 
may  express  the  gratification  that  there  are  higher  interests  than 
those  of  stock-jobbing  in  this  country,  and  a  mighty  mass  who 
control  its  destinies,  and  who  know  nothing  of  the  operations  of 
a  Wall  street  financier. 

"  Look  at  the  state  of  things  in  Brazil !  The  treaty  between 
that  country  and  England,  on  the  subject  of  the  right  of  search, 
lias  expired.  But  has  the  right  expired  also  ?  It  has,  but  not  the 
practice.  England  yet  stops,  with  the  strong  hand,  Brazilian 
ships  wherever  she  finds  them  in  tropical  latitudes,  and  seizes  and 
sends  them  to  her  own  courts  of  admiralty  for  condemnation  ; 
and  this  in  utter  contempt  of  all  the  laws  regulating  the  rights  of 
independent  nations. 

"I  allude  to  all  these  facts,  sir,  because  they  ought  to  warn  us 
of  our  duty.  I  allude  to  them  in  despite  of  the  charge  which  has 
been  and  will  again  be  made  out  of  the  Senate,  not  in  it,  of  a 
desire  to  excite  undue  prejudice  against  England.  I  have  no  such 
desire  ;  but  I  have  a  desire  that  my  own  country  should  be  aware 
of  her  true  position,  and  should  be  prepared  to  meet  her  respon 
sibility,  whatever  difficulties  may  beset  her  path — prepared,  sir, 
in  head,  in  hand,  and  in  heart.  Yes,  sir,  notwithstanding  the 
severe  commentaries  which  a  casual  expression  of  the  honorable 
senator  from  Ohio  has  encountered  from  a  portion  of  the  public 
press,  I  will  repeat  the  expression — prepared  in  the  heart  ;  for,  if 
war  should  come,  which  may  Providence  avert,  I  trust  the  hearts 
of  our  countrymen  will  be  prepared  for  the  struggle  it  will  bring. 
There  is  no  better  preparation,  nor  any  surer  cause  or  augury  of 
success." 

In  alluding  to  the  debate  on  the  President's  message,  he  added  : 

"  I  expressed  my  approbation  of  the  President's  message ;  but, 
on  the  subject  of  the  state  of  the  country,  I  did  not  say  one  word 
more  than  I  intended  and  intend  now.  I  am  no  lover  of  war.  I 
am  no  seeker  of  it ;  but  I  have  to  learn  that  it  is  hastened  by 
adequate  preparation.  I  have  passed  through  one  war,  and  hope 
never  to  see  another.  Still,  I  shall  never  cry  peace!  peace!  unless 
33 


514  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

I  believe  there  is  truly  peace.  The  honorable  senator  from  Ken 
tucky,  whom  I  first  met,  many  years  ago,  marching  to  the  battle 
field,  and  who  will  always  be  found  on  the  side  of  his  country, 
supposed,  when  the  question  of  the  national  defense  was  under 
discussion,  I  had  said  war  was  inevitable.  He  misunderstood  me. 
I  considered  the  danger  of  war  imminent,  not  inevitable.  Had  I 
thought  it  inevitable,  I  should  not  have  submitted  propositions  for 
inquiry,  but  decisive  measures  for  adoption.  I  hold  on  firmly,  sir, 
to  every  word  I  said  before,  neither  softening  nor  explaining,  but 
denying,  because  I  apprehended  wre  might  have  war,  therefore  I 
desired  it.  And  I  still  consider  danger  imminent — not  dimin 
ished,  so  far  as  I  know,  by  the  recent  arrival.  The  subject  in 
controversy  remains  precisely  as  it  was.  The  question  was,  and 
is,  whether  we  shall  surrender  to  the  British  demands,  or  whether 
the  British  government  shall  surrender  to  ours." 

The  motion  was  adopted,  and  leave  granted  to  the  senator  from 
Ohio  to  introduce  the  proposed  resolution.  The  resolution,  in 
substance,  provided  that  Congress,  concurring  with  the  Presi 
dent,  and  sensible  that  a  time  had  arrived  when  the  government 
of  the  United  States  could  no  longer  remain  silent  without  being 
ready  to  submit  to,  and  even  to  invite,  the  enforcement  of  the 
dangerous  European  doctrine  of  the  "  balance  of  power,"  solemnly 
declare  to  the  civilized  world  the  unalterable  resolution  of  the 
United  States  to  adhere  to  and  enforce  the  principle,  that  any 
effort  of  the  powers  of  Europe  to  intermeddle  in  the  social  organi 
zation  or  political  arrangements  of  the  independent  nations  of 
America,  or  further  to  extend  the  European  system  of  government 
upon  this  continent  by  the  establishment  of  new  colonies,  would 
be  incompatible  with  the  independent  existence  of  the  nations, 
and  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  America,  and, 
therefore,  would  incur,  as  by  the  right  of  self-preservation  it 
would  justify,  the  prompt  resistance  of  the  United  States. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  515 


CHAPTEE  XXXIII. 

The  Oregon  Question— General  Cass  addresses  the  Senate— His  Opinions— Extracts  from  his  Speech— 
His  reply  to  Colonel  Benton— The  Treaty  of  Oregon— The  Senate  in  Executive  Session. 

At  this  session  of  the  29th  Congress,  the  Oregon  question  came 
up  for  discussion,  and  attracted  much  attention.  The  governments 
of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  in  the  year  1818,  under 
date  of  the  twentieth  of  October  in  that  year,  entered  into  a  con 
vention  for  the  period  of  ten  years — and  subsequently,  by  an  ad 
ditional  convention,  under  date  of  the  sixth  of  August,  1827,  this 
period  of  time  was  indefinitely  extended.  By  the  terms  thereof,  it 
was  agreed  that  any  country  which  was  claimed  by  either  party, 
upon  the  north-west  coast  of  America,  west  of  the  Stony  or  Rocky 
Mountains,  commonly  called  the  Oregon  Territory,  should,  to 
gether  with  its  harbors,  bays,  and  creeks,  and  the  navigation  of  all 
rivers  within  the  same,  be  "  free  and  open"  to  the  vessels,  citizens, 
and  subjects  of  the  two  powers,  but  without  prejudice  to  any 
claim  which  either  of  the  parties  might  have  to  any  part  of  said 
country;  and  with  this  further  provision  in  the  third  article  of  the 
said  convention  of  the  sixth  of  August,1  that  either  party  might- 
abrogate  and  annul  the  said  convention,  on  giving  notice  of 
twelve  months  to  the  other  contracting  party. 

This  agreement  was  entered  into,  for  the  reason  that  the  gov 
ernments  of  the  two  countries  were  unsuccessful  in  then  settling 
definitely  their  respective  claims  to  the  disputed  territory.  Seve 
ral  attempts  had  been  made,  from  time  to  time,  to  agree  upon  a 
boundary  line  and  adjust  the  controversy,  but  without  avail.  The 
United  States  had  offered  the  parallel  of  the  forty-ninth  degree  of 
north  latitude,  coupled  with  the  concession  of  the  free  navigation 
of  the  Columbia  river,  south  of  that  degree.  Great  Britain,  on 
her  part,  had  offered  the  same  parallel  of  latitude  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains  to  its  intersection  with  the  north-easternmost  branch 
of  the  Columbia  river,  and  thence  down  that  river  to  the  Pacific 


516  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

ocean,  together  with  a  small  detached  territory  north  of  the  Co 
lumbia.  Both  parties  rejected  the  propositions  thus  made. 

In  1843  the  United  States  Minister  in  London  was  authorized 
to  renew  the  oft'er  previously  made  to  Great  Britain,  but  while  the 
subject  was  under  consideration  there,  the  negotiation  was  trans 
ferred  to  "Washington.  The  British  Minister,  in  August,  1844, 
opened  the  negotiation  at  Washington  by  a  renewal  of  the  pre 
vious  offer  made  to  the  United  States,  with  the  addition  of  free 
ports  south  of  forty-nine  degrees.  This  proposition,  if  accepted, 
would  have  given  Great  Britain  two-thirds  of  the  entire  territory 
known  as  Oregon,  including  the  free  navigation  of  the  Columbia, 
and  the  harbors  on  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  was  rejected  as  boldly 
as  it  was  made.  This  offer  and  refusal  terminated  that  negotia 
tion,  and  no  farther  attempt  at  adjustment  was  made  until  1845, 
when  President  Polk  made  an  effort  to  settle  the  controversy 
amicably,  and,  if  possible,  satisfactorily.  The  British  Minister 
rejected  the  overtures  of  President  Polk  ;  and  as  that  functionary 
offered  no  counter  proposition,  the  President  withdrew  the  friendly 
offer  he  had  made,  and  asserted  the  right  of  the  United  States  to 
the  whole  of  Oregon.  As  this  proceeding  closed  the  door  to  all 
further  negotiation,  the  President  recommended  and  urged  upon 
Congress  the  necessity  of  terminating,  by  giving  the  proper  notice, 
the  agreement  made  in  1818,  in  regard  to  joint  occupation. 

Early  in  the  session — on  the  eighteenth  of  December — Senator 
Allen,  of  Ohio,  offered  a  joint  resolution  in  the  Senate,  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  into  effect  the  views  of  the  President.  It  was 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  of  which  that 
senator  was  chairman,  and  was  reported  back  to  the  Senate  in  the 
following  form. 

Resolved  by  the  Senate,  &c. : — That  in  virtue  of  the  second 
article  of  the  convention  of  the  sixth  of  August,  1827,  between  the 
United  States  of  America  and  Great  Britain,  relative  to  the  coun 
try  westward  of  the  Stony  or  Rocky  Mountains,  the  United  States 
of  America  do  now  think  fit  to  annul  and  abrogate  that  conven 
tion,  and  the  said  convention  is  hereby  accordingly  annulled  and 
abrogated:  provided  that  this  resolution  shall  take  effect  after  the 
expiration  of  the  term  of  twelve  months  from  the  day  on  which 
due  notice  shall  have  been  given  to  Great  Britain  of  the  passage 
of  this  resolution.  And  the  President  of  the  United  States  is 
hereby  authorized  and  required  to  give  such  notice  ;  and  also  at 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  517 

the  expiration  of  said  convention,  to  issue  his  proclamation  setting 
forth  that  fact. 

A  number  of  amendments  were  proposed  to  this  resolution,  and 
the  consideration  of  the  subject  was  fixed  for  the  tenth  of  Febru 
ary.  Mr.  Allen  opened  the  debate,  which  continued  for  two 
months.  Most  of  the  members  of  the  Senate  participated  in  the 
debate;  and  the  discussion,  at  times,  provoked  much  passion  and 
even  anger.  The  vital  point  was  whether  our  government  should 
insist  on  the  parallel  of  fifty-four  degrees  and  forty  minutes,  or 
recede  to  that  of  forty-nine.  The  principal  opposition  to  the  pas 
sage  of  the  resolution  came  from  the  Whig  side  of  the  chamber. 
It  was  regarded  as  an  administration  measure.  The  entire  sub 
ject  was  examined.  The  title  of  the  two  governments  was  elabo 
rately  and  learnedly  discussed.  The  library  of  Congress  and  the 
archives  of  the  government  were  ransacked  for  precedent  and 
authority.  The  emotions  of  senators  reached  the  people,  and 
furnished  the  chief  staple  of  conversation  all  over  this  widely 
extended  Union.  Many  believed  that  if  the  resolution  passed  both 
Houses  of  Congress,  war  was  inevitable.  General  Cass  remained 
a  quiet  but  not  an  indifferent  spectator  of  the  debate.  The  public 
mind  finally  was  on  tip-toe  to  know  what  he  had  to  say  on  this 
grave  subject. 

On  the  thirtieth  of  March  he  addressed  the  Senate  in  favor  of 
the  resolution.  He  did  not  enter  into  a  formal  discussion  of  the 
title  of  the  United  States  to  the  whole  of  Oregon.  He  confined 
himself  principally  to  the  necessity  and  policy  of  the  course  sug 
gested  by  the  President.  It  was  a  masterly  effort,  and  was  read 
with  eagerness  by  those  who  had  an  opportunity  to  do  so.  It 
exerted  an  immense  influence  in  giving  a  proper  direction  to  the 
public  mind.  This  can  be  said  without  the  appearance  of  dispar 
agement  to  others.  He  had  the  subject  by  heart,  and  had  j^iven  it 
long  and  serious  reflection.  Whoever  desires  to  be  informed,  at 
this  day,  of  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  formidable  controversy, 
will  be  able  to  gratify  himself  by  perusing  the  speech  which  he 
made  on  the  occasion  alluded  to,  and  from  which  we  make  ex 
tracts  sufficient  to  show  his  views.  The  Senate  chamber  was 
thronged  with  spectators;  and  among  them  were  members  of  the 
cabinet,  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  foreign 
Ministers.  The  British  Minister,  to  catch  every  word  the  senator 
uttered,  took  a  seat  near  his  desk,  and  listened  throughout  with 


518  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

fixed  attention.  As  he  calmly  proceeded  from  point  to  point,  he 
commanded  the  attention  of  the  entire  Senate.  He  spoke  not 
for  display,  nor  for  personal  applause,  but  for  his  country  and  the 
maintenance  of  its  honor  and  glory.  He  said  : 

"  I  do  not  rise,  at  this  late  period,  to  enter  into  any  formal  con 
sideration  of  the  principal  topic  involved  in  the  proposition  now 
pending  before  the  Senate.  I  can  not  flatter  myself  that  any  such 
effort  of  mine  would  be  successful,  or  would  deserve  to  be  so.  I  have 
listened  attentively  to  the  progress  of  this  discussion,  and,  while 
I  acknowledge  my  gratification  at  much  I  have  heard,  still,  senti 
ments  have  been  advanced,  and  views  presented,  in  which  I  do 
not  concur,  and  from  which,  even  at  the  hazard  of  trespassing  upon 
the  indulgence  of  the  Senate,  I  must  express  my  dissent,  and, 
briefly,  the  reasons  of  it.  But,  sir,  I  have  not  the  remotest  inten 
tion  of  touching  the  question  of  the  title  of  Oregon.  The  tribute 
I  bring  to  that  subject  is  the  tribute  of  conviction,  not  of  discussion  ; 
a  concurrence  in  the  views  of  others,  not  the  presentation  of  my 
own.  The  whole  matter  has  been  placed  in  bold  relief  before  the 
country  and  the  world  by  men  far  more  competent  than  I  am  to 
do  it  justice,  and  justice  they  have  done  it.  The  distinguished 
senator  from  South  Carolina,  who  filled,  a  short  time  since,  the 
office  of  Secretary  of  State,  has  left  the  impress  of  his  talents  and 
intelligence  upon  his  correspondence  with  the  British  minister, 
and  he  left  to  an  able  successor  to  finish  well  a  task  which  was 
well  begun.  And,  upon  this  floor,  the  senator  from  New  York 
instructed  us,  while  he  gratified  us  by  a  masterly  vindication  of 
the  American  title ;  and  he  was  followed  by  his  colleague,  and  by 
the  senator  from  Illinois,  and  by  others,  too,  who  have  done  honor 
to  themselves  while  doing  good  service  to  their  country. 

"Before,  however,  I  proceed  further  in  my  remarks,  there  is  one 
subject  to  which  I  will  make  a  passing  allusion.  As  to  correcting 
the  misrepresentations  of  the  day,  whether  these  are  voluntary  or 
involuntary,  he  that  seeks  to  do  it  only  prepares  for  himself  an 
abundant  harvest  of  disappointment,  and,  I  may  add,  of  vexation. 
I  seek  no  such  impracticable  object.  In  times  like  the  present, 
when  interests  are  threatened,  passions  excited,  parties  animated, 
and  when  momentous  questions  present  themselves  for  solution, 
and  the  public  mind  is  alive  to  the  slightest  sensation,  we  must 
expect  that  those,  upon  whose  action  depends  the  welfare,  if  not 
the  destiny,  of  the  country,  will  be  arraigned,  and  assailed,  and 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  519 

condemned.  I  presume  we  are  all  prepared  for  this.  We  have 
all  lived  long  enough  to  know  that  this  is  the  tax  which  our  posi 
tion  pays  to  its  elevation.  We  have  frequently  been  reminded, 
during  the  progress  of  this  debate,  of  the  responsibility  which  men 
of  extreme  opinions,  as  some  of  us  have  been  called,  must  encoun 
ter,  and  have  been  summoned  to  meet  it — to  meet  the  consequences 
of  the  measures  we  invoke. 

"During  the  course  of  a  public  life  now  verging  towards  forty 
years,  I  have  been  placed  in  many  a  condition  of  responsibility; 
and  often,  too,  where  I  had  few  to  aid  me,  and  none  to  consult. 
I  have  found  myself  able  to  march  up  to  my  duty,  and  no  respon 
sibility,  in  cities  or  in  forests,  has  been  cast  upon  me  which  I  have 
not  readily  met. 

"  As  it  is  with  me,  so  it  is,  I  doubt  not,  with  my  political  friends 
who  regard  this  whole  matter  as  I  do,  and  who  are  ready  to  follow 
it  to  its  final  issue,  whatever  or  wherever  that  may  be.  I  submit 
to  honorable  senators,  on  the  other  side  of  the  chamber,  whether 
these  adjurations  are  in  good  taste  ;  whether  it  is  not  fair  to  presume 
that  we  have  looked  around  us,  examined  what,  in  our  judgment, 
we  ought  to  do,  and  then  determined  to  do  it,  come  what  may? 
This  great  controversy  with  England  can  not  be  adjusted  without 
a  deep  and  solemn  responsibility  being  cast  upon  all  of  us.  If 
there  is  a  responsibility  in  going  forward,  there  is  a  responsibility 
in  standing  still.  Peace  has  its  dangers  as  well  as  war.  They 
are  not,  indeed,  of  the  same  kind,  but  they  may  be  more  lasting, 
more  dishonorable,  and  more  destructive  of  the  best  interests  of 
the  country,  because  destructive  of  those  hopes  and  sentiments 
which  elevate  the  moral  above  the  material  world.  Let  us,  then, 
leave  to  each  member  of  this  body  the  course  that  duty  points  out 
to  him,  together  with  the  responsibility  he  must  meet,  whether 
arraigned  at  the  tribunal  of  his  conscience,  his  constituents,  or  his 
country. 

"  I  observe  that,  as  well  myself  as  other  senators  upon  this  side 
of  the  Senate,  have  been  accused  of  dealing  in  rant  and  abuse — 
that,  I  believe,  is  the  term — in  the  remarks  we  have  submitted, 
from  time  to  time,  upon  the  subject,  as  it  came  up  incidentally  or 
directly  for  consideration.  This  rant  and  abuse,  of  course,  had 
reference  to  remarks  upon  the  conduct  and  pretensions  of  England. 

"  I  should  not  have  adverted  to  this  topic  had  it  not  been  that 
the  honorable  senator  from  North  Carolina,  [Mr.  Hay  wood,]  not 


520  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

now  in  his  place,  had  given  color  to  the  charge  by  the  expression 
of  his  '  mortification  in  being  obliged  to  concede  to  the  debates  in 
the  British  Parliament  a  decided  superiority  over  ourselves  in 
their  dignity  and  moderation.' 

"He  expressed  the  hope  that  'we  might  get  the  news  by  the 
next  packet  of  an  outrageous  debate  in  the  British  Parliament ; 
at  least,  sufficient  to  put  them  even  with  us  on  that  score.' 

"Now,  Mr.  President,  it  is  not  necessary  to  wait  for  the  next 
packet  for  specimens  of  the  courtesies  of  British  parliamentary 
eloquence. 

"  I  hold  one  in  my  hands,  which  has  been  here  some  time,  and 
which,  from  the  circumstances,  and  from  the  station  of  the  speaker, 
I,  at  least,  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  when  I  find  myself,  among 
others,  charged  with  participating  in  an  outrageous  debate,  and 
when  patriotism  would  seem  to  demand  an  unbecoming  exhibition 
in  the  British  Parliament,  in  order  to  restore,  not  our  dignity,  but 
our  self-complacency. 

u  Now,  sir,  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  courtesies  of  life,  public 
and  private,  and  I  desire  never  to  depart  from  them.  In  all  I  have 
said  I  have  not  uttered  a  word  which  ought  to  give  offense,  even 
to  political  fastidiousness.  I  have  spoken,  to  be  sure,  plainly,  as 
became  a  man  dealing  in  great  truths,  involving  the  character  and 
interests  of  his  country,  but  becomingly.  I  have  not,  indeed, 
called  ambition  moderation,  nor  cupidity  philanthropy,  nor  arro 
gance  humility.  Let  him  do  so  who  believes  them  such.  But  I 
have  heard  the  desire  of  the  West,  that  the  sacred  rights  of  their 
country  should  be  enforced  and  defended,  called  western  avidity, 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States !  I  have  not  even  imitated 
Lord  John  Russell,  and  talked  of  blustering.  Still  less  have  I 
imitated  a  greater  than  Lord  John  Russell  in  talents,  and  one 
higher  in  station,  though  far  lower  in  those  qualities  that  conciliate 
respect  and  esteem,  and  preserve  them. 

"He  who  seeks  to  know  the  appetite  of  the  British  public  for 
abuse,  and  how  greedily  it  is  catered  for,  has  but  to  consult  the 
daily  columns  of  the  British  journals ;  but  let  him  wTho  has  pur- 
suaded  himself  that  all  is  decorum  in  the  British  Parliament,  and 
that  these  legislative  halls  are  but  bear-gardens  compared  with  it, 
tiirn  to  the  speeches  sometimes  delivered  there.  Let  him  turn  to 
a  speech  delivered  by  the  second  man  in  the  realm — by  the  late 
Lord  Chancellor  of  England — the  Thersites  indeed  of  his  day  and 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  521 

country,  but  with  high  intellectual  powers,  and  a  vast  stock  of 
information,  and  who,  no  doubt,  understands  the  taste  of  his  coun 
trymen,  and  knows  how  to  gratify  it. 

"  I  have  no  pleasure  in  these  exhibitions,  which  lessen  the  dig 
nity  of  human  nature,  but  we  must  look  to  the  dark  as  well  as  to 
the  bright  side  of  life,  if  we  desire  to  bring  our  opinions  to  the 
standard  of  experience.  In  a  debate  in  the  British  House  of 
Lords,  on  the  7th  of  April,  1843, 1  had  the  honor  to  be  the  subject 
of  the  vituperation  of  Lord  Brougham,  and  an  honor  I  shall  esteem 
it,  under  the  circumstances,  as  long  as  the  honors  of  this  world 
have  any  interest  for  me.  I  shall  make  no  other  allusion  to  the 
matter  but  what  is  necessary  to  the  object  I  have  in  view — to 
exhibit  the  style  of  debate  there,  so  much  lauded  here,  and  held 
up  to  our  countrymen  as  the  beau  ideal  of  all  that  is  courteous 
and  dignified  in  political  life.  'There  was  one  man,'  said  the  ex- 
chancellor,  'who  was  the  very  impersonation  of  mob-hostility  to 
England.'  He  wished  to  name  him,  that  the  name  might  be  clear 
as  the  guilt  was  undivided.  He  meant  General  Cass,  whose 
breach  of  duty  to  his  own  government  was  so  discreditable  and 
even  more  flagrant  than  his  breach  of  duty  to  humanity  as  a  man, 
and  as  the  free  descendant  of  free  English  parents,  and  whose 
conduct,  in  all  those  particulars,  it  was  impossible  to  pass  over  or 
palliate.  This  person,  who  had  been  sent  to  maintain  peace,  and 
to  reside  at  Paris  for  that  purpose,  after  pacific  relations  had  been 
established  between  France  and  America,  did  his  best  to  break 
it,  whether  by  the  circulation  of  statements  upon  the  question  of 
international  law,  of  which  he  had  no  more  conception  than  of  the 
languages  that  were  spoken  in  the  moon,  [loud  laughter,]  (this 
sarcasm  provoked  their  grave  lordships  to  merriment,)  or  by  any 
other  arguments  of  reason,  for  which  he  had  no  more  capacity 
than  he  had  for  understanding  legal  points  and  differences.  For 
that  purpose  he  was  not  above  pandering  to  the  worst  mob  feeling 
of  the  United  States — a  lawless  set  of  rablle  politicians  of  inferior 
caste  and  station — a  groveling,  groundling  set  of  politicians — a  set 
of  mere  rabble,  as  contradistinguished  from  persons  of  property,  or 
respectability,  and  of  information — groundlings  in  station ,'  &c. 

u  And  I  am  thus  characterized  by  this  modest  and  moderate 
English  lord,  because  I  did  what  little  was  in  my  power  to  defeat 
one  of  the  most  flagitious  attempts  of  modern  times  to  establish  a 
dominion  over  the  seas,  and  which,  under  the  pretext  of  abolishing 


522  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  slave  trade,  and,  by  virtue  of  a  quintuple  treaty,  would  have 
placed  the  flag  and  ships  and  seamen  of  our  country  at  the  dis 
posal  of  England. 

"Lord  Brougham  did  not  always  talk  thus — not  when  one  of 
his  friends  applied  to  me  in  Paris  to  remove  certain  unfavorable 
impressions  made  in  a  liigli  quarter  by  one  of  those  imprudent 
and  impulsive  remarks  which  seem  to  belong  to  his  moral  habits. 
The  effort  was  successful.  And  now  my  account  of  good  for  evil 
with  Lord  Brougham  is  balanced. 

"It  is  an  irksome  task  to  cull  expressions  like  these  and  repeat 
them  here.  I  hold  them  up,  not  as  a  warning — that  is  not  needed 
— but  to  repel  the  intimation  that  we  ought  to  study  the  courte 
sies  of  our  position  in  the  British  Parliament. 

"When  I  came  here,  sir,  I  felt  it  due  to  myself  to  arraign  no 
one's  motives,  but  to  yield  the  same  credit  for  integrity  of  action 
to  others  which  I  claimed  for  myself.  The  respect  I  owed  to  those 
who  sent  me  here,  and  to  those  to  whom  I  was  sent,  equally  dic 
tated  this  course.  If  some  of  us,  as  has  been  intimated,  are  small 
men  who  have  attained  high  places,  if  we  have  no  other  claim  to 
this  false  distinction,  I  hope  we  shall,  at  least,  establish  that  claim 
which  belongs  to  decorum  of  language  and  conduct,  to  life  and 
conversation." 

General  Cass  then  proceeds  to  depict  the  position  and  duties  of 
a  senator  of  the  United  States.  He  spoke  the  words  of  truth  ; 
and,  considering  the  occasion,  it  can  be  said,  with  equal  truth, 
that  they  were  well-timed  : 

"We  all  occupy  positions  here  high  enough,  and  useful  enough, 
if  usefully  filled,  to  satisfy  the  measure  of  any  man's  ambition. 
It  ought  to  be  our  pride  and  our  effort  to  identify  ourselves  with 
this  representative  body  of  the  sovereignties  of  the  States  ;  with 
this  great  depository  of  so  much  of  the  power  of  the  American 
people  in  the  three  great  departments  of  their  government,  exec 
utive,  legislative,  and  judicial — to  establish  an  esprit  du  corps, 
which,  while  it  shall  leave  us  free  to  fulfill  our  duties,  whether  to 
our  country  or  to  our  party,  shall  yet  unite  us  in  a  determination 
to  discard  everything  which  can  diminish  the  influence,  or  lessen 
the  dignity  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  While  I  have  the 
honor  of  a  seat  here,  I  will  do  nothing  to  counteract  these  views. 
I  will  bandy  words  of  reproach  wTith  no  one.  And  the  same 
measure  of  courtesy  I  am  prepared  to  mete  to  others,  I  trust  will 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  523 

be  meted  by  others  to  me.  At  any  rate,  if  they  are  not,  I  will 
have  no  contention  in  this  chamber. 

"I  have  regretted  many  expressions  which  have  been  heard 
during  the  progress  of  this  discussion.  Faction,  demagogues,  ultra 
patriots,  ambitious  leaders,  inflammatory  appeals,  invective,  little 
men  seeking  to  ~be  great  ones,  and  other  terms  and  epithets  not 
pleasant  to  hear,  and  still  less  pleasant  to  repeat.  Now,  sir, 
nothing  is  easier  than  a  bitter  retort ;  and  he  who  impugns  the 
motives  of  others,  can  not  complain  if  he  is  accused  of  measuring 
them  by  his  own  standard,  and  seeking  in  his  own  breast  their 
rule  of  action.  If  one  portion  of  the  Senate  is  accused  of  being 
ultra  on  the  side  of  their  country's  pretensions,  how  easy  to  retort 
the  charge  by  accusing  the  accusers  of  being  ultra  on  the  other? 
But  what  is  gained  by  this  war  of  words  ?  Nothing.  On  the 
contrary,  we  lower  our  dignity  as  senators,  and  our  characters  as 
men.  For  myself,  I  repudiate  it  all.  I  will  have  no  part  nor  lot 
in  it.  I  question  the  motives  of  no  honorable  senator.  I  believe 
we  have  all  one  common  object  —  the  honor  and  interest  of  our 
country.  "VYe  differ  as  to  the  best  means  of  action  ;  and  that 
difference  is  one  of  the  tributes  due  to  human  fallibility.  But 
there  is  no  exclusive  patriotism  on  one  side  or  other  of  this  body, 
and  I  hope  there  will  be  no  exclusive  claim  to  it. 

"  Some  days  since,  in  an  incidental  discussion  which  sprung 
up,  I  remarked  that  I  could  not  perceive  why  the  parallel  of  49° 
was  assumed  as  the  boundary  of  our  claim.  Why  any  man 
planted  his  foot  on  that  suppositions  line  upon  the  face  of  the 
globe,  and  erecting  a  barrier  there,  said,  all  to  the  north  belongs  to 
England,  and  all  to  the  south  to  the  United  States.  My  remark 
was  merely  the  expression  of  my  views,  without  touching  the 
reasons  on  which  they  were  founded.  The  honorable  senators 
from  Maine,  and  Maryland,  and  Georgia,  have  since  called  in 
question  the  accuracy  of  this  opinion,  and  have  entered  somewhat 
at  length  into  the  considerations  which  prove  that  line  the  true  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  two  countries.  And  the  senator  from 
North  Carolina  [Mr.  Haywood]  lays  much  stress  upon  this  matter, 
making  it  in  fact  the  foundation  of  a  large  portion  of  his  argu 
ment.  That  parallel  is,  in  his  view,  the  wall  of  separation  between 
our  questionable  and  our  unquestionable  claims.  To  the  south  he 
would  not  yield  ;  to  the  north  he  would,  though  he  thinks  that 
even  there  our  title  is  the  best.  There  is  an  erroneous  impression 


524:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

upon  this  subject  somewhere,  either  with  the  ultra,  or  (if  I  may 
coin  a  word)  the  un-ultra  advocates  of  Oregon ;  and  as  this  line 
seems  to  be  a  boundary,  beyond  which  we  may  look,  indeed,  and 
wish,  but  must  not  go,  it  is  worth  while  to  examine  summarily 
what  are  its  real  pretensions  to  the  character  thus  assumed  for  it, 
of  being  the  line  of  contact  and  of  separation  between  two  great 
nations. 

"There  is  no  need  of  discussing  the  right  of  civilized  nations 
to  appropriate  to  themselves  countries  newly  discovered  and  in 
habited  by  barbarous  tribes.  The  principle  and  the  practice  have 
been  sanctioned  by  centuries  of  experience.  What  constitutes 
this  right  of  appropriation,  so  as  to  exclude  other  nations  from  its 
exercise  in  a  given  case,  is  a  question  which  has  been  differently 
settled  in  different  ages  of  the  world.  At  one  time  it  was  the 
Pope's  bull  which  conferred  the  title ;  at  another  it  was  discovery 
only  ;  then  settlement  under  some  circumstances,  and  under  others 
discovery;  and  then  settlement  and  discovery  combined.  There 
has  been  neither  a  uniform  rule  nor  a  uniform  practice.  But 
under  any  circumstances,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  why  a  certain 
parallel  of  latitude  is  declared  to  be  the  boundary  of  our  claim. 
If  the  valley  of  a  river  were  assumed,  a  principle  might  be  also 
assumed,  which  would  shut  us  up  in  it.  This  would  be  a  natural 
and  a  tangible  boundary.  How,  indeed,  England  could  look  to 
her  own  practice  and  acquisitions,  and  say  to  us,  you  are  stopped 
by  this  hill,  or  by  that  valley,  or  by  that  river,  I  know  not.  Eng 
land,  whose  colonial  charters  extended  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
South  sea,  as  the  Pacific  ocean  was  then  called,  and  who  actually 
ejected  the  French  from  the  country  between  the  mountains  and 
the  Mississippi,  where  they  had  first  established  themselves,  upon 
the  very  ground  that  their  own  right  of  discovery,  as  shown  by 
these  charters,  ran  indefinitely  west;  and  who  now  holds  the 
continent  of  Australia — a  region  larger  than  Europe — by  virtue  of 
the  right  of  discovery ;  or,  in  other  words,  because  Captain  Cook 
sailed  along  a  portion  of  its  coast,  and  occasionally  hoisted  a  pole 
or  buried  a  bottle.  I  am  well  aware  there  must  be  limits  to  this 
conventional  title,  by  which  new  countries  are  claimed ;  nor  will 
it  be  always  easy  to  assign  them  in  fact,  as  they  can  not  be  assigned 
in  principle.  We  claim  the  Oregon  territory.  The  grounds  of 
this  claim  are  before  the  world.  The  country  it  covers  extends 
from  California  to  the  Russian  possessions,  and  from  the  Rocky 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  525 

mountains  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  —  a  homogeneous  country,  un 
claimed  by  England  when  our  title  commenced,  similar  in  its 
character,  its  productions,  its  climate,  its  interests,  and  its  wants, 
in  all  that  constitutes  natural  identity,  and  by  these  elements  of 
union  calculated  forever  to  be  united  together,  —  no  more  to  be 
divided  by  the  parallel  of  49°  than  by  the  parallel  of  43°,  nor  by 
any  of  the  geographical  circles  marked  upon  artificial  globes  ;  no 
more  to  be  so  divided  than  any  of  the  possessions  of  England 
scattered  over  the  world.  In  thus  claiming  the  whole  of  this  un 
appropriated  country,  unappropriated  when  our  title  attached  to 
it,  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  the  valley  of  Frazer's  river,  and  all 
the  other  hills  and  valleys  \vhich  diversify  its  surface,  we  but  fol 
low  the  example  set  us  by  the  nations  of  the  other  hemisphere, 
and  hold  on  to  the  possession  of  a  country  which  is  one,  and 
ought  to  be  indivisible. 

"It  is  contended  that  this  parallel  of  49°  is  the  northern  bound 
ary  of  our  just  claim,  because  for  many  years  it  was  assumed  as 
such  by  our  government,  and  that  we  are  bound  by  its  early 
course  in  this  controversy ;  that  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  in  1713, 
between  France  and  England,  provided  fur  the  appointment  of 
commissioners  to  establish  a  line  of  division  between  their  re 
spective  colonies  upon  the  continent  of  North  America,  and  that 
this  parallel  of  49°  was  thus  established.  The  honorable  senator 
from  Georgia,  in  his  remarks  a  few  days  since,  if  he  did  not 
abandon  this  pretension,  still  abandoned  all  reference  to  it,  in  the 
support  of  his  position.  He  contended  that  the  parallel  of  49° 
was  our  boundary,  but  for  other  reasons.  In  the  view  I  am  now 
taking,  sir,  my  principal  object,  as  will  be  seen,  is  to  show  that 
we  are  at  full  liberty  to  assert  our  claim  to  the  country  north  of 
49°,  unembarrassed  by  the  early  action  of  our  own  government, 
by  showing  that  the  government  was  led  into  error  respecting  its 
rights  by  an  historical  statement,  probably  inaccurate  in  itself, 
certainly  inaccurate  if  applied  to  Oregon,  but  then  supposed  to 
be  true  in  both  respects.  Now,  what  was  this  error?  It  was  the 
assertion  I  have  just  mentioned,  that  agreeably  to  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht,  the  parallel  of  49°  was  established  as  a  boundary,  and 
having  been  continued  west,  had  become  the  northern  limit  of 
Oregon,  at  least  of  our  Oregon.  Upon  this  ground,  and  upon 
this  ground  alone,  rested  the  actions  and  the  pretensions  of  our 
government  in  this  matter.  So  far,  then,  as  any  question  of 


526  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

national  faith  or  justice  is  involved  in  this  subject,  we  must  test 
the  proceedings  of  the  government  by  its  own  views,  not  b,y  other 
considerations  presented  here  at  this  day.  The  government  of 
the  United  States  gave  to  that  of  Great  Britain  their  claim,  and 
their  reasons  for  it.  That  claim  first  stopped  at  49°,  while  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht  was  supposed  to  effect  it,  as  part  of  Louisiana, 
and  before  wre  had  acquired  another  title  by  the  acquisition  of 
Florida.  Since  then,  it  has  been  ascertained  that  that  treaty 
never  extended  to  Oregon ;  and  we  have  strengthened  and  per 
fected  our  claim  by  another  purchase.  It  is  for  these  reasons  that 
I  confine  myself  to  what  has  passed  between  the  two  governments, 
with  a  view  to  ascertain  our  present  obligations,  and  omit  the 
considerations  presented  by  the  honorable  senator  from  Georgia. 
I  will  barely  remark,  howrever,  that  in  the  far  most  important  fact 
to  which  he  refers,  as  affecting  the  extent  of  our  claim  —  to  wit: 
the  latitude  of  the  source  of  the  Columbia  river  —  he  is  under  a 
misapprehension.  He  put  it  at  49°,  but  it  is  far  north  of  that. 
It  is  navigable  by  canoes  to  the  Three  Forks,  about  the  latitude  of 
52°.  How  far  beyond  that  is  its  head  spring,  I  know  not. 

"  Mr.  Greenhow,  in  his  work  on  Oregon — a  work  marked  with 
talent,  industry,  and  caution  —  has  explained  how  this  misappre 
hension  respecting  the  parallel  of  49°  originated.  He  has  brought 
forward  proofs,  both  positive  and  negative,  to  show  that  no  such 
line  was  established  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  nor  by  commissaries 
named  to  carry  its  provisions  into  effect.  I  shall  not  go  over  the 
subject,  but  beg  leave  to  refer  the  gentlemen  who  maintain  the 
contrary  opinion,  to  the  investigations  they  will  find  in  that  work. 
The  assertion,  however,  has  been  so  peremptorily  made,  and  the 
conclusions  drawn  from  it,  if  true,  and  if  the  line  extended  to 
Oregon,  would  discredit  so  large  a  portion  of  our  title  to  that 
country,  that  I  may  be  pardoned  for  briefly  alluding  to  one  or  two 
considerations  which  seem  to  me  to  demonstrate  the  error  respect 
ing  this  assumed  line  of  parallel  of  49°,  at  any  rate  in  its  extension 
to  Oregon. 

"  It  will  be  perceived,  sir,  that  there  are  two  questions  involved 
in  this  matter :  one  a  purely  historical  question,  whether  commis 
saries  acting  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  established  the  parallel 
of  49°  as  the  boundary  between  the  French  and  English  posses 
sions  upon  this  continent;  and  the  other  a  practical  one,  whether 
such  a  line  was  extended  west  to  the  Pacific  ocean. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  527 

"As  to  the  first,  sir,  I  refer  honorable  senators  to  Mr.  Green- 
how's  work,  and  to  the  authorities  he  quotes.  I  do  not  presume 
to  speak  authoritatively  upon  the  question,  but  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  express  my  opinion  that  Mr.  Greenhow  has  made  out  a  strong 
case  ;  and  my  own  impression  is,  that  such  a  line  was  not  actually 
and  officially  established.  Still,  sir,  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  a  point 
upon  which  there  may  not  be  differences  of  opinion ;  nor  that, 
however  it  may  be  ultimately  determined,  the  solution  of  the 
matter  will  discredit  the  judgment  of  any  one.  This,  however, 
has  relation  to  the  line  terminating  with  the  Hudson  Bay  posses 
sions;  and,  as  I  have  observed,  the  fact  is  a  mere  question  of 
history,  without  the  least  bearing  upon  our  controversy  with 
England. 

"  I  have,  however,  one  preliminary  remark  to  make  in  this  con 
nection,  and  it  is  this  :  let  him  who  asserts  that  our  claim  west  of 
the  Rocky  mountains  is  bounded  by  the  parallel  of  49°,  prove  it. 
The  burden  is  upon  him,  not  upon  us.  If  commissaries  under  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht  established  it,  produce  their  award.  Proof  of 
it,  if  it  exists,  is  to  be  found  in  London  or  Paris.  Such  an  act  was 
not  done  without  leaving  the  most  authentic  evidence  behind  it. 
Produce  it.  When  was  the  award  made  ?  "What  were  its  terms? 
What  were  its  circumstances  ?  Why,  a  suit  between  man  and 
man  for  an  inch  of  land,  would  not  be  decided  by  such  evidence 
as  this,  especially  discredited  as  it  is,  in  any  court  of  the  United 
States.  The  party  claiming  under  it  would  be  told,  There  is  better 
evidence  in  your  power.  Seek  it  in  London  or  Paris,  and  Iring 
forward  the  certified  copy  of  tlie proceedings  of  the  commissioners. 
This  is  equally  the  dictate  of  common  sense  and  of  common  law, 
and  there  is  not  always  the  same  union  between  those  high  tribu 
nals,  as  many  know  to  their  cost.  Let  no  man,  therefore,  assume 
this  line  as  a  barrier  to  his  country's  claim  without  proving  it. 

"  This  is  first  historically  made  known  in  the  negotiations  be 
tween  our  government  and  that  of  England  by  Mr.  Madison,  in  a 
dispatch  to  Mr.  Monroe  in  1804.  Mr.  Madison  alludes  to  an 
historical  notice  he  had  somewhere  found,  stating  that  commis- 

'  o 

sioners  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  had  established  the  line  of 
49°  as  the  boundary  of  the  British  and  French  possessions,  thus 
fixing  that  parallel  as  the  northern  boundary  of  Louisiana.  I 
have  examined  this  dispatch,  and  I  find  that  he  speaks  doubtfully 
respecting  the  authenticity  of  this  notice ;  and  desires  Mr.  Monroe, 


528  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

before  he  made  it  the  basis  of  a  proposition,  to  ascertain  if  the 
facts  were  truly  stated,  as  the  means  of  doing  so  were  not  to  be 
found  in  this  country.  Mr  Monroe,  however,  could  have  made 
no  investigation  ;  or,  if  he  did  so,  it  must  have  been  unsatisfactory, 
for  he  transmits  the  proposition  substantially  in  the  words  of  the 
historian  Douglas,  from  whom,  probably,  Mr.  Madison  acquired 
this  notice,  without  reference  to  any  authority,  either  historical  or 
diplomatic. 

"  I  can  not  find  that  the  British  government  ever  took  the 
slightest  notice  of  the  assertion  respecting  this  incident,  growing 
out  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  though  it  has  been  referred  to  more 
than  once  by  our  diplomatic  agents,  in  their  communications  to 
the  British  authorities  since  that  period. 

"But  in  late  years  it  has  disappeared  from  the  correspondence, 
and  neither  party  has  adverted  to  it,  nor  relied  upon  it.  It  is 
strange,  indeed,  that  in  this  body  we  should  now  assume  the 
existence  of  a  fact  like  this,  supposed  to  have  a  most  important 
bearing  upon  the  rights  of  the  parties,  when  the  able  men  to 
whose  custody  the  maintenance  of  these  rights  has  been  recently 
committed,  have  totally  abandoned  it  in  their  arguments  and 
illustrations.  The  assumption  was  originally  an  erroneous  one — 
certainly  so,  so  far  as  respects  Oregon ;  but  while  it  was  believed  to 
be  true,  the  consequences  were  rightfully  and  honestly  carried  out 
by  our  government,  arid  the  line  was  claimed  as  a  boundary.  But 
our  government  is  now  better  informed,  as  the  British  government, 
no  doubt,  always  were,  and  thence  their  silence  upon  the  subject ; 
and  the  titles  of  both  parties  are  investigated  without  reference  to 
this  historical  error,  or  to  the  position  in  which  it  temporarily 
placed  them. 

"The  treaty  of  Utrecht  never  refers  to  the  parallel  of  49°,  and 
the  boundaries  it  proposed  to  establish  were  those  between  the 
French  and  English  colonies,  including  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
in  Canada.  The  charter  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  granted  to 
the  proprietors  all  the  '  lands,  countries,  and  territories,'  upon  the 
waters  discharging  themselves  into  Hudson's  Bay.  At  the  date 
of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  which  was  in  1713,  Great  Britain  claimed 
nothing  west  of  those  '  lands,  countries,  and  territories,'  and  of 
course  there  was  nothing  to  divide  between  her  and  France  west 
of  that  line. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  529 

"Again,  in  1713,  the  north-western  coast  was  almost  a  terra 
incognita — a  blank  upon  the  map  of  the  world.  England  then 
neither  knew  a  foot  of  it,  nor  claimed  a  foot  of  it.  By  adverting 
to  the  letter  of  Messrs.  Gallatin  and  Rush,  communicating  an 
account  of  their  interview  with  Messrs.  Goulburn  and  Robinson, 
British  commissioners,  dated  October  20th,  1818,  and  to  the  letter 
of  Mr.  Pakenbam  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  dated  September  12th,  1844, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  commencement  of  the  British  claim  is 
effectively  limited  to  the  discoveries  of  Captain  Cook  in  1778. 
How,  then,  could  a  boundary  have  been  established  fifty  years 
before,  in  a  region  where  no  Englishman  had  ever  penetrated,  and 
to  which  England  had  never  asserted  a  pretension?  And  yet 
the  assumption  that  the  parallel  of  49°  was  established  by  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht,  as  a  line  between  France  and  England  in  those 
unknown  regions,  necessarily  involves  these  inconsistent  conclu 
sions.  But  besides,  if  England,  as  a  party  to  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht,  established  this  line  running  to  the  western  ocean  as  the 
northern  boundary  of  Louisiana,  what  possible  claim  has  she  now 
south  of  that  line?  The  very  fact  of  her  existing  pretensions, 
however  unfounded  these  may  be,  shows  that  she  considers  herself 
no  party  to  such  a  line  of  division.  It  shows,  in  fact,  that  no  line 
was  run ;  for  if  it  had  been,  the  evidence  of  it  would  be  in  the 
English  archives,  and,  in  truth,  would  be  known  to  the  world 
without  contradiction.  The  establishment  of  boundary  between 
two  great  nations  is  no  hidden  fact ;  and  we  may  now  safely 
assume  that  the  parallel  of  49°  never  divided  the  Oregon  territory, 
and  establishes  no  barrier  to  the  rights  by  which  we  claim  it. 
The  assertion  was  originally  a  mere  dictum,  now  shown  to  be 
unfounded. 

"  The  senator  from  Maine  has  adverted  likewise  to  the  treaty  of 
1763,  as  furnishing  additional  testimony  in  favor  of  this  line.  That 
treaty  merely  provides  that  the  confines  between  the  British  and 
French  dominions  shall  be  fixed  irrevocably  by  a  line  drawn  along 
the  middle  of  the  river  Mississippi,  from  its  source,  <&c.  This  is 
the  whole  provision  that  bears  upon  this  subject.  I  do  not  stop 
to  analyze  it.  That  can  not  be  necessary.  It  is  obvious  that  this 
arrangement  merely  established  the  Mississippi  river  as  a  bound 
ary  between  the  two  countries,  leaving  their  other  claims  precisely 
as  they  formerly  existed.  And  this,  too,  was  fifteen  years  before 
the  voyage  of  Captain  Cook,  the  commencement  of  the  British 
34 


530  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

title  on  the  north-west  coast.  Briefly,  sir,  there  are  six  reasons 
which  prove  that  this  parallel  was  never  established  under  the 
treaty  of  HJtrecht,  so  far  at  least  as  regards  Oregon. 

"1.  It  is  not  shown  that  any  line  was  established  on  the  parallel 
of  49°  to  the  Pacific  ocean. 

"  If  the  fact  be  so,  the  proper  evidence  is  at  Paris  or  London, 
and  should  be  produced. 

"  2.  The  country  on  the  north-western  coast  was  then  unknown, 
and  I  believe  unclaimed  ;  or,  at  any  rate,  no  circumstances  had 
arisen  to  call  in  question  any  claim  to  it. 

"  3.  The  British  negotiators  in  1826,  and  their  minister  here  in 
1S44,  fixed,  in  effect,  upon  the  voyage  of  Captain  Coook  in  1788 
as  the  commencement  of  the  British  title  in  what  is  now  called 
Oregon. 

"  4.  The  treaty  of  Utrecht  provides  for  the  establishment  of  a 
line  between  the  French  and  English  colonies,  including  the  Hud 
son's  Bay  Company.  The  British  held  nothing  west  of  that  com 
pany's  possessions,  which,  by  the  charter,  includes  only  the  'lands, 
countries,  and  territories,'  on  the  waters  running  into  Hudson's 
Bay. 

"  5.  If  England  established  the  line  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  she  can 
have  no  claim  south  of  it;  and  this  kind  of  argwnentum  ad  homi- 
nem  becomes  conclusive.  And  let  me  add,  that  I  owe  this  argu 
ment  to  my  friend  from  Missouri,  [Mr.  Atchison,]  to  whose 
remarks  upon  Oregon  the  Senate  listened  with  profit  and  pleasure 
some  days  since. 

"  6.  How  could  France  and  England  claim  the  country  to  the 
Pacific,  so  as  to  divide  it  between  them  in  1730,  when,  as  late  as 
1790,  the  British  government,  by  the  Nootka  convention,  express 
ly  recognized  the  Spanish  title  to  that  country,  and  claimed  only 
the  use  of  it  for  its  own  subjects,  in  common  with  those  of  Spain  ? 

"I  now  ask,  sir,  what  right  has  any  American  statesman,  or  what 
right  has  any  British  statesman,  to  contend  that  our  claim,  what 
ever  it  may  be,  is  not  just  as  good  north  of  this  line  as  it  is  south 
of  it?  When  this  question  is  answered  to  my  satisfaction,  I,  for 
one,  will  consent  to  stop  there  ;  but,  until  then,  I  am  among 
those  who  mean  to  march,  if  we  can,  to  the  Eussian  boundary. 

"  Now,  Mr.  President,  it  is  the  very  ground  assumed  by  the 
senator  from  North  Carolina,  and  by  other  senators,  respecting 
this  parallel  of  49°,  together  with  the  course  of  this  discussion, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  531 

v 

which  furnishes  me  with  the  most  powerful  argument  against  the 
reference  of  this  controversy  to  arbitration. 

"  I  have  shown,  I  trust,  that  there  is  no  such  line  of  demarcation 
established  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  extending  to  the  Oregon 
territory,  and  the  misapprehension  whence  the  opinion  arose. 

"While  such  a  conviction  prevailed,  it  was  fairly  and  properly 
•assumed  by  the  government  as  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Ore 
gon  claim  before  the  Florida  treaty.  Since  that  treaty  I  consider 
the  offers  on  our  part  as  offers  of  compromise,  not  recognitions  of 
a  line;  from  the  resumption  of  negotiations  by  Mr.  Rush,  who 
carried  our  title  to  51°,  to  their  abandonment  in  1827  by  Mr 
Gallatin,  who,  finding  a  satisfactory  adjustment  impossible,  with 
drew  the  pending  offer,  and  asserted  that  his  government *•  would 
consider  itself  at  liberty  to  contend  for  the  full  extent  of  the  claims 
of  the  United  States.'  And  for  their  full  extent  we  do  claim. 
And  I  take  the  opportunity  to  tender  my  small  tribute  of  appro 
bation  to  the  general  conduct  of  these  negotiations  by  the  Ameri 
can  government  and  their  commissioners,  and  especially  to  Mr. 
Rush,  a  citizen  as  well  known  for  his  private  worth  as  for  his  high 
talents  and  great  public  services,  and  who  seems  to  have  been  the 
first,  as  Mr.  Greenhow  remarks,  '  to  inquire  carefully  into  the  facts 
of  the  case.' 

"  And  it  is  not  one  of  the  least  curious  phases  of  this  controversy, 
that  down  to  this  very  day  the  pretensions  of  England  are  either 
wholly  contradictory,  or  are  shrouded  in  apparently  studied  ob 
scurity.  She  asserts  no  exclusive  claim  anywhere,  but  an  equal 
claim  everywhere. 

"  '  A  right  of  joint  occupancy  in  the  Oregon  territory,'  says  the 
British  minister  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  of  September  12th, 
184-1,  i  of  which  right  she  can  be  divested  with  respect  to  any  part 
of  that  territory,  only  by  an  equal  partition  of  the  whole  between 
the  parties.'3 

"  And  yet,  notwithstanding  he  refers  to  the  whole  territory,  still 
in  the  protocol  of  the  conference  at  Washington,  dated  September 
24th,  1844,  he  refused  to  enter  into  any  discussion  respecting  the 
country  north  of  49°,  because  it  was  understood  ~by  the  .British 
government  to  form  the,  basis  of  negotiation  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States.  Thus,  on  the  12th  of  September,  recognizing  our 
right  to  an  equal,  undivided  moiety  of  Oregon,  and  two  weeks 
after  coolly  claiming  the  northern  half  of  it  as  a  fact  not  even  to 


532  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

be  called  into  question,  and  then  offering  to  discuss  with  us  the 
mutual  claims  of  the  two  countries  to  the  southern  half! 

"  Well,  sir,  influenced  by  the  motives  I  have  stated,  and  by  a 
desire  to  terminate  this  tedious  controversy,  this  parallel  of  49°, 
sometimes  with,  and  sometimes  without  an  accessory,  has  been 
iour  times  offered  by  us  to  the  British  government,  and  four  times 
rejected,  and  once  indignantly  so ;  and  three  times  withdrawn. 
Twice  withdrawn  in  the  very  terms — once  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  No 
vember  15th,  1826,  who  withdrew  a  proposition  made  by  Mr.  Rush, 
and  once  during  the  present  administration;  and  once  withdrawn 
in  effect,  though  without  the  use  of  that  word,  by  Mr.  Gallatin,  in 
1827,  who  announced  to  the  British  negotiators  '  that  his  govern 
ment  did  not  hold  itself  bound  hereafter,  in  consequence  of  any 
proposal  which  it  had  made  for  a  line  of  separation  between  the 
territories  of  the  two  nations  beyond  the  Eocky  mountains,  but 
would  consider  itself  at  liberty  to  contend  for  the  full  extent  of  the 
claims  of  the  United  States.7 

"The  senator  from  Louisiana  will  perceive  that  he  was  in  error 
yesterday  when  he  said  that  no  offer  of  a  compromise  had  ever 
been  withdrawn  till  the  withdrawal  made  by  the  present  admin 
istration,  unless  such  offer  had  been  announced  as  an  ultimatum. 
But  without  recurring  to  any  authority  upon  this  subject,  it  is 
evident  that  if  a  nation  is  forever  bound  by  an  offer  of  compro 
mise,  no  prudent  nation  would  ever  make  such  an  offer.  There 
would  be  no  reciprocity  in  such  a  condition  of  things.  In  contro 
versies  respecting  territory,  each  party  would  hold  on  to  its 
extreme  limit  ;  for  if  it  made  an  offer  less  than  that,  it  would 
abandon,  in  fact,  so  much  of  its  own  pretensions,  leaving  those  of 
its  opponent  in  their  full  integrity. 

"  Such,  sir,  is  the  state  of  our  controversy  with  England,  and 
yet  honorable  senators  on  this  floor,  able  lawyers  and  jurists  also, 
maintain  that  this  line,  thus  offered  and  refused,  and  withdrawn, 
is  now  in  effect  the  limit  of  our  claim,  and  that  we  are  bound  hon 
orably  and  morally,  and  they  say,  at  the  risk  of  the  censure  of  the 
world,  to  receive  it  as  our  boundary  whenever  England  chooses  so 
to  accept  it.  This  is  all  very  strange,  and  would  seem  to  me  so 
untenable  as  not  to  be  worthy  of  examination,  if  it  were  not 
urged  by  such  high  authorities.  Let  us  look  at  it. 

"  The  honorable  Senator  from  Maryland  has  entered  more  fully 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  533 

into  tins  branch  of  the  subject  than  any  other  member  of  this  body, 
and  I  shall  therefore  confine  my  inquiries  to  his  remarks. 

"  There  are  two  propositions  connected  with  this  matter,  which 
it  is  proper  to  consider  separately.  The  first  is,  the  obligation 
upon  the  President,  agreeably  to  his  own  views,  to  accept  this  re 
jected  offer  if  it  comes  back  to  him  ;  and  the  other  is,  the  obligation 
upon  the  country,  and  upon  this  body,  as  one  of  its  depositories 
of  the  treaty-making  power,  to  confirm  the  act  of  the  President, 
should  it  come  here  for  confirmation.  What,  sir,  is  a  compromise? 
It  is  an  offer  made  by  one  party  to  the  other  to  take  less  than  his 
whole  claim,  with  a  view  to  an  amicable  adjustment  of  the  contro 
versy,  whatever  this  may  be.  The  doctrine  of  compromises  is 
founded  upon  universal  reason  ;  and  its  obligations,  I  believe,  are 
everywhere  the  same,  whether  in  the  codes  of  municipal  or  gene 
ral  law.  An  offer  made  in  this  spirit  never  furnishes  the  slightest 
presumption  against  the  claim  of  the  party  making  it,  and  for 
the  best  of  reasons;  not  only  that  this  amicable  process  of  settle 
ment  may  be  encouraged  and  extended,  but  because  it  will  often 
happen  that  both  individuals  and  nations  may  be  willing  to 
sacrifice  a  portion  of  what  they  consider  their  just  rights,  rather 
than  encounter  the  certain  expense  and  trouble,  and  the  uncertain 
issue  of  litigation,  whether  that  litigation  be  in  a  court  of  justice, 
or  upon  a  battle-field.  Such  is  the  general  principle  ;  and  the 
practical  operation  of  any  other  would  hold  one  of  the  parties  for 
ever  bound,  and  leave  the  other  forever  free.  One  makes  his  offer 
and  must  adhere  to  it,  while  the  other  declines  it  or  refuses  it,  and 
still  may  hold  on  to  it  indefinitely. 

"  Surely  it  can  not  be  necessary  to  pursue  this  illustration  far 
ther.  Such  a  construction  as  this,  which  plays  fast  and  loose  at 
the  same  time,  carries  with  it  its  own  refutation,  however  respect 
able  the  authority  which  attempts  to  support  it.  But,  reverting 
to  the  obligations  of  the  President,  what  says  the  honorable  sena 
tor  from  Maryland  ?  He  says  that  the  President — not  James  K. 
Polk,  but  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation — having  felt  an  im 
plied  obligation  to  renew  the  offer  of  49°,  is  now  bound  in  all  time 
to  accept  it,  and,  I  suppose,  patiently  to  wait  for  it  till  the  demand 
comes.  I  must  say,  that  in  this  brief  abstract  of  the  President's 
views,  the  senator  has  hardly  done  justice  to  him.  I  do  not 
stand  here  to  say  what  the  President  will  do,  should  Great  Brit 
ain  propose  to  accept  the  parallel  of  49°  as  the  boundary  between 


534  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  two  countries.  In  the  first  place,  it  would  be  to  argue  upon 
a  gratuitous  assumption.  I  have  not  the  slightest  reason  to  be 
lieve  that  the  British  government  have  given  any  intimation  that 
it  will  ever  come  back  to  that  line.  But,  in  the  second  place,  if  it 
should,  what  then?  The  incipient  step  is  for  the  President  to 
take  ;  and  I  should  leave  the  matter  here,  without  remark,  had  not 
the  senator  from  Maryland,  and  the  senator  from  North  Car 
olina,  and  other  senators,  labored  to  impress  the  conviction,  that 
the  President  ought,  and  must,  and  would,  close  with  the  British 
proposition  to  accept  the  parallel  of  49°,  should  it  be  made.  I 
shall  not  analyze  the  words  of  the  President's  message,  but  con 
tent  myself  with  a  general  allusion  to  it.  Truth  is  seldom  pro 
moted  by  picking  out  particular  phrases,  and  placing  them  in 
juxtaposition.  The  President  says — and  it  is  evident  the  whole 
message  was  carefully  prepared — that  though  he  entertained  the 
settled  conviction,  that  the  British  title  to  any  portion  of  Oregon 
could  not  be  maintained,  yet,  in  deference  to  the  action  of  his  pre 
decessors,  and  to  what  had  been  done,  and  in  consideration  that 
the  pending  negotiations  had  been  commenced  on  the  basis  of 
compromise,  he  determined,  in  a  spirit  of  compromise,  to  offer  a 
part  of  what  had  been  offered  before — the  parallel  of  49°,  without 
the  navigation  of  the  Columbia  river.  He  says  this  proposition 
was  rejected,  and  in  what  terms  we  all  know,  and  that  he  imme 
diately  withdrew  it,  and  then  asserted  our  title  to  the  whole  of 
Oregon,  and  maintained  it  by  irrefragable  arguments.  Now,  sir, 
I  am  not  going  to  argue  with  any  man  who  seeks  to  deduce  from 
this  language  a  conviction  in  the  mind  of  the  President,  that  he 
considers  himself  under  the  slightest  obligation  to  England  to  ac 
cept  the  parallel  of  49°,  should  she  desire  it  as  a  boundary.  In 
this  account  of  his  proceedings,  he  is  explaining  to  his  country 
men  the  operations  of  his  own  mind,  the  reasons  which  induced 
him  to  make  this  offer,  made,  as  he  says,  '  in  deference  alone  to 
what  had  been  done  by  my  predecessors,  and  the  implied  obliga 
tions  their  acts  seemed  to  impose.'  What  obligations?  None  to 
England,  for  none  had  been  created  ;  but  the  obligations  imposed 
upon  a  prudent  statesman  to  look  at  the  actions  and  views  of  his 
predecessors,  and  not  to  depart  from  them  without  good  reasons. 
The  obvious  meaning  is  this  :  I  found  the  negotiations  pending; 
after  an  interval  of  almost  twenty  years,  they  had  been  renewed; 
they  began  on  the  basis  of  compromise,  and  though  three  times  a 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  535 

compromise  had  been  offered  to  England  and  rejected,  and  though 
she  had  not  the  slightest  right  to  claim,  or  even  to  expect  it  would 
be  offered  to  her  again,  and  though  I  determined,  that  the  same 
proposition  should  not  be  offered  to  her,  still,  as  a  proof  of  the 
moderation  of  the  United  States,  I  deemed  it  expedient  to  make 
her  another  offer,  less  than  the  preceding  one,  which  a  quarter  of 
a  century  before  she  had  rejected.  A  curious  obligation  this,  if  it 
has  reference  to  the  rights  of  England,  and  a  curious  mode  of  ful 
filling  it !  If  he  (the  President)  were  under  any  obligations  to 
her,  the  obligation  was  complete  to  make  the  offer  as  it  had  been 
made  before.  And  she  has  the  same  right  to  claim  the  naviga 
tion  of  the  Columbia  river  that  she  has  to  claim  the  parallel  of 
49°  as  a  boundary  ;  and  the  honorable  senator  from  Louisiana 
has  placed  the  matter  upon  this  very  ground.1' 

Several  senators  on  the  Democratic  side  of  the  chamber  changed 
their  position  as  the  debate  progressed.  At  the  commencement 
of  the  session,  they  were  counted,  at  least,  as  standing  on  the  par 
allel  of  540  40',  but,  ere  the  day  when  the  veteran  statesman  of 
Michigan  spoke  so  ably  to  them,  they  had  sought,  or  were  seeking, 
the  parallel  of  49°.  Upon  the  minds  of  those  who  had  taken  cour 
age  to  advocate  the  latter  parallel,  General  Cass  did  not  expect 
to  make  an  impression.  Of  this  class  were  Mr.  Hay  wood,  of 
North  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Dix,  of  New  York.  But  he  did  venture 
to  hope  that  his  argument  might  move  the  minds  of  others. 

With  the  view  of  making  this  change  of  position  as  agreeable 
as  was  convenient,  hints  were  first  thrown  out,  and  in  the  sequel 
it  was  roundly  asserted,  that  the  executive  had  receded.  For  the 
thousandth  time,  the  GILDED  PILL  was  prescribed — on  this  occa 
sion,  its  coat  was  the  official  patronage  at  the  other  end  of  Penn 
sylvania  Avenue.  This  allurement  dazzled  in  the  pathway  of 
those  who  would  face  all  Europe  in  arms,  before  they  would  vol 
untarily  yield  an  inch  of  American  soil  to  the  unjust  pretensions 
of  England.  General  Cass,  with  others,  contemned  the  idea  even, 
as  incompatible  with  integrity.  He  went  farther.  He  defended 
the  President  from  these  aspersions.  He  stripped  the  pill  of  its 
fascinating  exterior,  and  exposed  its  rottenness  ;  and  rotten  it  was, 
to  the  core. 

"  Mr.  President,"  continued  General  Cass,  "  the  honorable  sen 
ator  from  North  Carolina,  not  now  in  his  seat,  called  those  who 
believe  our  title  to  54°  40'  to  be  clear,  the  ultra  friends  of  the 


536  LIFE  AND.  TIMES 

President,  and,  I  understood  him,  he  claimed  to  be  his  true  friend, 
saving  him  from  those  imprudent  ones.  As  I  find  myself  in  this 
category,  I  am  obnoxious  to  the  charge,  and  with  the  natural 
instinct  of  self-defense,  I  desire  to  repel  it.  We  are  ultra  friends, 
because  we  do  not  stop  at  49°.  I  have  already  shown,  that  there 
is  no.  stopping  place  on  that  parallel — no  true  rest  for  an  Ameri 
can  foot.  The  senator  himself  considers  our  title  to  that  line  clear 
and  indisputable,  and  I  understood  him  that  he  would  maintain 
it,  come  what  might.  Well,  if  it  is  found  that  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht  no  more  extended  to  Oregon  than  to  the  moon,  whatever 
other  boundary  may  be  sought  or  found,  it  can  not  be  that  purely 
gratuitous  boundary — the  parallel  of  49°.  And  as  the  senator 
from  North  Carolina  must  leave  it,  where  will  he  find  a  better 
barrier  than  the  Russian  possessions  ?  But  he  says,  also,  that 
though  our  title  to  the  country  north  of  49°  is  not  indisputable, 
still  it  is  better  than  any  other  title.  Now,  I  will  appeal  to  the 
senator's  charity — no,  not  to  his  charity,  that  is  not  necessary — 
but  I  will  appeal  to  his  sense  of  justice,  to  say  whether  such  a 
difference  of  opinion  as  exists  between  himself  and  me  on  this  sub 
ject  can  justly  be  characterized  as  ultraism  on  my  part.  Our 
title,  he  says,  is  the  best — not  indisputable ;  but  still  the  best. 
The  same  evidence  which  produced  this  conviction  in  his  mind, 
produces  a  stronger  one  in  mine  ;  and  this  is  the  tribute  which 
every  day's  experience  pays  to  human  fallibility.  We  are  differ 
ently  constituted,  and  differently  affected  by  the  same  facts  and 
arguments.  While  the  honorable  senator  stands  upon  the  parallel 
of  49°,  as  the  precise  line  where  our  questionable  and  unques 
tionable  titles  meet,  there  are  many,  and  I  am  among  the  number, 
who  carry  our  unquestionable  title  to  the  Russian  boundary  in 
one  direction,  and  some,  perhaps,  though  I  have  not  found  one, 
who  carry  it  in  another  direction  to  the  Columbia  river.  It  seems 
to  me  in  bad  taste,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  for  any  member  to 
assume  his  own  views  as  infallible,  and  to  say  to  all  the  world, 
who  differ  from  him,  whether  on  the  right  hand  or  on  the  left,  My 
opinion  is  the  true  standard  of  orthodoxy,  and  every  one  who 
departs  from  it  is  a  'heretic  and  an  ultra.  Thus  to  stigmatize  a 
large  portion  of  the  Senate,  is  not,  I  am  sure,  the  intention  of  the 
senator  ;  but  such  is,  in  fact  and  effect,  the  direct  tendency  of  his 
remarks.  We  are  ultra,  because,  to  use  a  somewhat  quaint  but  a 
forcible  apothegm,  we  wtti  not  measure  our  com  by  Ms  bushel, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  537 

Why,  sir,  we  have  each  a  bushel  of  our  own,  given  us  by  the 
Creator,  and  till  the  senator's  is  sealed  and  certified  by  a  higher 
authority,  we  beg  leave  to  keep  our  own,  and  to  measure  our 
duties  by  it. 

"I  did  not  understand  the  precise  object  of  some  of  the  remarks 
of  the  senator  from  North  Carolina,  though  I  had  less  difficulty 
respecting  the  remarks  themselves.  He  told  us  the  President 
nowhere  claimed  54°  40' ;  and  I  presume  he  thus  contended  in 
order  to  show  that  the  President  might  consistently  accept  any 
boundary  south  of  that  parallel.  I  again  disclaim  all  interference 
with  the  President  in  the  execution  of  his  duties.  I  do  not  think, 
that  what  he  will  do  in  a  gratuitous  case,  should  furnish  the  sub 
ject  of  speculation  upon  this  floor.  I  know  what  I  will  do,  and 
that  is  enough  for  me  ;  and  as  I  took  the  opportunity,  three  years 
ago,  in  a  public  and  printed  address,  at  Fort  Wayne,  to  define 
my  position  in  this  matter,  before  I  became  a  member  of  this 
body,  my  allusion  to  it  here  can  not  be  deemed  the  premature 
expression  of  my  opinion.  I  then  said  : 

"  '  Our  claim  to  the  country  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  is  as 
undeniable  as  our  right  to  Bunker  Hill  and  New  Orleans  ;  and 
who  will  call  in  question  our  title  to  these  blood-stained  fields  ? 
And  I  trust  it  will  be  maintained  with  a  vigor  and  promptitude 
equal  to  its  justice.  War  is  a  great  evil,  but  not  so  great  as 
national  dishonor.  Little  is  gained  by  yielding  to  insolent  and 
unjust  pretensions.  It  is  better  to  defend  the  first  inch  of  territory 
than  the  last.  Far  better,  in  dealing  with  England,  to  resist 
aggression,  whether  of  impressment,  of  search,  or  of  territory, 
when  first  attempted,  than  to  yield,  in  the  hope  that  forbearance 
will  be  met  in  a  just  spirit,  and  will  lead  to  an  amicable  compro 
mise.  Let  us  have  no  red  lines  upon  the  map  of  Oregon.  Let  us 
hold  on  to  the  integrity  of  our  just  claim.  And  if  war  come,  be 
it  so  ;  I  do  not  believe  it  will  be  long  avoided,  unless  prevented 
by  intestine  difficulties  in  the  British  Empire.  And  wo  be  to  us, 
if  we  flatter  ourselves  it  can  be  arrested  by  any  system  of  con 
cession.  Of  all  delusions,  this  would  be  the  most  fatal,  and  we 
should  awake  from  it  a  dishonored,  if  not  a  ruined  people.5 

"  Now,  the  Oregon,  I  claim,  is  all  Oregon,  and  no  vote  of  mine 
in  this  Senate  will  surrender  one  inch  of  it  to  England.  But  the 
senator  from  North  Carolina  says,  that  the  Oregon  the  President 
claims  is  an  Oregon  of  his  own,  and  not  the  country  which  now 


538  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

excites  the  anxious  solicitude  of  the  American  people.  And  if  it 
were  so,  is  it  the  duty  of  a  friend,  I  ^may  almost  say  claiming  to 
be  an  exclusive  one,  to  hold  up  to  his  countrymen  the  word  of 
promise  of  their  Chief  Magistrate,  thus  kept  to  the  ear,  but  not  to 
the  hope?  But  it  is  not  so.  The  honorable  senator  has  been 
led  into  an  error — a  palpable  error.  The  President  says,  the  Brit 
ish  pretensions  could  not  be  maintained  to  any  portion  of  the 
Oregon  territory.  He  says,  also,  that  our  title  to  the  whole  of  the 
Oregon  territory  is  maintained  by  irrefragable  facts  and  argu 
ments.  He  says,  British  laws  have  been  extended  throughout  the 
wliole  of  Oregon.  Now,  sir,  has  any  man  a  right  to  say,  that  the 
President  falters  in  his  purpose,  by  talking  of  the  whole  of  a 
country,  when  he  does  not  mean  the  whole  of  it  ?  No,  sir  ;  the 
idea  never  occurred  to  him,  never  crossed  his  mind.  When  he 
said  Oregon,  he  meant  so  ;  and  I  have  no  more  doubt,  than  I 
have  of  my  existence,  that  he  believes  as  firmly  in  the  American 
title  to  it,  as  he  believes  he  is  now  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
United  States. 

"The  senator  from  North  Carolina  has  presented  to  us  some 
peculiar  views  of  the  President's  position  and  duties,  and  has  de 
duced  his  future  course,  not  from  his  message,  but  from  extrinsic 
circumstances,  acts  of  omission  and  of  commission,  as  he  calls 
them,  by  which  the  language  of  the^President  is  to  be  controlled, 
and  his  further  course,  in  this  controversy,  regulated.  I  doubt  the 
propriety,  as  well  as  the  wisdom  of  all  this,  either  as  regards  the 
President,  the  Senate,  or  the  country.  If  successful  in  his  decla 
rations  or  expositions,  whichever  they  may  be,  I  do  not  see  what 
practical  advantage  the  senator  expected  to  gain.  The  President 
would  still  have  to  perform  his  own  duties,  and  we  to  perform  ours, 
without  reference  to  the  embarrassments  created  by  this  novel 
mode  of  reading  the  past  views  and  future  course  of  the  chief 
magistrate.  In  the  meantime,  what  better  plan  could  be  devised 
to  excite  the  public  mind,  arid  to  rouse  suspicions,  which  would 
fly  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind  to  the  farthest  verge  of  the  country? 
No  such  intention  ever  entered  the  mind  of  the  honorable  senator ; 
but  I  submit  to  him,  if,  in  its  very  nature,  this  process  is  not  cal 
culated  to  produce  such  a  result,  and  whether,  in  fact,  it  has  not 
produced  it.  And  yet,  it  seems  to  me,  that  the  reasons  in  support 
of  it  are  utterly  insufficient  to  justify  the  conclusions. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  539 

"What  are  these  reasons?  I  will  just  touch  some  of  them, 
having  no  time  to  pursue  the  subject. 

"  There  were  two  acts  of  commission :  one  was  the  offer  "before 
made  of  the  parallel  of  49°  as  a  compromise  ;  and  the  other  was 
the  expression  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  in  his  last  letter  to  the  British 
minister,  dated  August  30th,  1845,  that  the  President  hoped  the 
controversy  would  be  terminated  without  a  collision. 

"And  what  are  the  acts  of  omission?  One  is  the  neglect  to 
recommend  defensive  measures;  and  the  other  is  a  want  of  confi 
dence  in  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations. 

"And  now  for  the  first.  I  presume,  ere  this,  the  honorable 
senator  is  aware  that  he  has  entirely  misunderstood  the  views  of 
the  President  upon  this  subject.  In  his  message,  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  session,  the  President  recommended  that  a  force 
of  mounted  riflemen  should  be  raised,  and,  also,  an  augmentation 
of  the  naval  means  of  the  country.  But,  later  in  the  session,  in 
conformity  with  resolutions  which  originated  here,  recommenda 
tions  and  estimates,  seen  and  approved  by  the  President,  and  his, 
in  fact,  agreeably  to  the  constitution  of  our  executive  department, 
were  sent,  by  the  Secretaries  of  War  and  of  the  !Navy,  to  the 
proper  committees  of  the  Senate.  A  bill  was  reported,  by  the 
naval  committee,  for  an  additional  steam  force,  and  was  ably  and 
vigorously  advocated  by  the  honorable  chairman  of  that  commit 
tee.  But  it  was  put  to  sleep,  partly,  if  not  principally,  I  believe, 
upon  the  ground  that,  if  you  can  not  immediately  equip  a  navy, 
therefore  you  must  not  build  a  ship  ;  and  if  you  do  not  require  an 
army,  therefore  you  must  not  raise  a  regiment.  And  the  result 
may  well  have  been  taken  as  an  indication,  both  by  the  naval  and 
military  committees,  that  the  Senate  did  not  deem  an  augmenta 
tion  of  the  defensive  means  of  the  country  necessary  under  the 
circumstances,  and,  therefore,  prevented  all  further  action  on  their 
part  as  useless ;  for  I  consider  the  proposition  of  the  naval  com 
mittee,  thus  put  to  sleep,  one  of  the  least  objectionable  of  all  the 
measures  submitted  to  us  under  the  sanction  of  the  President.  I 
have  looked  over  these  estimates,  sir,  both  from  the  War  and  lS~avy 
Departments,  and  I  consider  them  proper  and  judicious,  in  the 
existing  state  of  our  relations  with  England  ;  and,  I  will  add,  the 
heads  of  both  of  those  Departments  discharged  their  responsible 
duties — for  their  duties  were  responsible — in  a  satisfactory  manner. 


540  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"As  to  the  mode  of  receiving  this  information,  it  has  been 
sanctioned  by  the  practice  of  the  government  for  years.  Congress 
and  its  committees  have  been  in  the  daily  habit  of  calling  upon 
the  heads  of  the  departments  for  the  necessary  facts  and  views,  in 
the  discharge  of  their  legislative  duties;  and,  in  all  cases  like  the 
present,  the  reports  are  submitted  to  the  President  before  being 
sent  here,  and  thus  receive  his  sanction,  and  they  are  often  changed 
by  his  directions.  This  is  well  known  to  all  who  are  acquainted 
with  the  routine  of  our  executive  department. 

"To  return  now,  sir,  to  this  act  of  omission — this  neglect  to 
recommend  proper  measures  of  defense — by  which  the  President's 
views  are  to  be  interpreted,  as  I  understand,  in  this  manner.  The 
President  recommends  no  measures  of  defense.  Therefore  he 
considers  the  country  in  no  danger.  Therefore  he  intends  to  yield 
to  the  parallel  of  49°,  which  the  British  government  intends  to 
demand  ;  and  thus  there  will  be  no  war.  Now,  sir,  more  than  two 
months  before  this  position  was  taken  by  the  honorable  senator, 
the  President  had  recommended,  by  his  Secretaries,  an  addition 
to  the  array  of  almost  8,000  men,  the  organization  of  50,000  vol 
unteers,  the  removal  of  the  limitations  respecting  naval  establish 
ments,  that  he  might  be  able  to  direct  such  an  augmentation  of  the 
seamen  of  the  navy  as  circumstances  might  require,  and  appro 
priations  for  military  purposes  to  the  amount  of  $9,679,680 ;  and 
for  naval  purposes  to  the  amount  of  $6,515,000  —  making  in  the 
whole  $16,195,680,  in  addition  to  the  recommendations  in  his 
message  at  the  commencement  of  the  session,  and  to  the  ordinary 
estimates  of  the  department. 

"  It  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  this  topic.  "Whatever  may  be  the 
just  construction  of  the  President's  meaning,  which  to  me  is  ex 
ceedingly  clear,  it  is  now  obvious  that  this  act  of  omission  be 
comes  an  act  of  commission,  and  proves  that  the  President  is  by 
no  means  tranquil  respecting  the  condition  of  the  country. 

"As  to  the  alledged  want  of  executive  confidence  in  the  chair 
man  on  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Relations,  I  hardly  know  how 
to  speak  of  it  becomingly,  when  urged  in  this  connection.  Were 
the  fact  so,  it  would  seem  very  strange  to  me,  and  I  should  think 
the  President  very  badly  advised,  to  withhold  a  proper  confidence 
from  one  of  his  truest  and  most  efficient  friends  upon  this  floor, 
and  one,  too,  who,  from  his  position  at  the  head  of  a  most 
important  committee,  was  officially  entitled  to  it. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  541 

"No  one  who  had  witnessed  the  energy,  the  talent,  and  the 
promptitude  of  the  honorable  chairman,  can  doubt  the  service  he 
has  rendered  this  administration,  nor  the  confidence  he  deserves 
—a  confidence,  indeed,  demanded  more  for  the  sake  of  the  public 
interest  than  for  his  own  eake. 

"  But,  sir,  I  have  reason  to  know  that  the  senator  from  North 
Carolina  is  in  error  in  all  this ;  that  this  deduction  from  extrinsic 
circumstances  is  but  another  proof  that  truth  is  not  always  attained 
when  sought  by  indirect  and  remote  facts.  I  have  reason  to  know 
that  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  com 
municates  freely  with  the  President,  and  enjoys  his  confidence. 

"And  what  proof  of  estrangement  between  these  high  function 
aries  is  furnished  by  the  honorable  senator  from  North  Carolina  ? 
Why,  thus  stands  the  case :  The  honorable  chairman  stated  that 
the  opinions  of  the  President  had  undergone  no  change ;  but 
being  interrogated  upon  the  subject,  he  answered  that  the  records, 
and  the  records  alone,  were  the  sources  of  his  information. 

"It  seems  to  me  it  would  better  become  our  position  if  we  all 
sought  the  views  of  the  President,  so  far  as  we  ought  to  seek  them, 
in  the  same  authentic  documents.  It  would  save  a  world  of  un 
profitable  conjecture.  Now,  sir,  what  does  all  this  amount  to? 
Why,  to  this  :  the  President  told  the  senator  from  Ohio  no  more, 
as  to  his  future  course,  than  he  told  the  country  and  Congress  in 
his  message.  It  would  be  strange  if  he  had.  The  avowal  of  a 
line  of  policy,  when  the  proper  circumstances  are  before  him,  is 
the  duty  of  a  sound  and  practical  statesman.  But  I  should  much 
doubt  the  wisdom  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  a  great  country, 
who  should  sit  down  to  speculate  upon  future  and  remote  con 
tingencies  affecting  the  public  welfare,  with  a  view  even  to  the 
decision  upon  his  own  course,  and  still  less  with  a  view  to  its 
annunciation  to  the  world. 

"  Let  me,  then,  ask  the  senator  if  he  thinks  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  to  put  gratuitous 
questions  to  the  President,  in  order  that  he  may  be  able  to  come 
here  and  declare  what  the  executive  will  do  in  such  and  such  a 
contingency,  which  may  never  happen  ;  or  which,  if  it  do  happen, 
may  bring  with  it  circumstances  that  may  change  the  whole  aspect 
of  the  question  ?  But  I  forbear,  sir.  I  consider  it  unnecessary  to 
pursue  this  question  further. 


542  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

"A  considerable  portion  of  the  argument  of  the  senator  from 
North  Carolina  was  devoted  to  prove  that  the  message  of  the 
President  did  not  justify  these  anticipations  of  war,  which  it 
appears  to  myself  and  to  other  senators  to  do.  Not  that  he  called 
in  question  the  natural  tendency  of  the  measures  recommended 
by  the  President,  nor  the  fair  construction  of  his  language ;  but 
he  controlled  these  by  the  extrinsic  facts  to  which  I  have  adverted. 
I  shall  say  nothing  more  upon  this  subject,  but  I  shall  fortify  my 
own  opinion  by  the  views  of  other  members  of  this  body,  who 
are  entitled  to  more  weight  than  I  am. 

"The  honorable  senator  from  South  Carolina  said  'that  the 
recommendation  in  the  message  is  founded  upon  the  conviction 
that  there  is  no  hope  of  compromise  of  the  difficulties  growing 
out  of  the  President's  message,  is  too  clear  to  admit  of  any  doubt.' 

"After  some  further  remarks,  showing  the  opinions  entertained 
of  the  dangers  of  war,  he  adds  :  'Entertaining  these  opinions,  we 
were  compelled  to  oppose  notice,  because  it  was  necessary  to  pre 
vent  an  appeal  to  arms,  and  insure  the  peaceful  settlement  of  the 
question.' 

"And  the  senator  from  Maryland  said  :  '  We  have  all  felt,  Mr. 
President,  that  at  one  time  at  least — I  trust  that  time  is  past — the 
nation  was  in  imminent  danger.  Prom  the  moment  that  the 
President  of  the  United  States  deemed  it  right  and  becoming,  in 
the  very  outset  of  his  official  career,  to  announce  to  the  world  that 
the  title  to  the  north-west  territory  was  clear  and  indisputable, 
down  to  his  message  in  December  last,  I  could  not  see  how  war 
was  to  be  averted.' 

"And  the  honorable  senator  from  Louisiana,  in  his  speech 
yesterday,  advanced  the  same  opinion  upon  this  subject. 

"And  the  senator  from  Georgia  also  expressed  the  conviction 
that '  this  resolution,  based  as  it  is  on  the  President's  message,  is 
a  distinct  intimation  to  Great  Britain  that  this  matter  must  be 
settled,  and  in  a  manner  acceptable  to  us,  or  that  at  the  expiration 
of  that  time  we  will  take  forcible  possession  of  the  whole  country,' 
which  of  course  means  war. 

"And  he  adds  that  '  the  senator  from  North  Carolina  tells  us, 
that  the  President  is  waiting  at  the  open  door  of  his  cabinet, 
ready  to  adjust  this  controversy,  and  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the 
country.'  '  Sir,'  he  adds,  '  even  with  the  aid  of  the  senator's  optics, 
I  can  not  see  him  there.'  And  he  adds  also,  if  these  things  were 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  543 

so,  referring  to  the  views  of  the  senator  from  North  Carolina 
respecting  the  President's  message,  c  I  should  be  sorry  to  do  so.' 
And  I  fully  concur  with  him  in  the  sentiment. 

"  Now,  sir,  I  shall  not  thrust  myself  into  this  dispute — 

"Non  nostrum  inter  nos  tantas  componere  lites." 

"  During  the  progress  of  this  discussion,  the  blessings  of  peace 
and  the  horrors  of  war  have  been  frequently  presented  to  us  with 
the  force  of  truth,  and,  sometimes,  with  the  fervency  of  an  excited 
imagination.  I  have  listened  attentively  to  all  this,  though  much 
of  it  I  remember  to  have  heard  thirty-five  years  ago.  But  I  beg 
honorable  senators  to  recollect  that,  upon  this  side  of  the  chamber, 
we  have  interests,  and  families,  and  homes,  and  a  country,  as  well 
as  they  have  ;  and  that  we  are  as  little  disposed  to  bring  war  upon 
our  native  land  unnecessarily  as  they  can  be.  That  some  of  us 
know  by  experience,  all  of  us  by  reading  and  reflection,  the  calam 
ities,  moral  and  physical,  that  war  brings  in  its  train.  And  we 
appreciate  the  blessings  of  peace  with  a  conviction  as  deep  and 
as  steadfast ;  and  no  one  desires  its  continuance  more  earnestly 
than  I  do.  But  all  this  leaves  untouched  the  only  real  subject  of 
inquiry.  That  is  not  whether  peace  is  a  blessing  and  war  a  curse, 
but  whether  peace  can  be  preserved  and  war  avoided,  consistently 
with  the  honor  and  interest  of  the  country.  That  question  may 
come  up  for  solution ;  and,  if  it  does,  it  must  be  met  by  each  one 
of  us,  with  a  full  sense  of  its  abiding  importance,  and  of  his  own 
responsibility.  I  suppose  there  is  not  a  gentleman  in  this  body 
who  will  not  say  that  cases  may  occur,  even  in  this  stage  of  the 
world,  which  may  drive  this  country  to  the  extreme  remedy  of  war, 
rather  than  she  should  submit  to  arrogant  and  unreasonable  de 
mands,  or  to  direct  attacks  upon  our  rights  and  independence — 
like  impressment,  or  the  search  of  our  ships,  or  various  other  acts, 
by  which  power  is  procured  and  maintained  over  the  timid  and 
the  weak.  The  true  practical  question  for  a  nation  is  not  the  cost 
of  war,  whether  measured  by  dollars,  or  by  dangers,  or  by  disas 
ters,  but  whether  war  can  be  honorably  avoided  ;  and  that  question 
each  person  having  the  power  of  determination  must  determine 
for  himself,  when  the  case  is  presented.  Good  men  may  indulge 
in  day-dreams  upon  the  subject,  but  he  who  looks  upon  the  world 
as  it  has  been,  as  it  is,  and  as  it  is  likely  to  be,  must  see  that  the 
moral  constitution  of  man  has  undergone  little  change,  and  that 


544  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

interests  and  passions  operate  not  less  upon  communities  than 
they  did  when  the  law  of  public  might  was  the  law  of  public  right, 
more  openly  avowed  than  now.  Certainly  a  healthful  public 
opinion  exerts  a  stronger  influence  over  the  world  than  at  any 
former  period  of  its  history.  Governments  are  more  or  less  re 
strained  by  it,  and  all  feel  the  effects  of  it.  Mistresses,  and  favor 
ites,  and  minions  no  longer  drive  nations  to  war ;  nor  are  mere 
questions  of  etiquette  among  the  avowed  causes  of  hostilities.  It 
is  not  probable  that  a  people  will  ever  be  again  overcome  because 
a  statesman  may  consult  his  vanity  rather  than  his  taste  in  the 
choice  of  his  pictures,  nor  that  the  state  of  Europe  will  be  changed 
because  a  lady's  silk  gown  be  spoiled  by  a  cup  of  tea.  Humanity 
has  gained  something ;  let  us  hope  it  will  gain  more.  Questions 
of  war  are  passing  from  cabinets  to  the  people.  If  they  are  dis 
cussed  in  secret,  they  are  also  discussed  before  the  world,  for  there 
is  not  a  government  in  Christendom  which  would  dare  to  rush 
into  a  war  unless  that  measure  were  sanctioned  by  the  state  of 
public  feeling.  Still,  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  Let  us  not  yet 
convert  our  swords  into  ploughshares,  nor  our  spears  into  pruning 
hooks,  nor  neglect  the  maritime  and  military  defenses  of  the  coun 
try,  lulled  by  the  syren  song  of  peace !  peace !  when  there  may  be 
no  peace.  I  am  afraid  we  have  not  grown  so  much  wiser  and 
better  than  our  fathers,  as  many  good  people  suppose.  I  do  not 
discern  upon  the  horizon  of  the  future  the  first  dawn  of  the  mil 
lennium.  The  eagle  and  the  lion  will  not  always  lie  down  in  peace 
together.  Nations  are  yet  subject  to  human  passions,  and  are  too 
often  their  victims.  The  government  which  should  say,  I  will  not 
defend  myself  by  force,  would  soon  have  nothing  to  defend.  An 
honorable  senator  quoted  a  remark  I  made  some  time  since — I 
will  not  say  with  a  sneer,  but  with  an  appearance  of  disapproba 
tion — that  it  was  better  to  defend  the  first  inch  of  national  territory 
than  the  last.  Does  the  honorable  senator  believe  in  the  converse 
of  this  proposition? — that  it  is  better  to  defend  the  last  inch  of 
territory  than  .the  first?  If  he  does,  I  sincerely  trust,  as  well  for 
his  own  sake  as  for  the  sake  of  his  country,  that  he  may  never  be 
driven  to  correct  his  error  in  the  school  of  experience.  What, 
however,  the  senator  from  New  Jersey  did  not  do,  the  senator 
from  North  Carolina  has  done.  He  sneers  at  territorial  as  well 
as  patriotic  inches  ;  he  means  a  c  line  in  substance,  not  every  inch? 
'  I  do  not  measure  my  own  or  other  people's  patriotism  by  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  545 

inch?  '  How  one's  American  blood  boils  at  the  thought  of  ceding 
inches/ '  He  does  not  tell  us  by  what  standard  he  would  measure 
the  soil  of  the  Kepublic,  or  the  patriotism  of  her  people.  It  is 
evident  that  he  does  not  believe  that  wise  old  saying, l  give  a  man 
an  inch  and  he  will  take  an  eU?  Give  a  nation  a  small  strip  and 
it  will  demand  a  larger  one.  To  attempt  to  purchase  safety  by 
concession  is  to  build  a  bridge  of  gold,  not  for  a  retreating,  but  for 
an  advancing  enemy.  Nations  are  like  the  daughters  of  the  horse 
leech  ;  they  cry, '  give !  give ! '  It  is  idle,  sir,  to  array  ourselves 
against  the  powerful  instincts  of  human  nature ;  and  he  who  is 
dead  to  their  influence  will  find  as  little  sympathy  in  this  age  of 
the  world  as  he  would  have  found  had  he  lived  in  the  ages  that 
are  passed.  If  we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  trodden  upon,  to  be  de 
graded,  to  be  despoiled  of  our  good  name  and  of  our  rights,  under 
the  pretext  that  war  is  unworthy  of  us  or  our  time,  we  shall  find 
ourselves  in  the  decrepitude  of  age  before  we  have  passed  the 
period  of  manhood. 

"A  great  deal  has  been  said  in  England,  and  not  a  little  in  the 
United  States,  respecting  our  grasping  propensity,  in  demanding 
the  whole  of  Oregon  ;  and  we  hav^e  been  solemnly  admonished 
of  the  awful  responsibility  of  involving  two  great  nations  in  war. 
The  subject  in  dispute  is  said  not  to  be  worth  the  perils  a  conflict 
would  bring  with  it ;  and  the  honorable  senator  from  Maine  has 
exhibited  to  us,  as  in  a  balance,  the  disasters  of  war,  and  the  value 
of  the  matter  in  controversy,  and  has  made  our  territorial  claims 
to  kick  the  beam.  Permit  me  to  turn  to  the  other  side  of  this 
picture.  I  acknowledge  the  moral  obligation  of  governments  to 
avoid  war,  where  higher  obligations  do  not  drive  them  to  it.  I 
will  not  call  England  the  Pharisee  of  nations,  but  I  will  say  that 
she  does  not  hide  the  light  of  her  own  good  deeds  under  a  bushel. 
The  ocean  scarcely  beats  upon  a  shore  within  sight  of  which  her 
flag  is  not  seen,  and  within  sound  of  which  her  drum  is  not  heard. 
And  yet  her  moderation  is  proclaimed,  and  often  with  the  sound 
of  her  cannon,  from  one  end  of  the  civilized  world  to  the  other. 
She  is  not  like  other  nations,  and,  least  of  all,  like  that  great  grasp 
ing  monocracy  of  the  West.  '  I  thank  God,'  said  the  Pharisee  of 
old,  'that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are.'  Now,  the  chapter  of 
accidents  has  turned  up  favorably  for  England,  if  she  will  accept 
the  opportunity  afforded  her.  No  man  in  this  country  wants  war 
— ultraists  no  more  than  compromisists,  if  I  may  use  terms 
35 


546 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


justified  by  the  occasion.  The  extreme  partisan  of  decisive 
measures  asks  nothing  but  the  whole  of  Oregon.  Give  him  that, 
and  he  will  become  as  rneek  as  the  latest  professor  of  humility, 
who  writes  homilies  upon  national  moderation  for  the  London 
Times.  Now,  sir,  let  England  abandon  her  pretensions,  and  all 
these  disasters,  the  consequences  of  war,  which  are  foretold — and 
I  do  not  doubt  many  of  them  justly  foretold — will  give  way,  and 
exist  only  in  the  memory  of  this  debate.  There  is  no  condition 
of  things,  foreseen  by  any  man,  public  or  private,  in  this  country, 
which  can  give  to  England  a  better  line  than  49°.  The  country 
north  of  that  line  is,  therefore,  all  she  could  gain  by  a  contest, 
which  is  to  involve  the  fearful  consequences  predicted  to  both 
countries  ;  which,  during  its  progress,  it  is  said,  will  bring  nation 
after  nation  within  the  sphere  of  its  operation,  and  which  is  finally 
to  commit  to  the  decision  of  the  sword  the  great  question  of  free 
government  through  the  world,  by  placing  in  its  path  the  antago 
nistic  principle,  that  the  many  should  be  governed  by  the  few. 
What,  then,  would  England  surrender  to  preserve  the  peace  of 
the  world,  and  thus  give  the  first  practical  proof  of  moderation  to 
be  found  in  the  long  annals  of  her  history?  I  agree  fully  with 
the  honorable  senator  from  Missouri,  [Mr.  Atchison,]  that  if  Eng 
land  would  acknowledge  our  rights,  and  withdraw  her  opposition 
to  them,  and  should  then  ask  a  better  access  to  the  ocean  for  her 
interior  territories,  I  would  grant  it  without  hesitation,  as  a  favor, 
upon  the  most  reasonable  consideration.  If  this  should  be  clone, 
she  would  have  left  about  three  hundred  miles  of  coast  to  fight 
for  ;  and  I  will  return  the  question  of  the  gentleman  from  Maine, 
and  ask  if  this  strip  of  land  is  worth  the  price  of  such  a  contest  ? 
England  is  already  gorged  with  possessions,  both  continental  and 
insular,  overrun,  almost  overloaded  with  subjects  of  all  castes, 
colors  and  condition.  At  this  very  moment,  she  is  waging  two 
wars  of  aggrandizement — one  for  commercial  projects  upon  the 
La  Plata,  and  the  other  for  a  new  empire  upon  the  Indus.  The 
latest  Morning  Chronicle  I  have  seen,  one  of  last  month — and 
that  paper  is  the  "Whig  organ  of  England — says,  and  the  proposi 
tion  is  enunciated  with  characteristic  coolness,  and  with  as  much 
apparent  candor  as  if  it  were  extracted  from  the  latest  treatise 
upon  public  morals,  '  we  can  never  govern  India  so  well  as  we 
might,  until  we  possess  the  whole  of  it?  A  congenial  sentiment  is 
quite  as  much  at  home  in  every  English  breast,  that  America 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  547 

would  l>e  much  letter  governed  than  it  is,  if  England  possessed  the 
whole  of  it. 

"  Let  the  British  government  now  say,  two  wars  at  the  same 
time  are  enough  for  the  purposes  of  aggrandizement.  We  will  not 
encounter  a  third — we  will  give  up  this  doubtful  and  disputed 
claim,  and  hold  on  in  America  to  what  we  have  got — we  will  do 
so  much  for  peace.  Let  her  do  this,  and  I,  for  one,  will  say,  well 
done.  You  begin  to  practice,  though  upon  a  small  scale,  as  you 
preach.  And  why  not  do  so  ?  This  territory  is  separated  by  an 
ocean  and  a  continent  from  England.  She  can  not  long  hold  it,  if 
she  should  gain  it.  I  mean  long,  compared  with  the  life  of 
nations  ;  whereas  it  joins  us,  intervenes  between  us  and  our  com 
munication  with  the  Pacific,  will  form  an  integral — I  do  not 
doubt  a  perpetual — portion  of  our  confederacy,  will  be,  in  time,  a 
necessary  outlet  for  our  population,  and  presents  all  those  ele 
ments  of  contiguity  and  of  position  which  indicate  and  invite 
political  unions. 

"  But  it  has  been  said  and  re-said,  in  the  Senate  and  out  of  it, 
that  two  great  nations  can  not  go  to  war.  And  why  can  not  two 
great  nations  go  to  war  against  one  another,  as  well  as  two  great 
nations  combined  against  a  small  one  ?  So  far  as  honor  contemns 
a  disparity  of  force,  the  former  would  be  much  more  honorable 
than  the  latter. 

"  What  is  going  on  in  the  La  Plata,  where  France  and  England 
have  sent  their  united  fleets  and  armies  against  the  Argentine 
republic,  and  where  the  echoes  of  their  cannon  are  ascending  the 
Parana  and  its  vast  tributaries,  till  they  are  lost  in  the  gorges  of 
the  Andes  ? 

"There  can  be  no  war  in. this  enlightened  age  of  the  world? 
What,  then,  is  passing  in  Africa,  where  one  hundred  thousand 
Christian  bayonets  have  driven  the  Arab  from  his  home,  and  are 
pursuing  him  into  the  desert,  the  refuge  of  the  turban  since  the 
days  of  the  patriarchs  ? 

"  What  is  passing  upon  the  shores  of  the  Euxine,  where  the  Cos 
sack  has  left  his  native  plains,  and,  at  the  call  of  Russia,  is  ascend 
ing  the  ridges  of  Caucasus  to  subdue  its  indigenous  races,  and  to 
substitute  the  mild  rule  of  the  Muscovite  for  their  own  patriarchal 
form  of  government — dependence  upon  the  Czar  for  dependence 
upon  themselves  ? 

"  And  what  is  passing  in  the  Punjaub,  where  the  last  advices  left 


548  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

two  mighty  armies  almost  within  sight  of  each  other,  after  hav 
ing  fought  a  great  battle  of  Hindoo  ambition  against  English 
moderation  f 

"And  how  long  since  an  enlightened  government,  par  excellence, 
broke  the  barrier  of  Chinese  power,  which  has  so  long  insulated  a 
vast  empire,  and  scattered  dismay  and  death  along  its  coasts, 
because  its  rulers  had  interdicted  the  sale  of  opium,  a  drug  equally 
destructive  to  the  moral  faculties  and  to  the  physical  powers  of 
man  ?  The  Tartar  passed  the  great  wall,  and  planted  his  horse 
tails  upon  the  towers  of  Pekin.  He  then  became  a  Chinese,  and 
the  empire  went  on  as  before.  But  the  Englishman,  with  his 
cannon  balls  and  his  opium,  has  introduced  an  innovation  into 
the  habits  and  condition  of  one  third  part  of  the  human  race, 
which  may  fatally  affect  its  future  prosperity. 

"  And  how  long  is  it  since  an  English  army  passed  the  gates  of 
Asia,  and,  ascending  the  table-land  of  that  continent,  if  it  had  not 
been  annihilated  by  a  series  of  disasters,  which  have  few  parallels 
in  modern  warfare,  might  have  reversed  the  march  of  Alexander, 
and  reached  the  Mediterranean  by  Nineveh,  and  Babylon,  and 
Jerusalem  ? 

"  And  only  five  short  years  have  elapsed  since  Christian  cannon 
were  heard  in  the  mountains  of  Lebanon,  and  their  bombs  ex 
ploded  among  the  broken  monuments  of  Sidon. 

"In  this  brief  view  and  review  of  pending  and  recent  wars,  I 
do  not  advert  to  the  hostilities  going  on  among  some  of  the  States 
of  Spanish  origin  upon  this  continent,  in  Hayti,  in  Southern  Africa, 
upon  the  frontiers  of  the  colony  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  in 
Madagascar,  and  in  various  islands  of  the  Eastern  ocean,  because 
these  are  small  wars,  and  some  of  them  are  waged  by  civilized 
nations  against  barbarous  tribes,  and  hardly  worthy  of  atten 
tion  in  these  days  of  philanthropy — of  that  philanthropy  which 
neglects  objects  of  misery  at  home,  whether  in  England  or  Ireland, 
the  relief  of  which  would  be  silent  and  unobtrusive,  and  seeks 
them  everywhere  else  through  the  world,  that  they  may  be  talked 
of  and  exhibited  as  proofs  of  benevolence — which,  as  an  eminent 
French  writer  says,  overlooks  the  wants  of  our  neighbor,  but  goes 
to  the  north  pole  upon  a  crusade  of  charity !  which  has  an  innate 
horror  at  the  very  idea  of  black  slavery,  but  looks  calmly  and 
philosophically,  and  with  no  bowels  of  compassion,  nor  compunc 
tions  of  remorse  upon  white  slavery,  and  brown  slavery,  amounting 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  549 

to  millions  upon  millions  in  Eussia,  and  in  the  English  posses 
sions  in  India  and  elsewhere,  because,  forsooth,  this  servitude  is 
not  in  the  United  States,  and  neither  cotton  nor  sugar  will  be 
affected  by  it, 

"  These,  and  the  Belgian  war,  and  the  Spanish  war,  and  the 
Greek  war,  are  events  of  but  yesterday,  yet  sounding  in  our  ears, 
and  dwelling  upon  our  tongues.  And  I  might  go  on  with  these 
proofs  and  illustrations  of  the  pugnacious  disposition  of  the  world, 
till  your  patience  and  mine  were  exhausted. 

"  Why,  sir,  if  England  had  a  temple  of  Janus,  as  Rome  had  of 
old,  it  would  be  as  seldom  shut  as  was  that  of  her  imperial  pro 
totype.  The  first  fifteen  years  of  this  very  century  were  nearly 
all  passed  in  the  greatest  war  known  perhaps  in  the  annals  of 
mankind  ;  and  there  are  senators  in  this  body,  and  I  among  the 
number,  who  were  born  at  the  close  of  one  war  with  England,  and 
have  lived  through  another,  and  who  are  perhaps  destined  to  wit 
ness  a  third.  And  yet  zealous  but  ill-judging  men  would  try  to 
induce  us  to  cast  by  our  armor,  and  lay  open  our  country,  be 
cause,  forsooth,  the  age  is  too  enlightened  to  tolerate  war.  I  am 
afraid  we  are  not  as  good  as  these  peace  men,  at  all  sacrifices, 
persuade  themselves  and  attempt  to  persuade  others. 

"  But,  sir,  to  advert  to  another  topic.  I  perceive — and  I  am 
happy  to  find  it  so — that  there  has  been  a  nearer  union  of  senti 
ment  on  one  branch  of  this  subject  between  the  honorable  senator 
from  Maryland  and  myself  than  I  had  supposed.  All  I  regret  is, 
that  he  had  not  avowed  his  opinion  earlier  in  the  session  ;  for  I 
should  have  felt  myself  greatly  encouraged  in  my  course  by  the 
identity  of  our  views  respecting  the  danger  of  the  country.  The 
honorable  gentleman  says  :  c  We  all  have  felt  at  one  time,  at  least 
— I  trust  that  that  time  has  passed — the  nation  was  in  imminent 
danger  of  war.'  '  From  the  moment  the  President  of  the  United 
States  deemed  it  right  and  becoming,  in  the  very  outset  of  his 
official  career,  to  announce  to  the  world  that  the  title  of  the  United 
States  to  the  northwest  territory  was  clear  and  indisputable,  down 
to  the  period  of  his  message  in  December,  when  he  reiterated  the 
assertion,  I  could  not  see  how  it  was  possible  war  was  to  be 
averted.'  'I  could  not  but  listen  with  dismay  and  alarm  at  what 
fell  from  the  distinguished  senator  from  Michigan  at  an  early 
period  of  this  session.' 

"  Now,  sir,  I  have  not  the  slightest  wish  to  misinterpret  the 


550  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

sentiments  of  the  senator  from  Maryland  ;  but  I  frankly  confess 
I  do  not  understand  how,  with  the  opinion  he  expresses,  that  war 
was  unavoidable,  any  remarks  of  mine  could  have  been  thus 
characterized.  I  am  well  aware,  indeed,  that  they  came  like  a 
bomb-shell  into  a  powder  magazine.  But  why,  I  have  yet  to 
learn.  Like  the  honorable  senator  from  Maryland,  the  moment  I 
read  the  President's  message,  I  saw  to  my  own  conviction,  at  least, 
that  our  relations  with  England  were  in  a  critical  situation  ;  and 
that  a  regard  to  our  duty,  as  representatives  and  sentinels  of  the 
people,  required  us  to  take  measures  of  precaution,  proportioned 
to  the  danger,  whatever  that  might  be.  The  President,  with  a 
due  regard  to  his  own  responsibility,  as  well  as  to  the  just  expec 
tations  of  his  countrymen,  spread  before  us,  not  only  his  own 
views  and  recommendations,  but  the  whole  diplomatic  corres 
pondence,  which  had  passed  between  the  two  governments,  on 
the  subject  of  Oregon.  "Well,  we  all  saw  there  was  a  dead  halt  in 
the  march  of  the  negotiations.  The  President  told  us,  in  effect, 
they  were  closed.  I  am  not,  sir,  very  tenacious  as  to  the  word. 
I  do  not  attach  that  importance,  in  fact,  to  the  condition  itself, 
which  the  senator  from  North  Carolina  appears  to  do.  I  am 
willing  to  call  it  closed,  or  terminated,  or  suspended,  or  in  the 
executive  phrase,  c  dropped.'  All  I  wish  to  show  is,  that  nothing 
was  going  on.  Why  the  honorable  senator  from  North  Carolina 
dwelt  with  such  earnestness  upon  this  point,  I  do  not  comprehend, 
unless,  indeed,  he  supposed,  that  if  the  negotiations  were  closed, 
they  were  closed  forever,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  parties.  If 
such  were  his  views,  I  do  not  partake  them.  I  trust  no  question 
of  mere  etiquette  will  keep  the  parties  separated,  if  other  circum 
stances  should  indicate  they  might  be  brought  together.  Such  a 
course  of  action,  or  rather  of  inaction,  would  deserve  the  reproba 
tion  of  the  whole  world.  But  however  this  may  be,  the  President 
said,  that  all  attempts  at  compromise  had  failed.  These  are  his 
words.  He  invited  us  to  give  the  notice  for  the  termination  of 
the  joint  occupancy  of  the  country.  He  said  it  was  all  ours,  and 
tliat  OUT  title  to  it  was  maintained  by  irrefragable  facts  and  argu 
ments  /  and  he  said,  also,  that  at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  tempo 
rary  measures,  which  a  regard  to  treaty  stipulations  allowed  us 
only  to  adopt  at  this  time,  must  be  abandoned,  and  our  jurisdic 
tion  over  the  whole  country  established  and  maintained.  Such 
were,  in  effect,  the  views  submitted  to  us  by  the  Chief  Magistrate 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  551 

<of  the  nation,  in  the  discharge  of  a  solemn  duty  committed  to 
Lim  by  the  Constitution. 

"  One  would  think  there  were  elements  enough  of  trouble  to 
engage  the  attention  of  the  national  Legislature,  and  to  command 
its  immediate  action.  If  the  ship  of  State  were  to  be  steered  by 
the  chart  thus  prepared  by  the  pilot,  either  Great  Britain  must 
turn  from  her  course,  or  we  must  meet  her.  There  was  no  other 
alternative.  She  must  gainsay  much  she  had  said.  She  must 
relinquish  much  she  had  claimed.  She  must  concede  much  she 
had  denied.  She  must  do  what  a  proud  nation  does  with  reluct 
ance — retrace  her  steps  in  the  face  of  the  world,  and  lower  herself 
in  her  own  estimation.  I  did  not  say  she  would  not  do  all  this. 
I  do  not  say  so  now.  But  looking  to  her  history,  to  her  position, 
and  to  the  motives  of  human  conduct — as  these  operate  upon 
communities,  as  well  as  upon  individuals — I  had  great  difficulty 
in  believing  that  she  would  do  it,  and  I  said  so.  And  there  wTas 
yet  another  element  of  uncertainty,  combined  with  all  these  causes 
of  embarrassment,  and  that  was  the  doubt,  if  she  came  to  the 
parallel  of  49°,  whether  she  would  find  our  government  ready  to 
come  back  to  the  same  line.  I  know  nothing  of  the  intentions  of 

O 

either  government  upon  that  subject.  I  can  not  speak  authorita 
tively,  and  therefore  I  do  not  undertake  to  speak  at  all.  I  know 
as  little  as  any  one  in  this  room,  be  he  actor  or  spectator,  in  the 
scene  that  is  passing,  whether  the  offer  would  be  accepted,  if 
repeated,  or  whether  it  would  be  repeated,  if  demanded.  All  I 
know  is,  that  as  the  basis  of  an  amicable  adjustment,  that  time, 
which,  while  it  mends  some  things  mars  others,  is  every  day 
increasing  the  difficulty  of  its  establishment ;  and  that,  as  a  means 
of  terminating  this  controversy,  I  believe  the  question  is  rapidly 
passing  from  the  control  of  the  government  to  the  control  of  pub 
lic  opinion. 

u  Under  these  circumstances,  I  introduced  resolutions  of  inquiry 
into  the  necessity  of  adopting  measures  for  the  defence  of  the 
country,  and,  on  the  15th  of  December,  I  advocated  their  adop 
tion  and  explained  my  views,  of  which  I  have  now  troubled  the 
Senate  with  a  brief  summary,  and  to  which  the  honorable  senator 
says  he  listened  with  '  dismay  and  alarm.'  '  Dismay  and  alarm' 
at  propositions  for  defense,  when  the  gentleman  himself  says  that 
'  the  nation  was  in  imminent  danger ' !  when  '  he  could  not  see 
how  it  was  possible  war  was  to  be  avoided'!  For  it  will  be 


552  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

observed,  there  were  subsequent  circumstances,  subsequent  by 
some  weeks,  which  removed  this  impression  of  the  danger  of  war 
made  by  the  President's  inaugural  address,  and  by  his  message 
at  the  commencement  of  the  session.  They  were  the  speeches  of 
the  senators  from  Missouri  and  New  York,  and  especially  the 
speech  recently  delivered  by  the  senator  from  North  Carolina. 
For  myself,  I  did  not  hear  one  word  fall  from  the  senators  from 
Missouri  and  New  York,  so  far  as  I  recollect,  in  which  I  did  not 
fully  concur.  The  former,  besides  the  authority  which  long  ex 
perience,  high  talents,  and  great  services  to  his  country  and  his 
party,  give  to  all  he  says,  here  and  elsewhere,  understands  this 
whole  subject  better  than  any  man  in  the  nation.  And  we  all  have 
borne  our  tribute  of  gratification  to  the  able  and  statesmanlike  ex 
position  of  the  matter  given  by  the  senator  from  New  York.  I  did 
not  understand  either  of  these  senators,  as  alluding  to  the  ulterior 
course  of  the  President,  or  seeking  to  express  any  opinion  respect 
ing  the  result  of  this  controversy.  And  I  will  ask  the  senator  from 
Maryland  whether,  upon  a  grave  question  like  this,  it  is  not  safer 
and  wiser  to  deduce  the  views  of  the  President  from  two  public 
and  solemn  documents,  spreading  before  his  country  his  opinions 
and  foreshadowing  his  course,  rather  than  from  the  construction 
given  them  by  others,  and  resting  upon  what  is  called  acts  of 
omission  and  of  commission. 

"  It  is  not  a  little  curious,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  dur 
ing  the  discussions  brought  out  by  my  resolutions,  gentlemen  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Senate  took  the  opportunity  of  expressing 
their  entire  concurrence  in  the  views  and  course  of  the  President, 
and  avowed  their  gratification  at  the  executive  statements  and 
recommendations,  though  a  condensed  narrative  of  the  negotia 
tions  accompanied  the  message  and  formed  the  groundwork  of 
the  suggestions  submitted  to  us,  and  though  the  correspondence 
was  spread  out  in  full  before  us.  What  is  now  thought  upon  this 
subject  on  the  other  side  of  the  chamber,  it  needs  not  that  I  should 
tell.  The  views  there  expressed  are  as  unequivocal  as  they  are 
condemnatory.  <  We  all  have  felt,'  says  the  senator  from  Mary 
land  'that  war  was  imminent,' and,  still  more  emphatically,  'I 
could  not  see  how  it  was  possible  war  was  to  be  averted.' 

"  But  I  may  be  permitted  to  ask  the  honorable  senator,  if  war, 
in  his  opinion,  was  thus  imminent,  and  not  to  be  averted,  how 
happened  it  that  my  remarks  ' filled  him  with  alarm  and  dismay  3 5 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  553 

I  thought  there  was  danger  of  war,  and  so  it  appears  did  he. 
And  his  estimate  of  the  danger  was  higher  than  mine;  for  I 
thought  that  among  other  means  of  avoiding  it,  instant  and  ade 
quate  preparations  might  exhibit  such  powers  of  offense  and 
defense,  and  such  a  spirit  in  the  country,  that  England  might 
pause  before  she  would  drive  us  to  the  last  alternative  of  injured 
nations.  And  therefore  was  I  so  anxious  for  an  immediate  and 
decisive  manifestation  upon  this  subject.  But  we  have  all  suffered 
these  resolutions  to  sleep,  as  I  remarked  the  other  day,  if  not  the 
sleep  of  death,  a  slumber  almost  as  quiet ;  and  though  they  were 
a  little  startled  by  the  President's  message,  still,  before  their  full 
resuscitation  into  life,  it  may  be  necessary  that  that  same  solemn 
warning  should  penetrate  these  marble  halls,  which  has  said  to 
other  improvident  nations,  awake !  the  enemy  is  upon  you.  If, 
then,  both  the  senator  and  myself  were  apprehensive  of  war,  and 
he  thought  it  could  not  be  averted,  the  c  dismay  and  alarm'  which 
my  remarks  occasioned,  did  not  result  from  any  difference  of 
views  upon  that  subject.  And,  as  these  remarks  had  but  two 
objects  —  one  to  show  the  danger  we  were  in,  and  the  other  to 
guard  against  it  —  it  would  seem  to  be  the  latter  at  which  the 
honorable  senator  took  exception ;  and  it  is  certainly  a  cause  of 
mortification,  that  I  managed  my  subject  so  awkwardly  as  to 
convert  my  propositions  for  defense  into  a  matter  for  c  alarm  and 
dismay.' 

"  Since  then,  however,  sir,  another  note  of  warning  has  reached 
us  from  the  eastern  hemisphere,  and  we  not  only  know  that  Eng 
land  is  arming,  but  the  sovereign  herself  has  announced  the  fact 
in  the  most  imposing  manner,  and  has  called  upon  Parliament  to 
extend  these  armaments  still  further.  And  we  now  exhibit  to  the 
world  the  extraordinary  spectacle  of  a  nation  in  a  state  of  perfect 
tranquillity  —  I  might  rather  say  of  apathy,  almost — without  an 
army,  without  a  militia  —  for  our  militia  is  unfortunately  nearly 
disorganized — with  unfinished  and  unfurnished  defenses,  with  an 
inadequate  supply  of  the  materiel  of  war,  with  a  navy  calculated 
only  for  a  state  of  peace,  with  three  thousand  six  hundred  miles 
of  sea-coast  on  the  Atlantic,  and  one  thousand  three  hundred 
miles  on  the  Pacific,  and  four  thousand  one  hundred  miles  of  inte 
rior  frontier  from  Eastport  to  the  line  where  54°  40'  strikes  the 
ocean,  and  two  thousand  four  hundred  miles  of  interior  frontier 
from  the  south-western  corner  of  Oregon  to  the  Rio  del  Korte  — 


554:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

making  a  boundary  of  eleven  thousand  four  hundred  miles,  agree 
ably  to  the  calculation  I  have  procured  from  the  librarian,  and 
penetrable  in  all  directions,  while,  at  the  same  time,  we  are 
involved  in  a  great  controversy  with  the  most  formidable  nation — 
formidable  in  the  means  of  injuring  us  —  upon  the  face  of  the 
globe,  which  is  buckling  on  its  armor,  and  telling  the  world, 
through  its  sovereign,  that  it  will  maintain  its  interests  and  its 
honor  —  which,  being  translated  into  plain  American,  means  that 
it  will  hold  on  to  its  claims." 

As  an  ultimate  reason,  the  defenders  of  the  49th  parallel  pre 
sented,  in  hideous  colors,  the  aspect  of  war,  with  a  lengthy 
catalogue  of  calamities.  They  seemed  to  appreciate  patriotism 
at  a  price.  They  appeared  to  guage  national  honor  as  a  commo 
dity —  to  ascend  or  descend  on  the  barometer  of  traffic,  as  the 
caprice  of  the  commercial  dealer  might  dictate.  The  mail  bags 
were  tilled,  to'  overflowing,  with  their  speeches,  and  disseminated 
profusely  all  over  the  Union.  Already  had  they  taken  an  appeal 
to  the  sovereigns  of  the  land,  with  the  expectation  of  forestalling 
public  opinion.  As  they  would  have  it  understood,  this  strip 
of  land  —  6°  4:0'  —  was  an  insignificant  item  in  the  national 
account  book,  when  contrasted  with  the  enormous  expenditure  of 
treasure  that  might  be  occasioned,  if  the  pretensions  of  the  United 
States  thereto  were  insisted  upon.  ISTot  content  with  this  view  of 
the  subject,  they  would  occasionally  exchange  the  desk  of  the 
commercial  accountant  for  the  easel  of  the  artist,  and  paint  in  the 
glowing  colors  of  the  most  vivid  imaginings,  the  hardships  of  the 
camp  and  the  horrors  of  the  battle-field. 

General  Cass  appreciated,  most  sensibly,  the  attitude  of  his 
government  at  this  interesting  crisis  of  its  history.  Yet  he  saw 
no  reason  for  dismay.  If  the  American  title  reached  to  the  upper 
parallel  of  latitude — ^as  he  verily  believed  it  did  —  he  would 
leave  the  consequences  of  insisting  upon  our  clearly  established 
rights,  (whatever  they  might  be,)  to  that  Almighty  arm  which  had 
hitherto  supported  the  standard  of  the  republic  in  every  peril. 
If  there  was  but  one  lone  inhabitant  upon  the  disputed  territory, 
he  would  mantle  him  with  the  stars  and  stripes,  at  whatever  cost 
and  hazard. 

But,  whether  this  controversy  with  Great  Britain  terminated  in 
war  or  no,  he  was  in  favor  of  being  prepared  for  this  last  extremity 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  555 

with  the  nations  of  the  world  —  single-handed  or  combined. 
Millions  for  defense — not  one  cent  for  tribute. 

It  was  these  considerations  which  induced  him  to  engage,  still 
further,  the  attention  of  the  Senate. 

"  Mr.  President,  a  great  deal  has  been  said,  both  here  and  else 
where,  respecting  the  probability  of  war — whether  it  will  result 
from  the  present  condition  of  the  two  nations.  Some  gentlemen 
think  this  is  a  legitimate  subject  of  inquiry,  arising  out  of  the 
principal  question  —  that  of  the  notice  —  directly  before  us  ; 
while  others  think  we  should  decide  the  question  on  its  own  merits, 
leaving  out  of  view  the  consequences  to  which  it  may  lead. 
Certainly,  a  question  of  territorial  right  should  be  judged  and 
determined  nakedly,  and  unembarrassed  by  other  considerations. 
"We  owe  that  to  our  own  honor.  Still,  it  becomes  prudent  men, 
especially  prudent  statesmen,  when  taking  an  important  step,  to 
look  to  its  results.  Neither  national  nor  individual  acts  are  insu 
lated —  one  measure  leads  to  another.  It  seems  to  me  it  is  not 
only  our  right,  but  our  duty,  as  the  representatives  of  the  States, 
to  inquire  where  this  measure  will  conduct  us.  If  to  a  stable 
peace,  so  much  the  better.  If  to  war,  let  us  contemplate  its  pros 
pects  and  its  dangers,  and  let  us  prepare  for  its  consequences. 
But,  at  any  rate,  let  us  commune  together,  and  not  blindly  rush 
into  the  future,  rather  driven  by  our  instincts,  than  guided  by  our 
reason. 

"  Our  first  object  is  to  preserve  our  rights  ;  our  next  to  do  that 
peacefully.  While  we  all  hope  that  war  will  be  averted,  that  hope 
will  never  be  strengthened  by  underrating  the  capacity  of  either 
nation  to  defend  itself,  or  to  injure  its  opponent.  For  my  own 
part,  I  see  no  want  of  patriotism  in  stating  plainly  and  frankly 
the  means  of  annoyance  that  England  possesses  ;  and  I  think  the 
course  of  my  honorable  friend  from  Delaware  upon  that  subject 
was  equally  patriotic  and  judicious.  There  is  said  to  be  a  bird  in 
the  desert,  which  hides  its  head  in  the  sand,  and  then  thinks  it  is 
safe  from  danger,  because  it  can  not  see  it.  Let  us  not  imitate  this 
folly.  Let  us  look  directly  at  what  we  must  encounter,  if  we  are 
forced  to  war,  and  then  let  us  behave  like  reasonable  men,  and 
make  reasonable  preparation  to  meet  it. 

"  I  see  it  said  in  a  late  London  Herald,  that  we  can  not  carry  on 
war,  because  we  can  not  procure  the  means  to  meet  the  necessary 
expenditures.  The  same  assertion  has  been  made  in  some  of  our 


556  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

own  journals,  and  even  by  higher  authority.  The  senator  from 
South  Carolina  has  referred  in  this  connexion  to  a  venerable  man, 
for  whom,  and  for  whose  patriotic  services,  I  have  great  and  sin 
cere  respect,  who  has  awakened  from  a  political  slumber  of  almost 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  presents  himself  to  his  countrymen 
with  elaborate  statistical  tables,  showing  the  pecuniary  cost  of 
war,  and  the  burdens  it  brings  with  it.  All  this  is  unnecessary. 
It  is  taught  in  the  very  horn-book  of  national  expenditures.  Ours 
is  not  a  question  of  the  cost  of  war,  but  of  its  necessity.  That 
same  eminent  man,  the  survivor  of  the  cabinets  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  of  Mr.  Madison,  was  understood,  in  1812,  to  entertain  a  similar 
repugnance  against  committing  the  destinies  of  his  country  to 
war,  which  he  now  exhibits,  and  to  foreshadow  similar  difficulties. 
I  do  not  know  if  the  fact  be  so.  I  can  repeat  only  the  rumors  of 
that  day.  It  was  then  asserted  and  believed,  that  some  report  or 
document  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  intended  to 
dampen  the  national  ardor,  by  an  imposing  array  of  the  contribu 
tions  it  would  be  necessary  to  levy  upon  the  country,  in  the  event 
of  war,  and  thus  to  prevent  its  occurrence.  But  the  effort,  if 
made,  was  useless  then,  and  it  will  be  useless  now.  The  war  went 
on,  because  it  could  not  be  avoided  without  a  sacrifice  of  the 
national  rights  and  honor,  and  it  came  to  a  glorious  conclusion. 
It  pushed  us  forward  in  all  the  elements  of  advancement.  And 
as  we  did  then  so  shall  we  do  now.  If  a  war  is  forced  upon  us, 
we  shall  meet  it  with  its  dangers  and  its  responsibilities.  No 
array  of  figures  will  stop  the  people  in  their  patriotic  course. 
You  might  as  well  attempt  to  stop  the  surges  of  the  ocean  beating 
upon  the  sea-coast  by  marks  in  the  sand,  which  the  first  wave 
sweeps  away,  and  then  passes  on. 

"  As  to  this  notion,  that  a  war  can  not  be  maintained  without 
cash  enough  in  the  possession  of  the  government  to  carry  it  on, 
or  the  means  of  procuring  it  at  any  time  by  loans,  the  two  suc 
cessful  experiments  we  have  made  have  demonstrated  its  fallacy. 
I  do  not  stop  to  point  out  the  peculiarities  in  our  condition  which 
prevent  our  national  exertions  from  being  paralyzed  by  deficient 
resources.  They  are  to  be  found  in  the  spirit  and  patriotism  of 
our  people ;  in  the  common  interest  they  feel  in  a  government, 
established  by  them,  and  responsible  to  them ;  in  the  system  of 
private  credit,  which  almost  makes  part  of  our  institutions,  and 
which  often  separates  by  wide  intervals  the  purchase  and  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS,  557 

payment ;  in  the  abundance  and  cheapness  of  the  necessaries  of 
life,  and  in  the  military  ardor  which  stimulates  our  young  men 
and  sends  them  to  the  standard  of  their  country.  No  modern 
Croesus,  be  he  a  king  of  financiers,  or  a  financier  of  kings,  holds 
in  his  hands  the  action  of  this  government.  But  even  in  Europe, 
a  decisive  experiment  has  shown  that  the  exertions  of  a  nation 
are  not  to  be  crippled  by  a  crippled  treasury.  One  of  the  great 
errors  ^>f  Mr.  Pitt  arose  from  his  belief,  that  as  the  French  resources 
and  credit  were  deranged  and  almost  destroyed,  therefore  France 
was  incapable  of  the  necessary  efforts  to  defend  herself  against 
the  formidable  coalition,  at  the  head  of  which  England  placed 
herself,  and  to  maintain  which  she  poured  out  her  blood  as  freely 
as  her  treasure.  But  the  result  proved  th*e  folly  and  the  fallacy  of 
all  this,  notwithstanding  the  depreciation  of  the  French  paper,  and 
the  difficulties  consequent  upon  it.  What  was  the  progress  and 
the  result  of  this  effort  to  prevent  a  people  from  changing  and 
reorganizing  their  government,  is  written  upon  the  pages  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century  of  war,  and  still  more  plainly  upon  the 
oppressed  taxation  of  England,  which  now  weighs  upon  her  present 
condition  like  an  incubus,  and  overshadows  her  future  with  dark 
clouds  of  adversity. 

"I  now  propose  to  submit  some  observations  upon  the  remarks 
presented  to  the  Senate  a  few  days  since,  by  the  distinguished 
senator  from  South  Carolina.  The  originality  of  his  views,  and 
the  force  of  the  illustrations  with  which  they  were  supported,  give 
them  great  consideration ;  and  as  it  seems  to  me,  that  in  some 
important  particulars  their  tendency  is  erroneous,  I  desire  to 
communicate  the  impression  they  made  upon  me. 

"  While  I  shall  do  this,  with  the  freedom  which  a  sincere  search 
after  truth  justifies,  I  shall  do  it  with  the  respect  that  the  eminent 
services  and  high  character  of  the  senator  justify,  and  that  an 
uninterrupted  friendship  of  thirty  years,  which  has  been  to  me  a 
source  of  great  gratification,  naturally  inspires. 

"  The  senator  states,  that  when  this  proposition  for  notice  to 
terminate  the  joint  occupancy  of  Oregon  was  first  submitted  for 
consideration,  he  was  opposed  to  it :  but  that  now  he  is  in  favor 
of  it  in  some  modified  form ;  the  form,  I  believe,  it  assumes  in  the 
resolution  of  the  senator  from  Georgia. 

"That  his  motives  of  action  were  the  same  in  both  cases  —  a 
desire  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  two  countries;  that  in  the 


558  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

former  part  of  the  session,  he  thought  the  notice  would  lead  to 
war,  and  therefore  he  opposed  it ;  that  he  thinks  now  it  would 
lead  to  peace,  and  therefore  he  favors  it. 

"  Certainly,  Mr.  President,  this  is  consistent  ground  for  any  man 
to  occupy.  A  change  of  action  on  questions  of  expediency,  where 
circumstances  have  changed,  is  a  dictate  of  true  wisdom.  He 
who  boasts  he  has  never  changed,  boasts,  in  fact,  that  the  lessons 
of  experience  have  been  lost  upon  him  ;  and  that  he  gro^s  older 
without  growing  wiser.  But  before  a  change  takes  place  in  our 
approbation  or  condemnation  of  a  great  question  of  national  policy, 
the  reasons  which  dictate  it  should  be  carefully  considered,  and 
clearly  established. 

"  Has  this  been  don£  by  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  ?  I 
think  not.  He  assumes  the  very  fact  upon  which  his  whole  argu 
ment  rests.  He  assumes  that  a  great  change  has  taken  place,  both 
in  this  country  and  in  England,  in  public  opinion  upon  this  subject, 
which  will  necessarily  lead  to  a  compromise,  and  thus  to  an 
amicable  adjustment  of  this  serious  and  long-pending  controversy. 

"Mr.  President,  I  cannot  partake  this  confidence.  The  signs  of 
the  times  are  anything  but  auspicious  to  me.  It  will  be  perceived, 
that  the  annunciation  thus  certainly  made  of  the  peaceful  termi 
nation  of  this  matter,  rests  upon  the  change  in  public  opinion  and 
upon  the  conviction  that  both  governments  are  ready  to  compro 
mise,  and  both  prepared  to  come  to  the  same  line ;  so  much  so, 
indeed,  that  the  senator  adds,  'he  trusts  that  in  concluding  it 
there  will  be  no  unnecessary  delay.' 

"  In  all  this,  sir,  I  am  under  the  impression  there  is  a  great 
misapprehension.  As  to  the  universality  of  the  proposition  that 
all  are  agreed  as  to  this  change,  I  know  there  is  an  error.  For 
myself,  my  conviction  is  as  strong  as  human  conviction  can  be, 
not  only  that  the  change  thus  indicated  has  not  taken  place,  but 
that  a  great  change  has  been  going  on  in  a  contrary  direction.  I 
believe  that  the  opposition  to  a  compromise  upon  the  parallel  of 
49°  has  increased,  is  increasing,  and  will  go  on  to  increase ;  and 
that  both  here  and  in  England,  public  opinion  is  less  and  less 
confident  in  an  amicable  settlement  of  this  dispute.  I  shall  not 
pursue  this  matter  into  its  details.  I  will  merely  remark,  that  the 
evidences  of  public  opinion  which  reach  us,  whether  borne  here 
by  letters,  by  newspapers,  by  the  declarations  of  conventions,  or 
by  the  resolutions  of  legislative  bodies,  is  decisive  and  indisputable. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  559 

And,  in  proof  of  this,  look  at  the  passage  of  the  resolutions  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  by  a  majority  almost  unknown  in 
a  free  country  upon  a  great  question  like  this,  and  involving  such 
momentous  consequences ;  and  this,  too,  when  the  senator  says, 
he  thought  their  passage  would  lead  to  war.  And  what  say  the 
advices  from  England  ?  They  speak  a  language  as  positive  as  it 
is  minatory.  "What  says  the  Standard,  of  March  3d,  the  great 
Tory  organ  ?  I  will  tell  you  :  '  But  will  the  American  Congress 
confirm  the  insolent  and  unwarrantable  tone  adopted  by  this 
'braggadocio?'1  &c.  And  the  person  thus  denominated  by  these 
models  of  all  that  is  decorous,  so  often  recommended  to  us  for  our 
study,  is  the  President  of  this  great  Kepublic.  c  And  dreadful  as 
is  the  alternative,  it  will  be  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  any 
British  minister  can  escape  from  it  with  honor.'  The  last  London 
Times  that  I  have  seen  says  :  '  The  joint  navigation  of  the  Colum 
bia,  the  right  of  harbors  on  the  sea-coast,  and  the  right  of  traffic 
for  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  on  one  bank  of  the  river,  are,  we 
think,  demands  neither  unjust  nor  extravagant.'  The  London 
Gazette,  of  March  3d,  says:  'The  news  from  the  United  /States 
justifies  the  fears  we  have  repeatedly  expressed  of  tlie  determined 
spirit  of  hostility  which  pervades  a  powerful  party  in  the  United 
States?  The  London  Sun,  a  neutral  paper,  says  :  '  The  news  from 
this  country  has  produced  a  strong  feeling  of  indignation  among 
our  commercial  circles  ;  and  those  who  have  all  along  opposed  the 
expediency  of  war,  on  account  of  mercantile  connexions,  now 
openly  claim  a  vindication  of  the  honor  of  the  country  at  the 
hands  of  the  executive.'  'The  feeling  everywhere  is,  that  Eng 
land,  having  shown  as  much  forbearance  as  is  compatible  with 
her  station  in  the  scale  of  nations,  is  now  called  upon  to  treat  the 
proceedings  of  the  American  legislators  with  the  contempt  they 
deserve.'  The  Liverpool  Courier,  of  March  4th,  says  :  '  The  conse 
quences  to  which  it  may  lead  (the  refusal  to  arbitrate)  may  be 
most  calamitous.  But  the  Americans  will  only  have  themselves 
to  blame  if  war  ensues  ;  for  England  has  done  all  in  her  power  to 
bring  matters  to  a  satisfactory  and  peaceful  issue.'  Such  are  the 
evidences  of  public  opinion  in  England,  which  the  last  packet 
brought  us  ;  and  of  the  favorable  change  there,  which  renders  a 
compromise  certain,  and  a  question  only  of  time. 

"The  honorable  senator  has  referred,  in  this  connexion,  to  the 
declaration  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  made  sometime  since  in  the 


560  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

British  House  of  Commons,  that  he  regretted  their  minister  had 
not  transmitted  to  his  government  the  proposition  of  a  compromise 
upon  the  parallel  of  49° ;  that  if  not  satisfactory,  it  might  have 
been  made  the  basis  of  a  modified  offer.  I  am  not  inclined  to 
draw  as  favorable  a  conclusion,  however,  as  the  honorable  senator, 
from  this  incidental  remark,  made,  not  to  us,  but  in  the  course  of 
a  parliamentary  discussion.  In  fact,  it  is  so  cautiously  expressed, 
as  to  lead  to  no  useful  deduction  respecting  his  real  views.  It  is 
a  mere  barren  remark.  Had  the  premier  intended  it  should  pro 
duce  any  practical  consequences,  he  would  have  communicated  to 
our  government  the  views  of  the  British  cabinet,  and  would  have 
accepted  the  offer,  or  returned  it  with  the  proposed  modification. 
But  we  hear  nothing  of  this  disapprobation  —  no,  not  disapproba 
tion,  but  of  soft  regret  at  the  hasty  decision  of  the  British  minister 
here  —  till  six  months  after  it  took  place,  and  then  we  learn  it  in 
the  public  debates,  and  that  is  the  last  of  it.  It  is  to  me  a  curious 
chapter  in  the  history  of  British  diplomacy,  that  a  minister  would 
venture  to  take  the  grave  responsibility  of  rejecting  such  a  propo 
sition,  without  referring  it  to  his  government,  and  he  is  not  even 
censured  for  it.  If  he  had  been  recalled,  or  a  successor  sent  out, 
with  instructions  to  accept-  the  propositions  made  by  our  govern 
ment  for  a  compromise,  we  should  then  have  had  a  proof  of 
sincerity  better  than  a  barren  declaration,  and  which  might  have 
led  to  a  better  state  of  feeling. 

"  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  has  entered  at  some  length 
into  a  defense  of  his  views  respecting  the  acquisition  of  Oregon, 
by  what  is  called  the  process  of  masterly  inactivity.  And  if  he 
has  not  made  converts  to  his  opinion,  he  has  gained  many  admirers 
of  his  talents  by  his  masterly  vindication  of  it. 

"  Certainly,  sir,  it  is  often  the  part  of  true  wisdom  in  this  world 
to  stand  still  —  to  wait  for  time  and  circumstances.  There  is  a 
great  deal  of  wisdom  in  old  proverbs,  and  one  of  them  says, 
''Let  well  enough  alone?  Time  has  wrought  many  wonders  for  our 
country,  and  is  destined  to  work  many  more.  The  practical  diffi 
culty  is,  to  determine  when  inaction  should  cease  and  action 
commence,  and  how  the  operations  of  time  can  be  best  aided  by 
enterprise  and  industry.  The  honorable  senator  says,  that  cir 
cumstances  have  got  ahead  of  his  system,  and  that  he  adverts  to 
the  subject,  not  to  apply  it,  but  to  defend  it.  It  seems  to  me,  sir, 
it  never  could  have  produced  the  results  the  senator  anticipated, 
and  produced  them  peacefully. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  561 

"  Here  was  an  open  question,  which,  for  almost  forty  years,  had 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  two  countries,  which  had  been  kept 
at  arm's  length  by  an  improvident  arrangement,  instead  of  being 
grappled  with  and  adjusted,  as  it  could  have  been,  and  should 
have  been,  long  ago,  and  which  had  at  length  increased  to  a  fearful 
magnitude ;  and,  what  is  still  more,  had  begun  to  enlist  passions, 
and  feelings,  and  interests,  that  threatened  to  take  the  controversy 
from  the  pen,  and  to  commit  it  to  the  sword.  The  claims  of  two 
great  countries  to  a  distant  territory  were  unsettled,  and  in  a  con 
dition  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  national  intercourse — each 
with  a  right  to  occupy  the  whole  of  the  territory,  but  each  liable 
to  have  this  right  defeated  by  the  previous  action  of  the  other 
party — each  holding  a  remote  possession,  beginning  to  fill  up  by 
emigration  with  their  respective  citizens  and  subjects,  hardy, 
enterprising,  and  somewhat  pugnacious,  intermingled  upon  the 
same  soil,  seizing  it  as  they  could,  and  holding  it  as  they  might, 
without  any  of  those  improvements  which  require  for  their  crea 
tion  and  support  the  joint  and  legal  action  of  a  community,  and 
wholly  irresponsible  for  their  acts  towards  one  another,  except 
through  the  medium  of  tribunals  belonging  to  the  party  claiming 
allegiance  over  the  aggressor,  and  possessing  no  sympathy  with 
the  complainant.  The  end  of  all  this  may  be  foreseen  without 
the  gift  of  second  sight.  Collisions  must  be  inevitable.  The  only 
wonder  is,  they  have  not  already  occurred.  And  the  first  gun 
that  is  fired  upon  the  Columbia  will  send  its  echoes  to  the  Potomac 
and  the  Thames.  And  think  you  that  the  matter  will  be  coolly 
examined,  dispassionately  discussed,  and  amicably  arranged  ?  N"o, 
sir ;  each  nation  will  believe  its  own  story,  and  both  will  be  ready 
to  arm,  and  assert  its  honor  and  defend  its  citizens.  All  history 
is  full  of  these  incidents ;  and  the  peace  of  two  great  nations  is 
now  held  by  the  slightest  tenure,  dependent  upon  passions  and 
interests  to  be  called  into  fierce  action  upon  the  shores  that  look 
out  upon  China  and  Japan.  We  are  told  that  Time  is  the  great 
physician,  who  might  have  cured  this  disordered  state  of  our 
political  affairs.  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  silent  and  ceaseless 
operations  of  that  mighty  agent.  But  this  case  was  beyond  its 
power.  If,  indeed,  Time  would  stands  till  for  one  of  the  parties, 
and  move  only  for  the  other — stand  still  for  England,  and  move 
on  for  us  —  our  state  of  progress  would  soon  pour  through  the 
passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  a  host  of  emigrants  who  would 
36 


562  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

spread  over  all  the  hills  and  valleys  from  the  summit  of  that  great 
barrier  to  that  other  barrier,  the  ocean  itself,  which  says  to  the 
advancing  settlements,  Come  no  farther.     But  neither  Time  nor 
England  would  stand  still.     Her  government  is  sagacious,  alive 
to  her  interests,  and  ready  to  maintain  them.     She  knows  the 
value  of  the  country  as  well  as  we  do,  and  appreciates  it  perhaps 
higher.     No  one  can  read  the  speeches  in?  the  House  of  Commons 
on  the  4th  of  April  last,  without  being  sensible  that  the  subject,  in 
all  its  extent,  has  occupied  the  attention  of  the  British  government, 
and  that  the  country  itself  will  occupy  its  fostering  care.     Think 
you  that  that  government  would  have  continued  to  see  band  after 
band  of  our  citizens  leaving  our  frontier  settlements,  lost  to  human 
observation  almost,  for  months,  while  passing  through  the  desert 
with  its  toils,  its  privations,  and  its  dangers,  and  finally  emerging 
into  the  land  of  promise,  to  seize  it,  and  to  hold  it,  and  would 
have  looked  calmly  on,  receding  as  we  advanced,  retreating  to  the 
hill  as  we  descended  into  the  valley,  and  finally  yielding  us  quiet 
possession  of  this  long-disputed  territory?      He  who  does  not 
believe  all  this,  must  believe  that  Time  would  not  have  peacefully 
adjusted  this   controversy  for  us.     But,  beside,  this  process  of 
adjustment  does  not  assume  that  our  right  to  exclude  the  British 
from  the  country  will  be  increased  by  settlement.     It  may  add 
strength  to  our  power,  but  none  to  our  title.     It  does  not  presup 
pose  that  war  is  to  be  averted,  but  only  postponed.     The  rights  of 
England,  at  the  end  of  any  given,  period,  will  be  precisely  what 
they  now  are ;  and,  unless  she  should  voluntarily  relinquish  them, 
a  conflict  would  be  inevitable.     It  seems  to  me  very  clear,  that  if 
she  would  ever  be  disposed  to  abandon  the  country,  she  would  do 
it  now,  when  the  disparity  of  force  there  is  not  such  as  to  cast  the 
reproach  of  timidity  upon  her  counsels,  and  when  the  number  of 
her  subjects   is   not  such   as   to  render  difficult   a   satisfactory 
arrangement  for  them. 

"  Mr.  President,  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  has  held  up 
to  our  view  a  somber  picture  of  the  calamities  which  a  war  with 
England  would  bring  upon  the  United  States — too  somber,  sir,  if 
I  am  not  utterly  ignorant  of  the  history  and  condition  of  my 
country,  and  of  the  energy  and  spirit  of  my  countrymen.  I  shall 
not  examine  it  feature  by  feature  ;  but  there  are  certain  portions 
I  desire  to  present  to  the  Senate. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  563 

"  What  probable  circumstances  could  require  this  country  to 
keep  up  a  military  and  naval  force  of  two  hundred  thousand  men 
for  ten  years — the  land  portion  of  it  divided  into  seven  great 
armies — I  confess  my  utter  inability  to  conjecture.  Why  the 
honorable  senator  fixes  upon  that  period  for  the  duration  of  the 
war  I  know  not.  It  is  so  wholly  conjectural  as  to  elude  the  appli 
cation  of  any  principle  to  it.  Lon^  before  its  expiration,  if  we  are 
not  utterly  unworthy  of  our  name  and  our  birthright,  we  should 
sweep  the  British  power  from  the  continent  of  North  America, 
and  the  remainder  of  the  time  must  be  occupied  by  predatory  in 
cursions  upon  the  coast  and  by  hostilities  upon  the  ocean.  The 
dangers  or  disasters  which  this  state  of  things  brings  with  it, 
would  require  but  a  small  portion  of  the  force  considered  neces 
sary  by  the  senator.  As  to  Mexico,  I  trust  we  shall  bear  much 
from  her.  We  owe  that  to  our  own  strength  and  to  her  weakness; 
to  our  own  position,  not  less  than  to  the  situation  of  her  govern 
ment,  and  to  the  quasi  civil  war  which  seems  to  be  the  curse  of 
her  condition.  But  should  we  be  driven  to  put  forth  our  strength, 
peace  would  ensue,  and  speedily;  but  it  would  be  a  peace  dictated 
in  her  capital,  and  placing  her  political  destiny  at  our  disposition. 

"  And  besides,  during  the  progress  of  such  a  wrar  to  which  the 
honorable  gentleman  alludes,  wiio  can  tell  the  sphere  of  its  oper 
ations,  and  what  nations  would  become  parties  to  it?  How  soon 
would  the  great  maritime  questions  of  our  day  present  themselves 
for  solution  ?  How  long  would  it  be  before  England  would  revive 
and  enforce  those  belligerent  pretensions  which  drove  us  to  war 
when  we  were  neutral,  and  which  would  drive  other  nations  to 
war  occupying  the  same  position?  How  long  before  the  violation 
of  her  flag  would  arouse  the  public  feeling  of  France,  and  compel 
her  government  to  vindicate  its  honor  ?  And  who  can  tell  what 
war  of  principles  and  opinions  wrould  come  to  add  its  excitement 
and  passions  to  the  usual  struggles  of  contending  nations?  The 
world  is,  indeed,  in  comparative  repose ;  but  there  are  causes  in 
operation  which,  if  quickened  into  action  by  peculiar  circum 
stances,  might  shake  the  institutions  of  Europe  to  their  very 
foundations.  I  consider  a  war  between  England  and  the  United 
States  for  ten  years,  or  for  half  of  that  time,  utterly  impossible, 
without  bringing  into  collision  the  great  questions  of  our  day — 
the  right  to  govern  and  the  duty  to  submit — and  into  fierce  action 


LIFE  AND   TIMES 

the  interests  and  passions  which  such  a  struggle  would  excite — a 
struggle  that  must  come,  but  which  such  a  war  would  accelerate. 

"  But  permit  me  to  ask  the  senator  from  South  Carolina,  if  all 
this  were  so,  if  his  anticipations  were  certain,  instead  of  being 
purely  gratuitous,  ought  the  assurance  of  such  events  to  come  from 
him,  from  such  a  high  authority,  in  so  high  a  place?  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  and  from  one  who  has  filled  some  of  the  most 
important  positions  in  our  government  ?  whose  services  and  talents 
and  character  gave  him  great  consideration  with  his  countrymen; 
who  possesses  a  European  fame;  and  whose  opinions  are  quoted 
at  this  moment  in  London  and  Paris  as  indications  of  our  policy, 
and  of  the  final  result  of  this  controversy?  Is  it  well  thus  to  an 
nounce  to  the  world  our  incapacity  to  defend  ourselves?  For  that 
is  in  fact  the  result.  A  government  dissolved,  or  rather  changed 
to  a  despotism,  a  country  ruined,  and  eventually  its  fragments  a 
prey  to  ambitious  generals,  as  the  empire  of  Alexander  was  par 
titioned  among  his  lieutenants  !  War,  then,  becomes  not  a  meas 
ure  of  safety,  but  a  signal  of  destruction  to  the  American  people ! 
"We  are  powerless  to  defend  ourselves  !  If  we  are  struck  upon  one 
cheek,  we  must  turn  the  other;  not  in  a  spirit  of  Christian  charity, 
but  in  the  despair  of  helplessness  !  We  are  bound  together  by  a 
fair-weather  government,  incapable  of  riding  out  the  storms  of 
foreign  aggression.  Submission  must  be  our  refuge,  for  beyond 
submission  is  destruction.  We  shall  exhibit  the  extraordinary 
spectacle  of  a  great  people,  great  in  all  the  elements  of  power  and 
prosperity,  saying  to  the  world,  in  effect,  we  can  not  contend  with 
England.  We  are  at  her  mercy,  for  even  success  would  ruin  us. 

"  Now,  sir,  this  is  not  so.  There  is  not  one  man  within  the 
sound  of  my  voice  whose  heart  does  not  tell  him,  such  has  not  been 
your  past — such  will  not  be  your  future.  The  honorable  senator, 
in  looking  at  the  real  calamities  of  war,  which  I  seek  neither  to 
conceal  nor  to  deny,  has  sufiered  himself  to  overrate  them.  They 
have  struck  him  more  forcibly  than  they  should  do.  The  experi 
ment  of  two  wars  with  England  into  which  we  entered,  and  from 
which  we  issued  gloriously,  puts  the  stamp  of  error  upon  these 
sad  forebodings.  How  they  pushed  us  forward  in  character  and 
position  among  the  nations  of  the. earth,  I  need  not  tell ;  nor  need 
I  say  that  the  march  of  this  country  in  all  that  constitutes  the 
power  and  happiness  of  a  people,  is  a  practical  proof  that  those 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  565 

conflicts  left  no  wounds  upon  our  institutions,  and  but  temporary 
checks  upon  our  prosperity. 

"  The  honorable  senator  has  appealed  to  his  past  history  in  proof 
that  in  presenting  these  views  he  acted  in  no  unmanly  fear  for 
himself,  and  that  if  war  comes  he  would  be  among  the  last  to 
flinch.  No,  Mr.  President,  no  one  in  this  nation  doubts  that  his 
course  would  be  firm  and  patriotic  should  war  be  forced  upon  us. 

"But  he  will  permit  me  also  to  appeal ;  to  appeal  from  the  sen 
ator  of  1846  to  the  representative  of  1812.  He  is  the  ultimus 
Romanorum — the  last  of  the  Romans  :  the  sole  survivor  among 
us  of  a  generation  of  statesmen  who  have  passed  from  the  legisla 
tive  service  of  their  country.  The  last  of  the  actors,  not  of  the 
signers,  who  gave  to  the  world  our  second  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  scarcely  inferior  in  its  causes  and  consequences  to  the  first- 
He  came  here  young,  unknown  to  his  country.  He  left  these  halls 
with  a  maturity  of  fame  which  rarely  falls  to  the  lot  of  any  states 
man.  I  was  then  upon  the  frontier,  and  well  do  I  remember  with 
what  straining  eyes  and  beating  hearts  we  turned  towards  the 
capitol,  to  know  if  the  honor  and  interests  of  our  country  would  be 
asserted  and  maintained.  There  were  then  two  men  here  upon 
whom,  more  than  upon  any  others,  perhaps  more  than  upon  all 
others,  devolved  the  task  of  advocating  the  war,  and  of  carrying 
through  the  measures  of  the  administration.  And  nobly  did  they 
perform  their  duty.  They  were  the  honorable  senator  from  South 
Carolina,  and  a  retired  statesman,  Mr.  Clay,  from  whom,  though 
it  has  been  my  fortune  to  differ  in  the  party  contests  that  divide 
us,  yet  it  has  always  been  my  pride  to  do  justice  to  his  eminent 
qualities  and  to  his  high  services  to  his  country,  and  especially  to 
his  services  during  our  last  contest  with  England.  They  were  the 
leaders  of  that  great  legislative  war,  who,  like  the  Homeric  heroes, 
threw  themselves  into  the  middle  of  the  fight,  and  fought  the  bat 
tles  of  their  party  and  of  their  country  with  equal  talents,  firmness 
and  success. 

"  As  to  the  evils  of  war,  he  of  us  is  blind  to  all  historical  expe 
rience  who  does  not  see  them,  and  unfaithful  to  his  position  who 
does  not  acknowledge  them.  There  is  no  such  representative  of 
the  States  here.  We  all  acknowledge  the  evils  of  war,  both  moral 
and  material.  "We  differ  as  to  their  degree,  and  as  to  the  power  of 
this  country  to  endure  and  to  inflict  them.  While  the  condition 
of  England  presents  great  means  of  annoyance,  it  presents  also 


566  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

palpable  elements  of  weakness.  I  am  not  her  panegyrist.  I  shall 
never  be  accused  of  that.  But  if  I  see  the  defects  of  her  national 
character,  I  can  see  also  her  redeeming  virtues.  I  am  sensibly 
alive  to  the  acts  of  injustice  she  has  done  us.  The  feeling  is  de 
posited  at  my  heart's  core.  But  I  do  not  shut  my  eyes,  either  to 
her  power  or  to  the  virtues  she  actually  possesses.  1  need  not  tell 
what  she  has  done  to  attract  the  admiration  of  the  world  ;  for  her 
deeds  of  war  and  peace  are  written  upon  many  a  bright  page  of 
human  story.  She  has  reached  a  commanding  eminence  among 
the  powers  of  the  earth — a  giddy  eminence ;  and  I  believe  she 
will  find  it  an  unstable  one.  I  do  not,  however,  estimate  her  pres 
ent  position  as  high  as  many  do,  and  I  consider  it  as  unsafe  as 
almost^any  one  can.  The  elements  of  her  weakness  lie  upon  the 
very  surface  of  her  affairs,  open  to  the  most  careless  observer. 
But  she  has  great  military  and  naval  establishments,  and  she  is 
augmenting  and  extending  them.  I  am  not  going  to  spread  before 
the  Senate  the  statistics  of  her  powers  of  annoyance  and  defense. 
This  has  been  sufficiently  done  already.  But  I  will  express  my 
decided  conviction  that  these  tabular  statements  give  an  exagge 
rated  picture  of  her  condition.  Old  vessels,  old  guns,  mere  hulks, 
invalids,  the  relics  of  half  a  century  of  war,  are  arranged  in  formi 
dable  lists  of  figures,  and  go  to  swell  the  general  aggregate. 

"  Besides,  she  has  peculiar  drawbacks  to  the-  exertion  of  her 
power.  The  seeds  of  danger  are  sown  in  the  most  important  pro 
vince  of  her  home  empire,  and  may  at  any  time  start  up  into 
an  abundant  harvest  of  ruin  and  disaster.  The  dragon's  teeth 
may  become  armed  men. 

"  She  has  possessions  round  the  world  to  retain,  and  in  many 
of  them  a  discontented  population  to  restrain.  Her  commerce, 
the  very  foundation  of  her  prosperity  and  greatness,  is  scattered 
over  all  the  bays,  and  inlets,  and  gulfs,  and  seas  of  the  world  ;  and 
he  who  knows  the  daring  character  and  enterprise  of  our  people, 
knows  that  our  public  and  private  armed  vessels  would  almost 
sweep  it  from  existence.  But  I  shall  not  pursue  this  investigation 
further.  While  I  believe  she  will  go  to  war  with  us,  if  she  can 
not  escape  from  it  without  wholly  sacrificing  her  own  honor,  as  she 
views  the  question,  I  recollect  she  has  done  so  twice  before,  with 
no  credit  to  herself,  but  with  imperishable  glory  for  us. 

"A  few  words  as  to  the  condition  of  her  finances  and  her  means 
of  carrying  on  a  war.  It  is  said  to  be  the  last  feather  that  breaks 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  567 

the  camel's  back.  That  the  time  will  come  when  the  artificial  and 
oppressive  fiscal  system  of  England  must  break  down,  and,  like  the 
strong  man  of  Israel,  involve  her  existino;  institutions  in  the  fall. 

c5  7  cD  ' 

is  as  certain  as  any  future  political  event  can  be.  But  that  time 
has  not  yet  come,  and  he  must  be  a  bolder  or  a  wiser  man  than  I 
am,  to  predict  when  it  will  come.  She  has  the  same  means  now 
to  meet  her  war  expenditures  which  she  has  long  had.  The  power 
of  drawing  upon  the  future  for  the  exigencies  of  the  present,  leav 
ing  the  generations  to  come  to  pay  the  debt,  or  to  cast  it  off'  like 
a  burden  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  At  this  very  moment  she  is 
making  an  experiment  which  will  be  almost  a  revolution, — a  wise 
experiment,  as  I  believe,  but  still  a  fearful  one  for  an  old  society 
whose  habits  are  fixed,  and  which  accommodates  itself  with  diffi 
culty  even  to  gradual  changes. 

"  As  to  the  points  of  contrast  between  our  condition  and  that  of 
England,  they  are  before  the  world;  and  for  the  purposes  of  peace 
or  war  we  need  not  fear  the  most  searching  examination. 

"  Happen  what  may,  we  can  neither  be  overrun  nor  conquered. 
England  might  as  well  attempt  to  blow  up  Gibraltar  with  a  squib, 
as  to  attempt  to  subdue  us.  I  suppose  an  Englishman  never  even 
thinks  of  that,  and  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  exhibit  in  stronger 
terms  its  impossibility. 

"  I  might  easily  spread  before  the  Senate  our  capacity  to  annoy 
a  maritime  adversary,  and  to  sweep  the  British  flag  from  this  part 
of  the  continent ;  but  I  forbear.  What  we  have  twice  done  in  the 
days  of  our  comparative  weakness,  we  can  repeat  and  far  exceed 
in  these  days  of  our  strength.  While,  therefore,  I  do  not  conceal 
from  myself  that  a  war  with  England  would  temporarily  check 
our  progress  and  lead  many  evils  in  its  train,  still  I  have  no  fear 
of  the  issue,  and  have  an  abiding  confidence  that  we  shall  come 
out  of  it,  not  indeed  unharmed,  but  with  all  the  elements  of  our 
prosperity  safe,  and  with  many  a  glorious  achievement  written  on 
the  pages  of  our  history. 

"  It  pains  me,  sir,  to  hear  allusions  to  the  destruction  of  this 
government,  and  to  the  dissolution  of  this  confederacy.  It  pains 
me,  not  because  they  inspire  me  with  any  fear,  but  because  we 
ought  to  have  one  unpronounceable  word,  as  the  Jews  had  of  old, 
and  that  word  is  dissolution.  We  should  reject  the  feeling  from 
our  hearts  and  its  name  from  our  tongues.  This  cry  of  '  wo!  wo! 
to  Jerusalem,'  grates  harshly  upon  my  ears.  Our  Jerusalem  is 


568  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

neither  beleaguered  nor  in  danger.  It  is  yet  the  city  upon  a  hill, 
glorious  in  what  it  is,  still  more  glorious,  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
in  what  it  is  to  be — a  landmark  inviting  the  nations  of  the  world 
struggling  upon  the  stormy  ocean  of  political  oppression,  to  follow 
us  to  a  haven  of  safety  and  of  rational  liberty.  No  English  Titus 
will  enter  our  temple  of  freedom  through  a  breach  in  the  battle 
ments,  to  bear  thence  the  ark  of  our  constitution  and  the  book  of 
our  law,  to  take  their  stations  in  a  triumphal  procession  in  the 
streets  of  a  modern  Kome,  as  trophies  of  conquest  and  proofs  of 
submission. 

"  Many  a  raven  has  croaked  in  my  day,  but  the  augury  has 
failed  and  the  Republic  has  marched  onward.  Many  a  crisis  has 
presented  itself  to  the  imagination  of  our  political  Cassandras,  but 
we  have  still  increased  in  political  prosperity  as  we  have  increased 
in  years,  and  that,  too,  with  an  accelerated  progress  unknown  to 
the  history  of  the  world.  We  have  a  class  of  men  whose  eyes  are 
always  upon  the  future,  overlooking  the  blessings  around  us,  and 
forever  apprehensive  of  some  great  political  evil  which  is  to  arrest 
our  course  somewhere  or  other  on  this  side  of  the  millennium.  To 
them  we  are  the  image  of  gold,  and  silver,  and  brass,  and  clay, 
contrariety  in  unity,  which  the  first  rude  blow  of  misfortune  is  to 
strike  from  its  pedestal. 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  consider  this  the  strongest  government  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  for  good,  and  the  weakest  for  evil.  Strong, 
because  supported  by  the  public  opinion  of  a  people  inferior  to 
none  of  the  communities  of  the  earth  in  all  that  constitutes  moral 
worth  and  useful  knowledge,  and  who  have  breathed  into  their 
political  system  the  breath  of  life;  and  who  would  destroy  it,  as 
they  created  it,  if  it  were  unworthy  of  them  or  failed  to  fulfill  their 
just  expectations. 

"  And  weak  for  evil  from  this  very  consideration,  which  would 
make  its  follies  and  its  faults  the  signal  of  its  overthrow.  It  is  the 
only  government  in  existence  which  no  revolution  can  subvert. 
It  may  be  changed,  but  it  provides  for  its  own  change  when  the 
public  will  requires.  Plots  and  insurrections,  and  the  various 
struggles  by  which  an  oppressed  population  manifests  its  suffer 
ings  and  seeks  the  recovery  of  its  rights,  have  no  place  here.  We 
have  nothing  to  fear  but  ourselves." 

Mr.  Benton,  of  Missouri,  followed  General  Cass,  and  took  issue 
with  him  upon  his  geographical  statements,  and  questioned  some 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  569 

of  the  authorities  cited  by  him.  These  remarks  of  Mr.  Benton 
compelled  General  Cass  on  the  second  of  April  again  to  address 
the  Senate.  He  had  undermined  the  position  of  the  senator 
from  North  Carolina,  and  the  senator  from  Missouri  came  to  the 
rescue. 

"  Mr.  President,  I  have  come  here  this  morning  to  set  myself 
free.  Twice  in  my  life  I  have  been  captured  by  enemies  —  once 
fighting  against  British  pretensions  in  war,  and  again  fighting 
against  British  pretensions  in  peace.  My  country  redeemed  me 
in  the  former  case — I  come  to  redeem  myself  in  the  latter.  I  say 
enemies,  but  I  trust  the  term  is  only  metaphorically  applicable. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  former  relations  between  the  honorable 
senator  from  Missouri  and  myself,  nothing  in  our  present  position 
which  should  make  us  enemies.  On  the  contrary,  a  long  personal 
friendship  has  existed  between  us,  which  I  did  not  suppose  was 
sundered.  If,  however,  it  is  otherwise,  I  must  bear  it  as  I  may. 
I  have  borne  greater  calamities  than  even  the  hostility  of  the 
honorable  gentleman  from  Missouri. 

"I  came  here,  sir,  as  I  said  before,  to  redeem  myself;  and  I 
mean  to  do  it:  to  do  it  by  correcting  a  misapprehension,  —  by 
speaking  the  truth. 

" '  He  is  the  freeman,  whom  the  truth  makes  free : 
All  else  are  slaves  beside.' 

"I  will  not  speak  in  the  triumphant  tone  which  pervades  the 
speech  of  the  honorable  senator  from  Missouri.  It  is  not  my 
habit.  '  Let  not  him  that  girdeth  on  his  harness,  boast  himself,  as 
he  that  putteth  it  off.'  Let  no  man  boast  till  the  victory  is  won  ; 
and  especially,  let  him  not  boast  while  his  adversary  is  absent. 
What  the  senator  said  presents  subjects  enough  for  animadversion, 
but  the  manner  in  which  he  said  it  was  still  more  unacceptable. 
I  am  ignorant  of  any  circumstances,  in  our  relative  situations, 
which  could  justify  it ;  still,  I  repeat  that  I  mean  to  vindicate 
myself,  and  that,  too,  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  every  man  within 
the  sound  of  my  voice. 

"  Mr.  HANNEGAN. — Every  impartial  man. 

"  Mr.  CASS. — No,  Mr.  President ;  I  will  not  accent  the  qualifi 
cation  suggested  by  my  friend  from  Indiana.  If  my  vindication 
is  not  satisfactory  to  every  man,  partial  or  impartial,  I  will  agree 
to  be  tied  to  the  chariot  wheels  of  the  honorable  senator  from 


570  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Missouri,  and  to  fight  the  battles  of  4-9  ;  and  I  hardly  know  two 
more  severe  punishments  that  could  be  inflicted  upon  me. 

"  The  honorable  senator  says  that  I  came  here  the  other  day  to 
make  a  studied  speech  on  the  subject  of  Oregon.  I  did  so,  sir ; 
and  he  overrates  his  own  powers,  and  underrates  the  mental 
qualities  of  the  members  of  this  body,  who  comes  here  to  give  his 
opinions  upon  a  great  national  subject  without  due  preparation. 
I  shall  not  commit  that  folly;  and  I  have  too  much  regard  for  the 
intelligence  and  experience  of  the  honorable  senator,  to  believe 
that  he  would.  I  presume  that  his  thoughts  are  fully  prepared 
upon  every  grave  topic  on  which  he  presents  his  views  to  this 
body.  But,  however  it  may  have  been  before,  I  have  not  had 
much  time  for  preparation  now,  for  I  was  not  in  my  seat  yesterday 
when  the  honorable  senator  made  his  attack ;  and,  of  course,  I 
could  not  know,  except  from  rumor,  what  he  said  till  this  morning. 

"  Now,  sir,  what  is  the  subject  in  controversy  between  the  hon 
orable  senator  and  myself?  He  says  that  I  am  committed,  by  my 
own  declaration,  to  go  for  49,  if  it  is  shown  that  commissioners 
were  appointed  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  to  establish  that  par 
allel  as  a  boundary.  This  assertion  is  the  whole  foundation  of  his 
argument,  upon  which  the  whole  superstructure  rests.  If  the  one 
falls,  the  other  falls  with  it.  Now,  sir,  I  not  only  never  said  so, 
but  the  idea  never  occurred  to  me ;  I  never  thought  of  it.  And 
the  honorable  gentleman  has  wholly  misunderstood  me,  either 
through  my  fault  or  his  own. 

"  He  has  erected  a  fortification  for  me,  and  battered  it  down 
with  his  own  cannon.  I  choose  to  be  shut  up  in  my  own  defensive 
works  only  ;  if  these  are  carried  by  siege  or  by  storm,  then  I  will 
surrender ;  but  let  me  be  my  own  engineer. 

"  My  position  was  this,  sir.  Many  of  the  members  upon  this 
floor  contend  that  the  parallel  of  49°  is  the  northern  boundary  of 
our  claim  in  Oregon, — some  directly  so ;  and  others,  because  it 
was  assumed  to  be  such  by  our  government  in  the  early  period  of 
our  controversy  on  this  subject  with  England.  To  us,  therefore, 
who  believe  that  our  claim  in  Oregon  goes  to  54:°  40',  it  was 
essential  to  show  there  was  an  error  on  this  subject ;  that  the  treaty 
of  Utrecht  never  extended  to  the  country  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

"Mr.  Greenhow,  in  his  work  on  Oregon,  had  examined  this 
question,  and  had  endeavored  to  show  that  no  commissioners, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  571 

under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  had  ever  established  any  boundary 
between  the  French  and  English  possessions  on  this  continent. 
So  far  as  respects  the  general  proposition,  it  is  a  mere  question  of 
historical  authenticity,  not  having  the  slightest  practical  bearing 
upon  our  title  to  Oregon.  Because,  before  our  title  to  Oregon 
could  be  affected,  it  must  be  shown  that  that  line,  if  established 
at  all,  must  extend  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

"  Mr.  Greenhow,  in  his  work,  enters  into  the  question,  and  I 
referred  to  his  book  as  one  entitled  to  talent,  industry,  and  caution  ; 
and  I  requested  gentlemen  who  had  doubts  on  this  subject  to  turn 
to  that  work,  and  I  thought  they  would  satisfy  themselves  that  no 
such  line  had  been  established.  I  did  not  vouch  for  the  facts  or 
conclusions.  I  never  examined  the  general  subject  in  its  extent. 
I  stated,  however,  that  the  result  of  his  discussion  upon  my  mind 
was,  that  such  a  line  had  not  been  run.  I  am  still  under  that  im 
pression,  sir,  and  nothing  that  was  said  yesterday  has  shaken  its 
strength.  Still,  I  do  not  hold  myself  at  all  responsible  for  Mr. 
Greenhow's  accuracy.  I  should  investigate  the  subject  with  far 
more  care  than  I  have  done,  if  I  were  to  be  held  responsible  for 
deductions  resting  upon  any  other  man's  assertions. 

"  The  senator  from  Missouri  says,  he  comes  here  not  to  settle  a 
point  which  can  at  all  influence  the  action  of  this  body,  or  have 
the  slightest  effect  upon  the  termination  of  our  controversy  with 
England.  He  says  he  '  makes  no  application  of  this  fact,'  referring 
to  his  proof  that  the  parallel  of  49°  was  established  somewhere  by 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht.  He  says:  'I  draw  no  argument  from  it. 
I  do  not  apply  it  to  the  question  of  title.  I  am  not  arguing  title,  and 
will  not  do  it;  but  I  am  vindicating  history,  assailed  in  a  vital  point 
by  the  book  which  has  been  quoted  and  endorsed.  I  am  vindicating 
the  intelligence  of  the  American  Senate,  exposed  to  contempt  in 
the  eyes  of  Europe,  by  a  supposed  ignorance  of  a  treaty  which  is 
one  of  the  great  political  landmarks  in  Europe  and  America,'  &c. 

"The  senator  will  pardon  me  for  saying  that  this  seems  to  me 
very  much  of  a  tempest  in  a  teapot.  What  does  he  profess  to 
vindicate  before  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ?  Not  the  rights 
of  the  country,  but  the  alleged  truth  of  an  historical  fact,  mis 
represented  by  Mr.  Greenhow,  and  vouched  for,  as  the  senator 
thinks,  by  me.  Now,  sir,  it  seems  to  me,  that  this  solemn  trial, 
before  such  a  court  as  this,  is  hardly  justified  by  the  nature  of 
the  accusation.  Here  is  an  historical  error.  Be  it  so.  Nobody 


572  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

contends  that  it  affects  our  interests  or  our  honor  in  the  remotest 
degree ;  no  more  so  than  the  parentage  of  Romulus  and  Remus. 
This  is  not  a  lecture  room.  We  are  neither  professors  nor  students, 
assembled  here  to  discuss  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  historical 
statements  which  have  no  relation  to  our  duties.  And  it  seems  to 
me,  also,  that  Europe  will  know  little,  and  care  less,  respecting 
this  grave  controversy,  now  sub  judice  before  this  high  tribunal. 
I  doubt  if  its  fame  reaches  there.  I  rather  imagine  that,  in  that 
quarter  of  the  globe,  there  are  other,  if  not  graver,  subjects  to 
engage  the  attention  of  both  governments  and  people,  than 
historic  doubts  involving  Mr.  Greenhow's  accuracy  and  my 
credulity. 

"  Still,  sir,  as  this  question  is  thus  brought  before  us,  I  shall 
proceed  to  give  a  brief  synopsis  of  it,  and  leave  honorable  senators 
to  judge  for  themselves.  The  senator  from  Missouri  has  brought 
forward  three  principal  facts,  to  prove  that  the  parallel  of  49°  was 
established  by  commissioners  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.  The 
first  is  a  despatch  from  Mr.  Madison  to  Mr.  Monroe ;  the  second, 
a  statement  submitted  by  Mr.  Monroe  to  Lord  Harrowby ;  the 
third — I  put  them  together,  for  the  honorable  gentleman  has  joined 
them — Postlethwayt's  Dictionary  and  D'Anville's  maps. 

"Before  proceeding  further,  sir,  I  beg  to  remark  that  the  hon 
orable  senator,  in  quite  a  taunting  tone,  contrasts  my  investigation 
of  this  matter  with  his  own.  He  goes  to  the  fountain-head,  the 
authentic  documents,  and  there  finds  the  truth ;  while  I  go  to  the 
turbid  stream,  and  am  thence  '  led  astray,'  and  thus  have  wan 
dered  into  the  enemy's  camp,  and  have  become  a  prisoner.  And 
what  are  those  authentic  documents  which  the  honorable  senator 
has  sought  and  found,  and  pored  over  with  the  midnight  lamp,  to 
educe  the  truth  ?  Why,  Postlethwayt's  Commercial  Dictionary, 
containing  a  map!  This  is  all,  literally  all !  —  a  work  long  since 
referred  to  by  Mr.  Greenhow  in  his  book,  and  examined  by  him. 

"  Now,  sir,  the  first  reflection  which  strikes  a  man,  is  this,  that 
if  this  line  were  thus  established,  the  proof  of  it  might  have  been 
got  forty  years  ago  from  the  archives  of  Paris  or  London.  That 
would  be  positive  and  undeniable  evidence,  and  all  short  of  it  is 
inconclusive,  and  such  as  no  tribunal  of  justice  would  receive 
as  final. 

"  Before  any  man  assumes  the  existence  of  such  a  line  as  a 
barrier  to  his  country's  claims,  he  ought  to  prove  it,  not  by  loose 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  573 

deductions  from  loose  historical  notices,  but  by  an  authentic  copy 
of  the  act  of  the  commissioners. 

"But  what  says  Mr.  Madison?  The  honorable  senator  from 
Missouri  says,  '  the  fact  of  commissaries  having  acted  was  as 
sumed  for  certain.'  The  language  of  Mr.  Madison  reads  far  other 
wise  to  me.  As  I  stated  the  other  day,  he  speaks  doubtfully  upon 
the  subject ;  and  I  repeat  the  assertion,  notwithstanding  the  con 
trary  averment  of  the  senator  from  Missouri.  4  There  is  reason  to 
"believe?  said  Mr.  Madison  to  Monroe,  '  that  the  boundary  between 
Louisiana  and  the  British  Territories  north  of  it  was  actually  fixed 
by  commissaries  appointed  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.' 

"  He  then  adds,  that  he  sends  a  paper  containing  the  authority 
respecting  this  alledged  decision;  but  he  adds  cautiously:  ' But 
you  will  perceive  the  necessity  of  recurring  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
commissaries  as  the  source  of  authentic  information.  These  are 
not  within  our  reach  here,  and  it  must  be  left  to  your  own  re 
searches  and  judgment  to  determine  the  proper  use  to  be  made  of 
them.'  If  this  is  certainty,  I  should  like  to  know  what  uncertainty 
is.  The  honorable  senator  regrets  that  I  had  not  looked  into  the 
original  documents,  instead  of  depending  on  Greenhow,  and  thus 
becoming  '  his  dupe  and  his  victim ' — not  very  courteous  words 
these,  by-the-by — and  that,  if  I  had  done  so,  I  would  not  have  said 
that  Mr.  Monroe  had  not  added  anything  to  Mr.  Madison's  state 
ment,  and  had  left  the  question  as  doubtful  as  he  had  found  it. 
'In  point  of  fact,'  says  the  senator,  'Mr.  Monroe  added  \k\% par 
ticulars,  of  which  Mr.  Madison  declared  his  ignorance  ;  added  the 
beginning,  the  courses,  and  the  ending  of  the  line,  and  stated  the 
whole  with  the  precision  of  a  man  who  had  taken  his  information 
from  the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners.' 

"  This  is  to  me  a  strange  view  of  the  matter,  sir.  I  can  not  find 
that  Mr.  Madison  refers  to  any  particulars.  He,  certainly,  does 
not  use  the  word.  It  is  the  authenticity  of  the  notice  enclosed  by 
him  which  he  desires  Mr.  Monroe  to  ascertain.  What  the  partic 
ulars  were,  contained  in  the  notice,  we  do  not  know,  as  the  paper 
itself  can  not  be  found.  That  notice,  as  I  shall  show,  or  rather 
Greenhow  has  shown,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  was  an 
extract  from  Douglas'  History  of  America. 

"  Before  I  proceed  to  examine  these  particulars^  I  may  be 
allowed  to  remark  that  Mr.  Madison  doubted,  with  precisely  the 
same  facts  which  we  have  before  us,  the  map  and  book  referred 


574  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

to  by  the  honorable  gentleman  ;  and,  to  this  day,  not  one  single 
circumstance  has  been  added  which  could  remove  those  doubts. 
Where,  then,  that  illustrious  man  felt  uncertainty,  I  may  be  per 
mitted  to  feel  a  greater  degree  of  it,  in  consequence  of  the  direct 
and  circumstantial  evidence  since  discovered,  leading  to  the  pre 
sumption  that  no  such  line  was  established.  But  I  repeat,  sir, 
that,  in  this  investigation,  I  do  not  profess  to  come  to  any  absolute 
conclusion.  It  is  a  subject  on  which  men  may  differ.  The  result 
of  my  examination  impresses  me  with  the  conviction  that  no  such 
line  was  established.  Mr.  Monroe  presented  a  memoir  to  Lord 
Harrowby,  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  I  will  now  quote  from  the 
gentleman's  speech  that  part  of  it  upon  which  he  dwells,  as  show 
ing  '  the  beginning,  courses,  and  end  of  the  line,  &c.,  with  the 
precision  of  a  man  who  had  taken  his  information  from  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  commissaries.'  I  will  quote,  also,  the  statement 
of  Douglas,  the  historian  of  North  America  ;  and  no  doubt  can 
exist  on  the  mind  of  any  man  that  Mr.  Monroe  resorted  to  that 
authority  for  his  statement,  and  not  to  the  original  archives  : 

11  'Commissaries  were  accordingly  ap-  "Douglas  says,  page  Y:  'By  the  treaty, 
pointed  by  each  power  who  executed  the  however,  the  Canada  or  French  line,  with 
stipulations  of  the  treaty  in  establishing  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  of  Great  Brit- 
the  boundaries  proposed  by  it.'  'They  ain,  was  ascertained  from  a  certain  prom- 
fixed  the  northern  boundary  of  Canada  ontory  upon  the  Atlantic  ocean,  in  58°  30' 
and  Louisiana  by  a  line  beginning  in  the  of  north  latitude,  to  run  southwest  to  Lake 
Atlantic,  at  a  cape  or  promontory  in  58°  Mistissin;  to  be  continued  still  southwest  to 
30X  north  latitude;  thence  southivestwardly  the  49th  degree,  and  from  thence  due  west 
to  the  Lake  Mistissin;  thence, further  south-  indefinitely.'1  " 
west,  to  the  latitude  of  49°  north  from  the 
equator,  and  along  that  line  indefinitely.1  " 

"  Now,  sir,  the  honorable  senator  from  Missouri  says  that  Mr. 
Monroe  must  have  taken  his  information  from  the  proceedings  of 
the  commissaries.  JSTo  man  can  doubt  but  that  Mr.  Monroe  quoted 
from  Douglas'  book.  The  language  is  so  nearly  identical  as  to 
render  such  a  coincidence  impossible,  if  it  were  accidental. 

'•The  suggestion  that  Mr.  Monroe  went  to  the  archives  to  pro 
cure  the  particulars,  of  which  'Mr.  Madison  had  declared  his 
ignorance,'  but  of  which  declaration  I  can  not  find  a  trace,  seems 
to  me  very  extraordinary,  when  we  advert  to  Mr.  Monroe's  report. 
The  proceedings  in  such  a  case  as  this,  establishing  a  boundary 
between  two  great  nations,  extending  over  so  large  a  portion  of 
the  surface  of  the  globe,  were  never  recorded  in  the  language  of 
Mr.  Monroe.  Who  were  the  commissioners?  Where  did  they  sit? 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  575 

What  was  the  date  of  their  action?  Where  was  the  confirmation 
of  their  award  by  their  governments?  What,  in  fact,  were  the 
points  indicated?  'Beginning  in  the  Atlantic,  at  a  cape  or  prom 
ontory  in  58°  30'  north  latitude!'  A  cape  or  promontory  not 
named,  but  to  be  ascertained  by  its  latitude  !  And  if  the  latitude 
were  not  correctly  stated,  what  then?  Suppose  where  that  paral 
lel  struck  the  Atlantic  there  was  no  cape  or  promontory?  And 
would  any  commissioners  assume  such  an  absolute  knowledge  of 
the  topography  of  a  remote  and  barren  coast  as  to  make  that  fact 
the  basis  of  their  whole  action?  Valid,  if  it  were  so  ;  invalid,  if 
it  were  not. 

"But  this  loose  language  is  not  confined  to  the  place  of  com 
mencement.  After  leaving  this  'cape  or  promontory,' — this  terra 
incognita — the  line  is  to  run  soutJiwestwardly  to  Lake  Mwtissin, 
an  indefinite  course,  as  will  be  seen,  and  not  rendered  definite  by 
indicating  what  part  of  the  lake  it  was  to  strike. 

u  No  reasonable  doubt  can  exist  but  that,  as  Mr.  Monroe  em 
ployed  the  language  of  Douglas,  he  took  the  statement  from  that 
historian. 

"Mr.  Monroe,  however,  presented  the  fact  to  Lord  Harrowby, 
and  it  was  not  contradicted  by  him,  so  far  as  we  know. 

"From  this  negative  circumstance  the  gentleman  from  Missouri 
draws  the  important  conclusion,  that  the  fact  must  have  been  so. 
I  shall  not  enter  into  this  matter,  as  it  is  not  at  all  important. 

"  Mr.  Monroe  stated  a  fact  that  had  occurred,  if  it  occurred 
at  all,  a  century  before.  It  had  in  reality  little,  if  any,  bearing 
upon  the  subject  he  was  urging,  which  was  the  right  of  the  United 
States  to  'possess  the  territory  lying  between  the  lakes  and  the 
Mississippi,  south  of  the  parallel  of  the  49th  degree  of  latitude.' 

"It  was  to  the  treaty  of  1783  that  he  was  referring,  and  to 
Mitchell's  map,  by  which  it  was  formed.  lie  adverts  to  the  treaty 
of  Utrecht  by  saying  that,  'by  running  due  west  from  the  north 
western  point  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  Mississippi,  accord 
ing  to  the  treaty  of  1783,  it  must  have  been  intended,  according 
to  the  lights  before  them,  to  take  the  parallel  of  the  49th  degree 
of  latitude,  as  established  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.' 

"Now,  sir,  it  might  well  be  that  Lord  Harrowby  never  consid 
ered  it  necessary  to  look  into  this  alledged  fact,  as  it  had  no  real 
bearing  on  the  subject,  being  alluded  to  merely  as  giving  reasons 


576  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

which  may  have  influenced  the  commissioners  in  fixing  the  boun 
daries  of  1783. 

"  Most  certainly  his  silence,  under  such  circumstances,  furnishes 
no  solid  proof — scarcely,  I  may  say,  a  light  presumption — in  favor 
of  this  parallel  of  49°. 

"  The  next  proof  of  the  establishment  of  this  line,  given  by  the 
senator,  was  Postlethwayt's  Commercial  Dictionary,  with  D'An- 
ville's  map.  There  is  no  quotation  from  the  dictionary,  and  the 
matter,  therefore,  rests  on  the  map  alone. 

"  The  senator  then  pointed  out  the  line  established  under  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  read  the  account  of  it  as  given  in  a  note  on 
the  upper  left-hand  corner  of  the  map.  The  description  was  in 
these  words : 

" '  The  line  that  parts  French  Canada  from  British  Canada, 
was  settled  by  commissaries  after  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  making  a 
course  from  Davis*  Inlet,  on  the  Atlantic  sea,  down  to  the  49th 
degree,  through  the  Lake  Abitibis,  to  the  Northwest  ocean;  there 
fore  Mr.  D^  Anville^  s  dotted  line  east  of  James"*  Bay  isfalse."1 

"  The  senator  then  states  that  this  map  was  '  made  by  D' Anville, 
the  great  French  geographer  of  his  age,  and  dedicated  to  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,'  &c.,  &c.;  and  he  adds,  it  is  the  c  authentic  French  testi 
mony  in  favor  of  the  line  of  Utrecht.' 

"  Now,  sir,  it  is  not  a  little  curious  that  this  map,  thus  author 
itatively  pronounced  to  be  authentic,  is,  upon  the  very  face  of  it, 
stated  to  be  false  in  one  important  particular.  What,  then,  be 
comes  of  the  correctness  of  the  assertion  of  the  honorable  senator, 
and  of  the  certainty  of  this  testimony  ? 

"If  wrong  in  one  respect,  it  may  be  so  in  others,  and,  at  any 
rate,  our  faith  in  its  pretensions  is  entirely  shaken.  But  I  do  not 
understand  by  whom  this  note  was  written  :  evidently  not  by 
D' Anville,  for  it  impugns  his  own  work.  We  have  not,  therefore, 
D'Anville's  authority  for  this  line,  as  being  established  under  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht.  He  marks  the  line  upon  his  map,  but  whence 
his  authority  for  it  is  left  to  conjecture. 

"  One  other  point,  sir.  The  honorable  senator  states  that,  in  an 
attempted  negotiation  with  the  British  government,  during  Mr. 
Jefferson's  administration,  two  articles  were  proposed — one  by  the 
American  commissioners,  and  one  by  the  British — for  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  boundary  between  our  country  and  Canada,  from 
the  northwestern  point  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  The  articles 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  577 

are   substantially  the  same,  but  with   the   difference  which  an 
examination  of  them  will  show. 

"The  AmeriGm projet  provided  : 

"  'That  a  line  drawn  due  north  or  south  (as  the  case  may  re 
quire),  from  the  northwestern  point  of  the  Lake  of  the  "Woods 
until  it  shall  intersect  the  49th  parallel  of  north  latitude,  and, 
with  the  said  parallel,  shall  be  the  southern  boundary  of  his  Ma 
jesty's  territories,  and  the  northern  boundary  of  the  said  territories 
of  the  United  States.' 

"  The  British  projet,  after  providing  for  the  running  of  a  line 
north  or  south,  as  might  be,  from  the  northwestern  point  of  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  parallel  of  49°,  provides  that  the  '  said 
parallel  shall  be  the  dividing  line  between  his  Majesty's  territories 
and  those  of  the  United  States  to  the  westward  of  said  lake,  as 
far  as  their  respective  territories  extend  in  that  quarter ;  and  that 
the  said  line  shall,  to  that  extent,  form  the  southern  boundary  of 
his  Majesty's  said  territories,  and  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
said  teiritories  of  the  United  States.' 

"  Each  of  these  projets  contains  the  same  proviso  :  '  That  noth 
ing  in  the  present  article  shall  be  construed  to  extend  to  the  north 
west  coast  of  America,  or  to  the  territories  belonging  to,  or  claimed 
by,  either  party  on  the  continent  of  America  west  of  the  Stony 
Mountains.' 

"  The  senator  exclaims  triumphantly,  c  Here  is  concurrence  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  commissaries  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht!' 
'  Here  is  submission  to  that  treaty  on  the  part  of  the  British ! '  &c. 

"  In  the  first  place,  sir,  allow  me  to  remark,  that  this  was  a  mere 
projet)  and  that  no  treaty  was  made  on  the  subject  till  eleven 
years  afterwards,  in  1818.  Now,  what  is  meant  by  '  concurrence ' 
here  ?  If  accidental  coincidence,  the  matter  is  not  worthy  of  fur 
ther  inquiry.  But  if,  by  '  concurrence,'  is  meant  that  this  line 
was  actually  established  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  thus  bind 
ing  on  the  parties,  no  other  convention  was  necessary.  Both 
nations,  upon  this  assumption,  mistook  their  own  rights  and  their 
duties.  The  boundary  had  been  established  a  century  before,  and 
they  were  carrying  on  a  useless  and  barren  negotiation,  which  was  . 
thus  blindly  and  unnecessarily  ripened  into  a  treaty  in  171 8.  But, 
sir,  the  senator  proceeds  to  ask,  what  Mr.  Jefferson  did  with  this 
projet,  and  adds  that  he  rejected  it.  And  why,  sir  ?  The  letter 
37 


578  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

from  Mr.  Madison  to  Messrs.  Monroe  and  Pinkney,  dated  July 
30th,  1807,  states  : 

" '  The  modification  of  the  fifth  article  (noted  as  one  which  the 
British  commissioners  would  have  agreed  to)  may  be  admitted  in 
case  that  proposed  by  you  to  them  be  not  attainable.  But  it  is 
much  to  be  wished  and  pressed,  though  not  made  an  ultimatum, 
that  the  proviso  to  both  should  be  omitted.  This  is,  in  no  view 
whatever,  necessary,  and  can  have  little  other  effect  than  as  an 
offensive  intimation  to  Spain  that  our  claims  extend  to  the  Pacific 
ocean.  However  reasonable  such  claims  may  be,  compared  with 
those  of  others,  it  is  impolitic,  especially  at  the  present  moment, 
to  strengthen  Spanish  jealousies  of  the  United  States,  which  it  is 
probably  an  object  with  Great  Britain  to  excite  by  the  clause  in 
question.' 

"Now,  sir,  Mr.  Jefferson's  object  was  not  to  offend  Spain,  and 
therefore  he  rejects  a  proviso  which  expressly  limits  our  claim  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  order  not  to  excite  the  jealousy  of  a 
most  jealous  nation,  by  even  the  appearance  of  interfering  with 
her  rights ;  and  yet  the  honorable  senator  supposes  that  this  very 
treaty,  without  the  proviso,  was  to  run  to  the  Pacific,  claiming;  for 
us  and  England  the  whole  country.  And  which  would  excite  the 
jealousy  of  Spain  most  —  to  say,  expressly,  the  American  govern 
ment  will  make  no  arrangement  with  that  of  England  for  pushing 
the  American  title  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  or  to  form  a 
treaty  actually  carrying  this  claim  there  without  regard  to  Span 
ish  rights?  It  is  obvious  to  me  that  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  believe 
in  the  English  title  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  far  as  the 
Pacific ;  and,  therefore,  making  a  treaty  with  that  power  for  the 
establishment  of  a  boundary  between  her  and  the  United  States 
would  not  justly  give  offense  to  Spain,  as  it  would  not  call  in 
question  Spanish  rights. 

"  The  honorable  gentleman  has  not  said  one  word  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  in  which  I  do  not  heartily  concur.  An  abler  or  a  purer 
statesman  is  rarely  to  be  found  in  history.  Time,  which  tries  the 
fame  of  all  men,  and  reduces  the  fame  of  most  men,  is  rendering: 

'  '  O 

.his  brighter  and  brighter;  and  we  have  scarcely  a  name  in  history 
—  certainly  but  one  —  which  is  more  revered  by  the  American 
people,  as  that  of  a  pure  patriot,  and  a  consummate  statesman. 
The  honorable  senator  will  please  to  recollect  that  this  projet  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  under  any  circumstances,  proves  nothing,  because : 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  579 

"  1.  It  was  never  carried  into  effect ; 

"  2.  It  was  before  the  Florida  treaty,  by  which  we  acquired  the 
Spanish  title ; 

"  3.  It  was  formed  under  the  impression,  now  shown  to  be  an 
erroneous  one,  that  the  parallel  of  49°  had  been  established,  under 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  as  the  northern  boundary  of  Louisiana, 
extending  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

"  But,  after  all,  our  rights  remain  as  they  were ;  and  the  opinions 
of  such  able  and  honest  men  as  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  and 
Mr.  Monroe,  whatever  those  opinions  may  have  been,  though 
entitled  to  very  grave  consideration,  still  leave  the  government 
perfectly  free  and  unembarrassed  by  a  projet  proposed  by  them, 
but  finally  abandoned.  Though,  upon  the  assumption  that  the 
northern  boundary  of  Louisiana  was  fixed  by  commissaries  under 
the  parallel  of  49°,  I  can  not  understand  why  the  parties  negoti 
ated  at  all ;  and  though  I  see  no  evidence  that  the  line  proposed 
was  intended  as  the  recognition  of  an  English  title  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  to  the  exclusion  of  Spain,  but  the  contrary, 
yet  I  have  such  an  abiding  confidence  in  each  of  those  statesmen, 
that  I  am  fully  satisfied  the  apparent  facts  within  their  reach 
justified  their  course,  whatever  that  was  intended  to  be." 

General  Cass  was  represented  to  hold  the  opinion  that  'the 
American  title  was  clear  and  indisputable  to  the  upper  parallel. 
Such,  at  no  stage  of  the  controversy,  was  his  position.  He  insisted 
that  the  British  claim  was  not  clearer  than  the  American.  He 
claimed,  that  the  title  of  the  United  States  to  the  49th  parallel 
was  unquestionable,  and  as  good  as  the  British  to  the  residue  of 
the  disputed  territory.  Mr.  Benton  assumed  as  his  premises,  that 
General  Cass  was  for  54°  40',  oi'jight,  which  was  true:  and  then, 
without  pausing  to  inquire  upon  what  basis  the  General  placed 
the  claim,  Mr.  Benton  assumed  that  the  senator  from  Michigan 
had  taken  upon  himself  to  demonstrate  the  validity  of  the  Amer 
ican  title  to  the  whole  of  the  territory.  This  was  a  mistaken 
assumption  by  the  senator  from  Missouri.  Unwittingly,  he  had 
taken  upon  himself  the  affirmative  of  the  issue.  It  was  for  him 
to  show,  not  simply  that  the  American  sovereignty  terminated  at 
the  parallel  of  49°,  but  the  onus  was  cast  upon  himself  to  show,  in 
addition,  that  the  British  title  was  good  from  54°  40'  to  49. 

Great  stress  was  placed,  by  the  advocates  of  the  British  preten 
sion,  upon  the  suppositions  acts  of  certain  commissaries  appointed 


580  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  to  settle  the  line  of  separation 
between  the  Hudson  Bay  territories  and  the  French  possessions. 
As  General  Cass  occupied  the  negative  of  the  issue,  he  could,  at 
best,  but  adduce  negative  evidence  to  rebut  this  pretension.  Such 
evidence  he  brought  forward  in  abundance.  It  was  the  only 
evidence  of  which  the  case  admitted,  and  was  equivalent  to  a 
positive  contradiction  of  the  hypothesis  that  any  settlement  of 
boundaries  was  made  or  projected  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht. 
All  the  works  —  relating  to  that  period  of  history  at  which  this 
settlement  of  the  northern  limit  of  Louisiana  was  said  to  have 
been  made,  and  in  which  a  record  or  notice  of  such  an  important 
transaction,  if  it  had  taken  place,  would  be  found — were  entirely 
and,  if  it  had  actually  occurred,  most  miraculously  silent,  with 
regard  to  any  decision  or  act  of  the  commissaries  on  this  point. 
Indeed,  upon  a  close  analysis  of  the  authorities  relied  upon  to 
bolster  up  this  British  claim,  they  were  found  to  be  mere  state 
ments  of  persons  unconnected  with  the  transactions  of  the  Utrecht 
treaty,  and  possessing  no  better  means,  as  far  as  known,  of  infor 
mation  respecting  them  than  other  people.  All  that  the  most  vivid 
imagination  could  claim,  or  the  most  liberal  charity  admit,  was, 
that  some  of  the  persons  alluded  to  supposed,  when  they  wrote 
their  works  or  made  their  maps,  that  the  parallel  of  49°  constituted 
the  northern  limit  of  Louisiana. 

General  Gass,  therefore,  very  properly,  in  his  reply,  proceeded 
to  say : 

"  Now,  sir,  I  shall  pursue  this  investigation  no  further.  I  have 
already  observed  that  whether  this  line  was  established  or  not  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  not  of  the  slightest  importance.  The 
position  that  I  occupied  in  my  speech,  and  that  I  occupy  now,  is 
this  :  It  is  contended  in  the  Senate,  and  out  of  it,  that  the  parallel 
of  49°  is  our  northern  boundary  in  the  territory  of  Oregon,  and 
that  it  was  assumed  as  such  by  our  government  in  the  early  part 
of  the  controversy,  and  so  maintained  for  some  years ;  and  that 
we  are,  therefore,  concluded  against  the  assertion  of  any  other 
boundary.  Now,  sir,  my  object  was,  to  show  that  no  such  line 
was  ever  established  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  the  Oregon 
country,  and  that  we  were,  therefore,  free  to  urge  our  pretensions, 
without  regard  to  this  statement,  or  to  the  acts  of  our  government 
founded  upon  an  erroneous  impression  that  the  line  of  49°  did 
extend  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  This  is  what  I  undertook  to  disprove, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  581 

and  nothing  but  this.  And  I  will  now  ask  the  honorable  senator 
from  Missouri,  if  he  believes  that  the  parallel  of  49°  was  ever  estab 
lished  by  commissaries  under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  as  a  boundary 
west  of  the  Kocky  Mountains  ?  I  will  wait  for  the  honorable 
gentleman's  reply." 

Here  Mr.  Cass  paused  for  a  short  time,  but  Mr.  Benton  not 
answering,  he  continued  : 

"  Well,  the  honorable  gentleman  does  not  answer  me.  If  he 
believed  the  line  run  there,  I  am  sure  he  would  say  so  ;  for,  if  it 
did  run  there,  we  are  forever  foreclosed  from  any  claim  under 
the  Louisiana  treaty,  and  the  force  of  the  honorable  gentleman's 
attack  upon  me  would  be  greatly  strengthened.  As  he  does  not 
answer,  I  shall  take  it  for  granted  that  he  believes  no  such  line 
was  ever  established  there.  And  if  the  fact  is  so,  my  object  is 
answered,  and  we  are  relieved  from  the  embarrassments  arising 
out  of  the  repeated  assertions  that  the  line  of  49°  is  our  northern 
boundary  in  the  territory  of  Oregon. 

"  This,  sir,  is  my  position.  How  different  it  is  from  the  position 
assigned  to  me  by  the  honorable  senator,  I  need  not  say.  I  trust 
I  have  redeemed  myself,  and  that  I  can  again  enter  into  the  con 
test,  a  free  man,  battling  for  the  full  rights  of  his  country  even 
to  54°  40f. 

"  There  is  one  point  to  which  I  beg  leave  to  advert.  The  hon 
orable  senator  has  given  me  a  fair  hit,  and  I  award  him  the  credit 
due  to  it.  In  my  remarks  the  other  day,  alluding  to  the  effect 
that  improper  persons,  i  minions,  and  favorites,  and  mistresses,' 
had  produced  upon  the  destinies  of  nations  by  the  exercise  of  an 
injurious  influence,  I  adverted  to  the  fact  of  the  offense  taken  by 
Mrs.  Mash  am  at  having  a  cup  of  tea  spilt  upon  her  silk  gown. 
The  incident  I  remembered,  and  its  influence  I  remembered,  but 
I  thought  it  had  been  exerted  to  produce  a  war,  whereas  the  hon 
orable  senator  has  corrected  me,  and  has  shown  that  it  was  exerted 
to  produce  peace.  It  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  looked  into  the 
English  history :  I  presume  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Mis 
souri  refreshed  his  recollection  last  evening. 

"  Mr.  BENTOX. — I  have  not  looked  at  it  for  forty  years. 

"  Mr.  CASS. — The  honorable  gentleman's  memory  is  then  better 
than  mine.  I  will  remark,  however,  that  the  incident,  even  as  it 
happened,  is  illustrative  of  the  general  position  I  assumed  ;  be 
cause  the  favorite  of  Queen  Anne  would  as  soon  have  brought 


582  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

about  a  war  as  a  peace,  had  the  former,  instead  of  the  latter,  been 
necessary  to  enable  her  to  vent  her  spleen  upon  the  Duchess  of 
Marlborough.  I  repeat,  the  correction  was  a  fair  hit,  and  the 
manner  entirely  unobjectionable.  I  shall  testify  my  acknowledg 
ment  by  putting  the  fact  right  in  my  printed  speech." 

In  the  meantime,  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  had  taken  up 
this  subject,  and  having  passed  a  resolution  of  a  similar  import, 
had  sent  the  same  to  the  Senate  for  its  concurrence.  Mr.  Allen, 
therefore,  on  the  sixteenth  of  April,  moved  that  the  resolution 
offered  by  him  under  debate,  with  the  amendments,  be  laid  on 
the  table,  with  the  view  of  taking  up  for  consideration  the  resolu 
tion  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  motion  was  agreed  to, 
and  the  Senate  proceeded  to  consider  the  House  resolution.  It 
was  amended  in  the  Senate,  by  prefixing  to  it  a  preamble,  and  by 
changing  it  from  a  peremptory  and  explicit  authority  to  the  Pres 
ident  to  terminate  the  convention,  to  a  discretionary  one.  The 
House  of  Representatives  did  not  concur  in  the  amendments. 
Committees  of  conference  were  appointed,  but  they  failed  to 
effect  an  agreement. 

In  the  following  month  of  May,  the  subject  of  extending  the 
jurisdiction  over  the  territory  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  being 
under  consideration  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Benton  again  opened  the 
question  of  the  title  of  the  United  States  to  the  Oregon  territory  ; 
and  in  the  course  of  his  speech  he  attempted  to  controvert  the 
statements  of  General  Cass,  formerly  made  in  regard  to  the  bound 
ary  line  running  along  the  parallel  of  54°  40'. 

In  reply,  General  Cass  addressed  the  Senate,  examining  and 
discussing  the  objections  raised  by  his  powerful  and  learned  an 
tagonist,  sustaining,  by  irrefragable  proofs,  the  correctness  of  his 
own  statements,  and  clearly  pointing  out  the  errors  of  his  opponent. 

A  treaty  was  made  between  the  two  governments,  with  the  view 
of  closing  this  controversy  about  Oregon,  and  the  question  of 
its  ratification  came  up  in  the  Senate,  in  secret  session,  in  July, 
1846.  General  Cass  was  opposed  to  its  ratification  without  modi 
fications.  By  this  treaty,  the  United  States  not  only  receded  to 
the  parallel  of  49°,  but  it  granted  rights  to  British  subjects  7° 
below  that,  which  General  Cass  deemed  incompatible  with  our 
national  honor.  He  therefore  opposed  the  ratification  in  an  able 
speech.  The  Senate,  by  resolution,  removed  the  veil  of  secresy, 
and  hence  the  propriety  of  making  this  statement. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  583 


CHAPTER  XXX1Y. 

National  Fortifications— Unsatisfactory  Relations  with  Great  Britain— War  with  Mexico— The  Three 
Million  Bill — The  Sabbath — General  Cass'  Views — "Wilmot  Proviso — President's  Recommendation 
—General  Cass  advocates  Appropriations— Extracts  from  his  Speech— For  Vigorous  Prosecution 
of  the  War. 

General  Cass,  foreseeing  the  approach  of  a  crisis  in  the  vexed 
questions  that  appeared  to  him  to  be  culminating  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and  looking  forward  to  the  con 
tingency  of  a  war  between  the  two  countries,  in  order  to  be  pre 
pared  for  that  emergency,  introduced,  prior  to  the  discussion  of 
the  Oregon  question,  for  the  consideration  of  the  Senate,  resolu 
tions  instructing  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  to  inquire  into 
the  condition  of  the  national  fortifications  and  of  their  armaments, 
and  whether  other  defensive  works  were  necessary  ;  and  also  into 
the  condition  and  quantity  of  the  military  supplies  ;  into  the  state 
of  the  means  possessed  by  the  government  for  the  defense  of  the 
country ;  and  also  instructing  the  Committee  on  the  Militia  to 
inquire  into  the  condition  of  that  great  arm  of  the  public  defense 
in  case  of  war  ;  and  that  they  be  further  instructed  to  report  such 
changes  in  the  system  then  existing,  as  would  give  more  experi 
ence  and  efficiency  to  it,  and  place  it  in  the  best  condition  for 
protecting  the  country  should  it  be  exposed  to  foreign  invasion  ; 
and  also  that  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  inquire  into  the  con 
dition  of  the  navy  of  the  United  States — into  the  quantity  and 
condition  of  the  naval  supplies  on  hand,  and  whether  an  increase 
of  them  was  not  necessary  to  the  efficient  operations  of  the  navy, 
and  to  its  preservation  and  augmentation,  and,  generally,  into 
its  capacity  for  defending  our  coast  and  our  commerce,  and  for 
any  service  the  exigencies  of  the  country  might  probably  require. 
He  advocated  them  at  length,  and  showed  the  necessity  of  their 
adoption.  They  were  unanimously  agreed  to. 

Before  Congress  rose,  a  subject  of  still  more  momentous  import 
ance,  as  it  turned  out,  was  brought  before  it.  And  that  was  war 
with  Mexico — actual  war.  After  Texas  was  annexed  to  the  United 


584 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


States,  a  question  arose  with  Mexico  respecting  the  boundary 
line.  Mr.  Polk,  with  the  view  of  repelling  any  invasion  from  that 
quarter,  in  the  summer  of  1845  ordered  troops  toward  the  Rio 
Grande,  with  General  Zachar.y  Taylor,  then  colonel,  in  command. 
He  was  ordered  there  to  observe  the  Mexicans,  and  defend  Amer 
ican  territory.  In  the  spring  of  1846,  Mexican  troops  crossed  the 
river  Rio  Grande,  and  a  collision  took  place,  and  American  blood 
was  shed  upon  American  soil.  The  President  communicated  this 
intelligence  to  Congress,  and  in  May  the  two  Houses  passed  a  reso 
lution  declaratory  of  war  then  existing  between  the  United  States 
and  Mexico,  and  measures  were  taken  to  enable  the  government 
to  act  as  well  on  the  offensive  as  the  defensive.  The  American 
army  crossed  the  boundary  line  of  the  two  republics,  and  carried 
the  stars  and  stripes  victoriously  into  the  heart  of  the  Mexican 
country.  The  President  did  not  wish  to  prolong  the  war,  and  as 
the  Mexican  treasury  was  impoverished,  he  proposed  to  Congress 
to  adopt  measures  to  enable  him  to  bring  it  to  a  speedy  termina 
tion.  Among  others,  he  asked  that  money  should  be  placed  at  his 
disposal.  As  the  boundary  line  was  the  chief  obstacle  to  peace, 
he  thought  that  an  adjustment  would  require  a  concession  on  the 
part  of  Mexico,  for  which  it  might  become  necessary  to  pay 
money,  as  an  equivalent.  For  the  purpose  indicated  by  the  Pres 
ident,  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
August,  1846,  placing  at  the  disposal  of  the  Executive  two  mil 
lions  of  dollars.  During  the  discussion  of  this  bill — which  was 
just  at  the  close  of  the  session — Mr.  Wilmot,  a  representative 
from  Pennsylvania,  offered  the  following  as  an  amendment  to 
the  bill  : 

"  Provided  that,  as  an  express,  and  fundamental  condition  to 
the'  acquisition  of  any  territory  from  the  Republic  of  Mexico  by 
the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  any  treaty  which  may  be  negotiated 
between  them,  and  to  the  use  by  the  Executive  of  the  moneys 
herein  appropriated,  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude 
shall  ever  exist  in  any  part  of  said  territory,  except  for  crime, 
whereof  the  party  shall  be  duly  convicted." 

This  is  the  famous  "Wilmot  Proviso,  as  it  is  called.  And  from 
this  point  of  time  and  place,  did  it  start  on  its  celebrated  pilgrim 
age  through  the  world.  It  was  first,  in  fact,  introduced  by  Mr. 
Winthrop,  a  representative  from  Massachusetts,  and  applied  to 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  585 

the  Oregon  bill.     But  then,  it  fell  still-born,  and  passed  out  of 
notice  until  again  brought  forth  by  Mr.  "Wilmot. 

The  bill,  to  which  it  was  now  appended,  passed  the  House  with 
this  amendment  as  a  rider,  on  the  eighth  of  August,  by  a  vote  of 
eighty-seven  in  the  affirmative  and  fifty-four  in  the  negative.  The 
bill  was  then  sent  to  the  Senate,  and  on  Monday,  the  tenth  of 
August,  was,  on  motion  of  Senator  Lewis,  of  Alabama,  taken  up 
for  consideration.  That  senator  moved  to  strike  out  the  amend 
ment  proviso.  This  motion  brought  on  a  debate.  Mr.  Davis,  a 
senator  from  Massachusetts,  spoke  against  time,  the  two  Houses 
having  agreed  to  adjourn  at  noon  of  that  day,  and  no  opportunity 
was  afforded  to  take  a  vote  on  this  bill  before  the  hour  of  the  final 
adjournment  of  Congress  arrived.  As  no  vote  was  taken,  it  is 
not  known  what  it  would  have  been,  if  time  had  been  afforded 
to  have  taken  it ;  but  in  secret  session,  before  the  introduction 
of  the  bill  in  the  House,  thirty-three  senators  approved  of  the 
appropriation. 

The  bill  reached  the  Senate  at  a  late  hour  in  the  evening  of 
Saturday,  the  eighth  of  August.  There  was  a  disposition  mani 
fested  among  the  friends  of  the  appropriation,  to  take  the  vote  at 
that  sitting,  even  if  it  was  necessary  to  prolong  that  day's  session 
through  the  ensuing  Sunday.  General  Cass  was  as  ready  and 
desirous  as  any  one  to  reach  a  final  vote,  but  he  was  unwilling  to 
trespass  upon  the  Sabbath.  Educated  in  the  tenets  of  the  Pres 
byterian  faith,  he  ever  has  endeavored  to  practice  them.  The 
observance  of  the  Sabbath,  in  his  estimation,  is  a  bright  star  in 
the  constellation  of  their  virtues.  The  blessing  of  the  seventh  day, 
to  keep  it  holy,  he  considers  a  wise,  social,  as  well  as  a  sacred 
institution.  What  we  may  do  at  any  time,  we  are  but  too  apt  to 
do  at  no  time.  In  his  view,  the  stated  observance  of  religious 
worship,  and  the  devotion  of  one  day  in  seven  to  God's  special 
service,  bring  our  duties  before  us  at  prescribed  periods,  and  make 
the  time  itself  a  part  of  the  obligation.  And  the  day,  thus  sanc 
tified,  is  also  a  day  of  rest — a  day  of  refuge  from  the  toils,  and 
troubles,  and  ceaseless  cares  of  life ;  spreading  its  happy  influ 
ence  over  the  whole  social  community,  it  brings  rest  to  the  weary, 
peace  to  the  troubled,  quiet  to  the  care-worn ;  it  shuts  out  earth 
and  the  things  of  earth,  and  carries  our  thoughts  far  away  to 
heaven  and  the  things  of  heaven.  Yital  religion  can  not  exist 
where  God's  day  becomes  man's  day,  desecrated  by  all  the  plea- 


586  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

sures  and  business  of  life.  So,  when  the  hand  of  the  Senate  clock 
proclaimed  it  was  midnight,  General  Cass,  as  is  his  custom  on  all 
similar  occasions,  retired  from  the  chamber.  He  will  not,  in  time 
of  peace,  sit  in  the  Senate  on  the  Sabbath,  nor  in  time  of  war, 
unless  necessary,  nor  willingly  even  then.  We  repeat,  he  is  a 
believer  in  the  divine  institution  of  the  Sabbath. 

At  the  subsequent  session  of  Congress,  the  President  renewed 
the  recommendation  of  his  special  message  of  the  previous  session. 
Action  thereon  was  had  in  Congress,  and  when  the  bill  making  a 
special  appropriation  of  three  millions  to  bring  the  war  with 
Mexico  to  a  speedy  and  honorable  conclusion,  came  up  for  con 
sideration  in  the  Senate,  General  Cass  supported  the  appropriation, 
and  in  the  course  of  his  speech,  on  the  tenth  of  February,  1847, 
reviewed  the  relations  between  the  two  countries,  the  peculiar 
character  of  the  war,  and  the  propriety  of  legislating  in  regard  to 
it,  as  recommended  by  the  President. 

We  make  the  following  extracts  : 

"  In  the  remarks  I  propose  to  submit,  Mr.  President.  I  shall 
invert  the  natural  order  of  arrangement.  I  intend  to  present  my 
views  of  the  causes  and  course  of  the  war  thus  far,  and  also  the 
reasons  which  will  induce  me  to  vote  for  the  appropriation  of  three 
millions  of  dollars  ;  to  which  I  shall  add  my  views  of  the  best 
mode  of  proceeding  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  I  shall  begin, 
however,  with  the  two  latter  subjects. 

"I  do  not  rise,  sir,  with  the  emotions  so  visibly  felt  and  so 
eloquently  described  by  the  distinguished  senator  from  South 
Carolina.  I  do  not  consider  this  country  or  its  institutions  in  the 
slightest  danger.  Kever  was  it  more  free,  powerful,  or  prosperous 
than  at  the  present  moment,  when  untimely  warnings  come  to 
assail  us.  The  public  sentinel  may  sleep  upon  his  watch-tower. 
In  the  distant  horizon  not  a  cloud  as  big  as  the  prophet's  hand,  is 
to  .be  seen,  which  is  to  overspread  the  heavens,  and  to  burst  in 
thunder  and  tempest  upon  us.  We  are,  indeed,  engaged  in  a  for 
eign  war,  which  demands  the  solicitude  of  every  good  citizen. 
But  the  scene  of  its  operations  is  two  thousand  miles  distant; 
and,  come  the  worst  that  may,  we  can  at  any  time  withdraw  into 
our  own  country.  Disgraceful,  indeed,  would  be  such  a  move 
ment  ;  but  it  would  be  still  better  than  the  evils  predicted,  and 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  apprehensions  expressed,  it  would 
terminate  the  danger. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  587 

"  Mr.  President,  it  gives  me  great  pain  to  bear  any  allusions  to 
the  dissolution  of  this  Confederacy ;  and  of  all  the  places  in  this 
Eepublic,  this  high  place  is  the  last  in  which  they  should  be  ex 
pressed.  The  Constitution  is  in  no  danger.  It  has  survived  many 
a  shock,  and  it  will  survive  many  more.  There  are  those  now  in 
the  Senate  —  and  I  am  among  them  —  who  were  born  before  it 
came  into  being. 

"  We  have  grown  with  our  growth  and  strengthened  with  our 
strength,  till  the  approach  of  physical  infirmities,  the  kindly  warn 
ings  of  nature,  bid  us  prepare  for  another  and  an  untried  world. 
And  the  Constitution,  too,  has  grown  with  its  growth  and  strength 
ened  with  its  strength,  till  from  three  millions  it  governs  twenty 
millions  of  people,  and  has  made  them  the  happiest  community 
upon  the  face  of  the  globe.  But  it  is  yet  fresh  in  its  strength. 
~No  infirmity  has  come  to  tell  us  that  its  dissolution  is  near.  It  is 
no  longer  an  experiment,  but  experience ;  no  longer  a  promise, 
but  performance.  It  has  fulfilled  all,  and  more  than  all.  its  most 
sanguine  advocates  dared  predict.  It  is  at  this  moment  stronger 
in  the  affections  of  the  American  people  than  at  any  other  period 
of  its  existence.  Like  the  cliff  of  eternal  granite  which  overlooks 
the  ocean,  and  drives  back  the  ceaseless  waves  that  assail  its  base, 
so  will  this  Constitution  resist  the  assaults  that  may  be  made  upon 
it,  come  how,  or  when,  or  whence  they  may.  In  the  providence 
of  God,  no  such  lot  as  ours  was  ever  conferred  upon  a  people. 
"What  we  have  been  and  are,  the  past  and  the  present  have  told, 
and  are  telling  us.  What  we  are  to  be,  the  future  will  tell  to  those 
who  are  to  come  after  us,  to  their  joy  or  sorrow,  as  we  cherish  or 
reject  the  blessings  we  enjoy.  If  we  are  not  struck  with  judicial 
blindness,  as  were  God's  chosen  people  of  old,  and  punished  for 
national  offenses  by  national  punishments,  we  shall  cling  to  this 
Constitution  as  the  mariner  clings  to  the  last  plank  when  night 
and  the  tempest  close  around  him ;  and  we  shall  cling  to  it  the 
stronger  as  the  danger  is  greater. 

"  Mr.  President,  I  shall  not  touch  any  of  the  topics  before  us, 
as  a  sectional  man.  I  view  them  and  shall  present  them  as  an 
American  citizen,  looking  to  the  honor  and  interests  of  his  coun 
try,  and  of  his  whole  country.  In  these  great  questions  of  national 
bearing  I  acknowledge  no  geographical  claims.  What  is  best  for 
the  United  States  is  best  for  me,  and  in  that  spirit  alone  shall  I 
pursue  the  discussion. 


5S8  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  A  strong  desire  pervades  this  country  that  a  region  extending 
west  of  our  present  possessions  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  should  be  ac 
quired  and  become  part  of  our  confederacy.  The  attempt  to  pur 
chase  it  was  made  during  the  administration  of  General  Jackson, 
and  the  hope  of  succeeding  has  never  since  been  wholly  aban 
doned.  I  will  not  detain  the  Senate  by  spreading  out  the  resaons 
which  render  such  a  measure  desirable.  It  would  give  us  a  large 
territory,  a  great  deal  of  it  calculated  for  American  settlement  and 
cultivation,  and  it  would  connect  us  with  the  great  western  ocean, 
giving  us  a  front  along  its  shores  in  connection  with  Oregon  of, 
perhaps,  thirteen  or  fourteen  degrees  of  latitude.  It  would  give 
us  also  the  magnificent  bay  of  San  Francisco,  one  of  the  noblest 
anchorages  in  the  world,  capable  of  holding  all  the  navies  of  the 
earth  ;  and  from  its  commanding  position  controlling,  in  some 
measure,  the  trade  of  the  northern  Pacific.  But,  sir,  besides  these 
advantages,  commercial  and  geographical,  there  are  important 
political  considerations  which  point  to  extension  as  one  of  the 
great  measures  of  safety  for  our  institutions. 

"  In  Europe,  one  of  the  social  evils  is  concentration.  Men  are 
brought  too  much  and  kept  too  much  in  contact.  There  is  not 
room  for  expansion.  Minds  of  the  highest  order  are  pressed  down 
by  adverse  circumstances,  without  the  power  of  free  exertion. 
There  is  no  starting  point  for  them.  Hence  the  struggles  that 
are  ever  going  on  in  our  crowded  communities  ;  and  hence  the 
emeutes  which  disturb  and  alarm  the  governments  of  the  old  world, 
and  which  must  one  clay  or  other  shake  them  to  their  center. 
Questions  of  existence  are  involved  in  them,  as  well  as  questions 
of  freedom.  I  trust  we  are  far  removed  from  all  this  ;  but  to  re 
move  us  further  yet,  we  want  almost  unlimited  power  of  expan 
sion.  That  is  our  safety-valve.  The  mightiest  intellects  which, 
when  compressed  in  thronged  cities  and  hopeless  of  their  future, 
are  ready  to  break  the  barriers  around  them  the  moment  they  en 
ter  the  new  world  of  the  west,  feel  their  freedom,  and  turn  their 
energies  to  contend  with  the  works  of  creation  ;  converting  the 
woods  and  the  forests  into  towns,  and  villages,  and  cultivated 
fields,  and  extending  the  dominion  of  civilization  and  improvement 
over  the  domain  of  nature.  This  process  has  been  going  on  since 
the  first  settlement  of  our  country;  and  while  it  continues,  what 
ever  other  evils  betide  us,  we  shall  be  free  from  the  evils  of  a  dense 


OF  LEWIS  CASS  589 

population  with  scanty  means  of  subsistence,  and  with  no  hope  of 
advancement. 

"  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  has  presented  some  views  of 
our  augmenting  population  as  true  as  they  are  striking.  At  the 
commencement  of  his  life  and  of  mine,  this  country  contained 
three  millions  of  inhabitants,  giving  a  rate  of  increase  which 
doubles  our  numbers  every  twenty-two  years.  There  are  those 
yet  living  who  will  live  to  see  our  confederacy  numbering  a  pop 
ulation  equal  to  the  Chinese  empire.  This  stupendous  progress 
outstrips  the  imagination.  The  mind  can  not  keep  up  with  the 
fact;  it  toils  after  it  in  vain.  And  as  we  increase  in  numbers  and 
extend  in  space,  our  power  of  communication  is  still  more  aug 
mented.  The  telegraph  has  come  with  its  wonderful  process  to 
bind  still  closer  the  portions  of  this  empire  as  these  recede  from  its 
capital.  It  is  the  most  admirable  invention  of  modern  days.  We 
can  now  answer  the  sublime  interrogatory  put  to  Job:  'Canst 
thou  send  lightnings,  that  they  may  go,  and  say  unto  thee,  Here 
we  are  ! '  Yes,  the  coruscations  of  heaven  man  has  reduced  to 
obedience,  and  they  say  unto  him,  Here  we  are.  It  is  yet  in  its 
infancy,  an  experiment  rather  than  an  arrangement.  Who  can 
tell  where  future  improvements  may  conduct  it,  or  what  sway  it 
may  hereafter  exercise  over  the  social  and  political  condition  of 
the  world  ?  what  people  it  may  bring  together  and  keep  toge 
ther  by  the  power  of  instantaneous  communication  ?  or  how  the 
events  of  distant  nations,  told  almost  to  the  other  side  of  the  globe 
the  very  moment  of  their  occurrence,  may  affect  the  future  destiny 
of  mankind  ?  I  have  been  industriously  engaged  seventeen  days 
in  coming  from  Detroit  to  Washington,  and  the  journey  between 
here  and  Baltimore  once  cost  me  two  days.  We  have  now  a  pro 
cess  within  our  reach  by  which  we  can  send  to  California  and 
receive  answers  from  there  more  than  twenty  times  a  day.  I  shall 
not  pursue  these  investigations;  they  are  sufficiently  obvious  in 
their  general  bearing,  though  the  practical  result  of  this  great 
measure  is  beyond  the  reach  of  human  vision. 

"  We  are  at  war  with  Mexico,  brought  on  by  her  injustice.  Be 
fore  peace  is  established  we  have  a  right  to  require  a  reasonable 
indemnity,  either  pecuniary  or  territorial,  or  both,  for  the  injuries 
we  have  sustained.  Such  a  compensation  is  just  in  itself,  and  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  usages  of  nations.  One  memorable 
proof  of  this  has  passed  in  our  own  times.  When  the  allies 


590  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

entered  Paris  after  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon,  they  compelled  the 
French  government  to  pay  them  an  indemnity  of  1500,000,000 
francs,  equal  to  $300,000,000.  In  the  condition  of  Mexico  there 
is  no  disposition  in  this  country  to  ask  of  her  an  unreasonable 
sacrifice.  On  the  contrary,  the  wish  is  everywhere  prevalent,  and 
I  am  sure  the  government  participate  in  it,  that  we  should  demand 
less  than  we  are  entitled  to.  No  one  proposes  a  rigid  standard 
by  which  the  indemnity  shall  be  measured.  But  there  are  certain 
territorial  acquisitions  which  are  important  to  us,  and  whose  ses 
sion  can,  not  injure  Mexico,  as  she  never  can  hold  them  perma 
nently.  We  are  willing  after  settling  the  indemnity  satisfactorily, 
to  pay  the  excess  in  money.  The  senator  from  South  Carolina  has 
stated  the  proposition  very  distinctly:  '  any  excess  on  our  part  we 
are  willing  to  meet,  as  we  ought,  by  the  necessary  payment  to 
Mexico.' 

"  Information  received  by  the  President  during  the  last  session 
of  Congress,  induced  him  to  believe  that  if  an  appropriation  for 
this  purpose  were  made,  the  difficulties  between  the  two  countries 
might  soon  be  terminated  by  an  amicable  arrangement.  A  pro 
position  for  that  purpose  was  submitted  to  us  in  secret  session, 
debated  and  approved  by  this  Senate.  It  was  then  introduced 
into  the  Legislature  with  open  doors,  passed  the  House  of  Kepre- 
sentatives,  and  came  to  us.  Here  it  was  discussed  until  the  stroke 
of  the  clock,  when  the  hand  on  the  dial-plate,  pointed  to  twelve, 
struck  its  funeral  knell.  In  his  message  at  the  commencement  of 
this  Congress,  the  President  renewed  his  suggestion,  and  the 
whole  matter  is  now  before  us.  Such  is  its  history. 

"  It  is  now  objected  to  as  an  immoral  proposition,  a  kind  of 
bribery,  either  of  the  government  of  Mexico  or  of  its  commanding 
General ;  and  the  honorable  senator  from  Maryland,  who  is  not 
now  in  his  seat,  said  emphatically  and  solemnly,  '  that  this  project 
of  terminating  the  war  by  dismembering  a  sister  republic,  is  so 
revolting  to  my  moral  sense  of  propriety,  honor,  and  justice,  that 
I  should  see  my  arms  palsied  by  my  side  rather  than  agree  to  it.' 
The  '  dismemberment'  of  which  the  honorable  gentleman  speaks 
is  previously  defined  by  himself  That  is  the  term  he  gives  the 
acquisition,  but  I  call  it  purchase.  He  says  the  money  will  go  to 
Santa  Anna  and  pay  the  army,  which  will  thus  be  secured,  and 
the  poor  '  down-trodden'  people  be  transferred  to  this  country  '  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  591 

spite  of  themselves,'  in  consequence  of  this  c  pouring  of  gifts  into 
the  hands  of  their  tyrants.' 

"  Now,  sir,  there  is  no  such  proposition,  as  I  understand  it,  nor 
anything  like  it.  The  object  of  the  President  has  been  distinctly 
stated  by  himself.  It  is  to  have  the  money  ready,  and,  if  a  satis 
factory  treaty  is  signed  and  ratified,  then  to  make  a  payment  into 
the  treasury  of  Mexico,  which  will  be  disposed  of  by  the  govern 
ment  of  that  country  agreeably  to  its  own  laws.  The  propositions, 
both  at  the  last  session  of  Congress  and  at  this,  were  identical. 
The  difference  in  the  phraseology  of  the  appropriation  has  been 
satisfactorily  explained  by  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations,  and  seems  to  me  of  very  little  consequence. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  not  a  subject  which  can  produce  of  itself 
any  practical  difficulty;  for  if  there  is  any  member  of  the  Senate 
who  is  willing  to  vote  for  the  appropriation  in  the  form  in  which 
it  was  presented  last  year,  and  is  unwilling  to  vote  for  it  in  this, 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  will  cheerfully  assent  to  the 
substitution  of  the  latter  for  the  former.  '  The  principle  is  wrong,' 
says  the  honorable  senator  from  Maryland  ;  but,  in  my  view,  the 
principle  of  this  appropriation,  and  of  the  other  appropriation,  is 
precisely  the  same.  And  yet  the  honorable  senator  from  Mary 
land  voted  for  the  former  while  he  reprobates  the  present,  and  a 
number  of  senators,  on  the  other  side  of  the  chamber,  voted  the 
last  session  in  the  same  manner.  If  the  proposition  was  bribery 
or  unprincipled  then,  it  seems  to  me  it  must  be  so  now.  Expe 
diency  may  change  with  time,  but  right  and  wrong  undergo  no 
change." 

It  is  but  an  act  of  justice  to  state  that  the  senator  from  Mary 
land  referred  to  was  not  in  his  seat.  General  C.'s  remarks  are  here 
given  as  they  were  delivered.  The  colleague  of  Mr.  Johnson, 
however,  Mr.Pearce,  as  soon  as  General  Cass  had  concluded,  stated 
that  his  colleague  had  been  misunderstood,  and  that  the  proposed 
appropriation  of  last  year,  and  the  appropriation  of  this^year,  were 
so  widely  different  in  their  phraseology  as  to  render  it  perfectly 
consistent  to  vote  for  the  one  and  to  reject  the  other.  General 
Cass  continued  : 

"  As  to  the  idea  that  such  an  arrangement  is  something  like 
bribery,  it  seems  to  me  it  will  not  bear  the  slightest  investigation. 
A  strange  kind  of  bribery  this  !  The  appropriation  called  for  was 
preceded  by  a  message  from  the  President  to  the  Senate  in  secret 


592  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

session.  It  was  then  received  in  both  Houses,  and  the  doors  thrown 
open.  It  was  discussed  fully,  not  to  say  warmly,  and  was  finally 
lost  by  the  lapse  of  time.  In  secret  session  thirty-three  senators 
voted  for  it.  It  again  takes  a  prominent  place  in  the  President's 
message  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  session  of  Congress. 
It  has  been  before  us  between  two  and  three  months,  and  has  been 
borne  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind  to  the  remotest  portions  of  our 
country.  It  entered  Mexico  long  ago,  and  has  been  proclaimed 
upon  every  house-top  in  town  and  country.  It  is  known  to  every 
citizen  of  that  republic  who  knows  anything  of  political  affairs, 
whether  the  blood  in  his  veins  is  Castilian,  or  Moorish,  or  Aztec. 
It  has  passed  to  Europe,  and  received  the  condemnation  of  many 
of  its  journals.  Had  it  been  approved  there,  I  should  doubt  its 
policy  or  its  justice.  And,  for  aught  I  know,  it  is  traveling  along 
the  canals  of  the  Celestial  Empire.  I  repeat,  a  strange  kind  of 
bribery  this  !  That  is  an  offense  which  does  its  work  in  secret ; 
this  is  a  proposition  made  by  one  nation  to  another,  in  the  face 
of  the  world.  It  is  not  to  enable  Mexico  to  carry  on  the  war,  as 
an  honorable  senator  seems  to  suppose,  for  it  is  not  to  be  paid  till 
the  war  is  over." 

Mr.  MOREHEAD  inquired,  if  the  honorable  senator  considered 
the  present  proposition  as  confining  the  President,  in  the  disburse 
ment  of  the  money,  to  the  purposes  to  be  specified  in  the  treaty, 
as  the  resolution  of  the  last  session  did  ? 

General  CASS  said  that  his  understanding  of  the  proposition  was, 
that  the  money  was  not  to  be  paid  until  a  treaty  was  agreed  upon. 
The  payment  was  not  to  precede  the  treaty,  but  to  follow  it. 

Mr.  WEBSTER,  (rising.) — Will  the  honorable  senator  allow 
me — 

Mr.  CASS. — I  will  hear  you  with  pleasure,  but  I  can  not 
answer  any  more  questions.  I  have  said  that  no  money  is  to  be 
paid  until  a  treaty  is  ratified. 

Mr.  WEBSTER. — I  was  merely  going  to  remark  that  this  is  the 
very  turning  point. 

Mr.  CASS. — I  will  sit  down  and  hear  the  honorable  senator,  but 
he  must  not  ask  me  any  questions.  If  he  does,  I  shall  not  answer 
them  till  I  have  concluded  my  remarks. 

Mr.  WEBSTER  resumed  his  seat. 

General  C.  continued : 

"  The  whole  proposition  results  from  the  peculiar  condition  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  593 

Mexico.  Her  government  is  ephemeral.  Its  members  are  born 
in  the  morning  and  die  in  the  evening.  Administrations  succeed 
one  another,  like  the  scenes  of  a  theater  rather  than  the  events  of 
life,  and  still  less  of  events  in  the  life  of  a  nation.  The  rulers  do 
not  dare  to  do  justice  in  such  a  case  as  this.  It  might  cost  them 
their  places,  to  which  they  hold  on  as  tenaciously  as  though  their 
tenure  was  a  secure  one.  There  is  a  strong  excitement  in  that 
country  against  us.  Nothing  shows  this  more  distinctly  than  the 
scene  which  lately  passed  there,  when  their  President  swore  that 
the  nation  would  never  yield  one  inch  of  its  territory,  nor  make 
peace  with  the  invader,  till  his  foot  was  off  its  soil.  A  dangerous 
resolution  to  be  thus  publicly  proclaimed,  and  one  more  easily 
proclaimed  than  kept!  The  sublime  and  the  ridiculous  may  so 
easily  touch,  that  nations  should  be  chary  of  such  exhibitions, 
which  may  belong  to  the  domain  of  the  one  or  of  the  other,  as 
subsequent  circumstances  stamp  their  character.  Whatever  judg 
ment,  however,  history  may  pronounce  upon  this  ceremony  in 
Mexico,  it  is  significant  enough  of  the  disposition  of  the  people 
towards  us.  Hence  the  difficulty  of  the  government  is  increased, 
and  hence  the  necessity  of  their  strengthening  themselves.  Their 
revenues  are  drying  up.  They  are  always  in  debt  in  all  their 
departments,  civil  and  military.  By  a  prompt  payment  into  their 
treasury  upon  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  the  government  will 
be  enabled  to  satisfy  the  most  pressing  demands,  and  thus  to  do 
an  act  of  justice  at  home  which  will  counteract  any  ill  effects  of 
an  act  of  justice  abroad.  And  this  is  the  very  point  of  the  whole 
matter.  We  may  thus  tempt  them  to  do  right,  while  so  many 
other  strong  circumstances  tempt  them  to  do  wrong.  As  to  the 
application  of  this  money  after  it  reaches  the  treasury  of  Mexico, 
it  is  no  question  of  ours,  any  more  than  was  the  application  of  the 
consideration  money  paid  to  France  and  Spain  for  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana  and  of  Florida.  We  can  not  follow  it,  and  it  must 
take  its  fate  with  the  other  resources  of  the  country.  It  has  one 
advantage,  however,  and  that  is  its  publicity.  If  the  silver  and 
gold  were  carried  by  wagons  to  the  palace  of  the  government,  the 
transaction  could  have  no  more  publicity  than  it  has  now;  and 
this  throws  upon  the  authorities  a  much  graver  responsibility  than 
do  the  ordinary  payments,  and  one  less  likely  to  be  abused.  If 
all  this  is  bribery,  I  am  fully  prepared  to  take  my  share  in  the 
38 


594  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

guilt  of  it.     If  it  is  bribery,  let  the  honest  governments  of  Europe 
make  the  most  of  it. 

"  As  to  the  comparison,  instituted  by  the  honorable  senator  from 
Maryland,  between  this  act  and  an  attempt  of  the  Mexican  gov 
ernment  to  bribe  General  Taylor,  it  certainly  gives  me  very  little 
trouble.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  Santa  Anna  as  the  general 
of  an  army;  we  deal  with  the  government  of  Mexico.  The  very 
authority  that  makes  the  treaty  is  the  authority  to  which  the  pay 
ment  is  to  be  made.  If  General  Taylor  were  the  American  gov 
ernment,  and  had  power  to  cede  away  a  portion  of  the  American 
territory,  the  analogy  would  then  exist  in  fact,  as  it  now  exists  but 
in  fancy.  And  this  obvious  consideration  answers  all  the  objec 
tions  presented  by  the  senator,  when  he  expresses  such  an  appre 
hension  that  the  money  would  slip  from  our  fingers  before  we 
secured  a  consideration.  Not  a  dollar  is  to  be  paid  till  the  treaty 
is  ratified,  and  the  country  thus  made  ours. 

"  Passing  now,  sir,  from  the  consideration  of  this  subject  to  the 
course  before  us,  I  would  observe  that  there  are  but  three  plans  of 
operation  by  which  we  can  escape  from  the  difficulties  of  our 
position. 

"The  first  is  an  abandonment  of  the  war,  and  an  inglorious  return 
to  our  own  country. 

"The  second  is  the  establishment  of  a  line  over  such  a  portion 
of  the  enemy's  territory  as  we  think  proper,  and  holding  the  coun 
try  on  this  side  of  it  without  any  further  military  operations. 

"The  third  is  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  agreeably  to 
tlie  public  expectation  and  the  experience  of  the  world. 

"As  to  the  first,  sir,  I  do  not  place  it  in  the  category  of  things 
possible,  but  only  in  the  category  of  things  proposed  ;  and  I  cast 
it  from  me  with  contempt. 

"The  second,  sir,  is  a  very  different  proposition,  supported  by 
high  names,  civil  and  military,  and  was  yesterday  presented  to 
us,  with  great  power  of  argument  and  beauty  of  illustration,  by 
the  distinguished  senator  from  South  Carolina.  I  shall  state,  as 
succinctly  as  I  can,  the  reasons  which  induce  me  to  consider  this 
as  an  inexpedient,  not  to  say  an  impossible,  proposition. 

"  A  plan  of  operations  seeking  to  hold  a  portion  of  a  country, 
properly  guarded  by  fortresses,  and  furnished  with  the  necessary 
lines  of  communication,  and  seeking  to  do  this  without  publicly 
announcing  the  nature  of  the  plan,  and  the  determination  to 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  595 

adhere  to  it,  is  one  thing;  an  attempt  to  occupy  another  portion  of 
country,  open,  unfortified,  with  no  natural  boundaries,  and  pene 
trable  in  all  directions,  and  publicly  proclaiming  this  system  as 
an  invariable  one,  not  to  be  departed  from,  is  another,  and  quite 
a  different  thing.     From  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  following  the  boun 
daries  of  the  provinces  now  in  our  possession,  to  the  Pacific  ocean, 
is  but  little  short  of  two  thousand  miles.     Far  the  greater  portion 
of  it  is  open,  and  much  of  it  unoccupied.     Instead  of  any  lines  of 
communication,  natural  or  artificial,  where  it  must  necessarily  be 
crossed,  it  may  be  crossed  anywhere.     It  is  a  mere  paper  line — a 
descriptive  one.     For  hundreds  of  miles  on  each  side  of  a  great 
part  of  the  line,  the  country  is  the  same  ;  roamed  over  rather  than 
possessed  by  nomadic  tribes,  and  affording  subsistence  and  shelter 
to  the  beasts  of  the  earth.     If  you  assume  such  a  boundary,  you 
necessarily  place  yourself  upon  the  defensive.     You  must  establish 
troops  along  it,  and  these  must  be  scattered,  occupying  different 
positions.     Your  enemy  thus  acts  in  masses,  while  you  act  in  de 
tachments.     If  he  attack  you,  and  succeed,  you  are  destroyed.     If 
he  attack  you,  and  is  discomfited,  he  falls  back  behind  his  impen 
etrable  barrier.     A  snake,  clutched  by  an  eagle,  is  one  of  the 
emblems  of  the  armorial  bearings  of  Mexico.     If  this  plan  of 
fighting  to  an  air  line  is  adopted,  the  proud  bird  will  soon  be 
powerless,  and  the  reptile  will  coil  itself  up  to  strike  at  its  leisure 
and  its  pleasure.     In  such  a  state  of  offensive-defensive  warfare, 
the  enemy  chooses  his  time,  when  you  least  expect  him,  or  are 
least  able  to  resist  him.     He  gains  your  rear,  and  cuts  off'  your 
convoys  and  supplies,  and  thus  reduces  you  to  weakness  and  dis 
tress  ;  or  he  strikes  you  in  a  period  of  sickness,  in  a  climate  to 
which  you  are  unaccustomed,  and  whose  alternations  do  not  affect 
him.     You  can  not  pursue  him  into  his  country,  for  the  moment 
you  do  that  you  confess  the  folly  of  your  plan,  and  abandon  it 
forever.    If  you  cross  your  boundary,  you  must  cross  it  to  hold  on, 
and  then  you  have  a  new  boundary,  or,  in  other  words,  a  system 
of  unlimited  operations.     If  you  do  not  cross  to  hold  on,  what 
will  you  do?     Your  very  object  in  crossing  is  to  chastise  the 
enemy,  and  you  must  pursue  him  to  his  fortresses  and  capture 
them,  if  he  has  any ;  or  you  must  fight  him  in  the  open  field  and 
disperse  him.     I  repeat,  if  you  do  not  do  this,  you  may  as  well 
stop  at  your  boundary,  look  civilly  at  the  retiring  enemy,  take  off 


596  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

your  hats  and  say,  Good-bye,  gentlemen,  we  will  wait  till  you 
come  back  again.  The  riches  of  Croesus  would  melt  away  before 
such  a  system  of  fighting-no-fighting  ;  the  laurels  of  Napoleon 
would  wither  and  die  ;  no  exchequer  could  bear  the  expense  ;  no 
public  sentiment  the  dishonor.  There  is  but  one  such  campaign, 
sir,  recorded  in  all  history,  ancient  or  modern,  sacred  or  profane, 
true  or  fabulous,  and  that  is  the  campaign  of  Sisyphus.  It  was  an 
eternal  one.  Sanction  the  plan  proposed,  and  yours  will  be  eternal, 
too.  This  stone  will  never  be  rolled  to  the  top  of  the  mountain. 
It  would  be  a  never-ending,  ever-renewing  war.  The  distinguished 
senator  from  South  Carolina  thinks  that  four  regiments  and  three 
fortresses  along  this  line,  and  one  regiment  and  a  few  small  vessels 
for  California,  'would  be  ample  for  its  defense.'  The  line,  as 
described  by  himself,  is  this  :  '  Beginning  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
del  Norte  and  continuing  up  the  Paso  del  Norte,  or  southern 
boundary  of  New  Mexico,  which  nearly  coincide,  and  then  due 
west  to  the  Gulf  of  California,  striking  it,  according  to  the  maps 
before  us,  nearly  at  its  head.' 

"  Here,  sir,  is  a  line  across  the  continent  from  the  Gulf  of  Mex 
ico  to  the  Gulf  of  California ;  and  this  line  is  to  be  so  protected 
by  five  regiments,  three  fortresses  and  a  few  small  vessels,  as  to 
be  impervious  to  the  rancheros  and  other  light  troops  of  Mexico 
— the  best  and  most  indefatigable  horsemen,  perhaps,  in  the  world. 
I  have  enumerated  in  these  means  of  defense,  a  few  small  vessels, 
because  they  form  part  of  the  projet  of  the  honorable  senator. 
How  they  are  to  be  employed  in  defending  any  part  of  the  line,  as 
I  do  not  understand,  I  will  not  attempt  to  explain.  If  the  soldiers 
were  stationed  equidistant  upon  this  boundary  they  would  proba 
bly  be  a  mile  apart.  It  seems  to  me,  sir, — and  I  say  it  with  all 
respect — that  we  might  as  well  attempt  to  blockade  the  coast  of 
Europe  by  stationing  a  ship  in  the  middle  of  the  Atlantic.  As  to 
the  Eio  Grande,  it  is  no  defensive  line  at  all.  Rivers,  when  best 
guarded,  are  found  to  afford  very  insufficient  protection.  But  in 
the  great  country  south  and  west  of  us,  yet  in  a  state  of  nature,  or 
slowly  emerging  from  it,  streams  are  entitled  to  very  little  consid 
eration  in  defensive  operations.  Who  is  there  that  has  passed  his 
life  in  the  West,  and  has  not  crossed  them  a  hundred  times  by 
swimming,  in  canoes,  upon  logs,  upon  rafts,  and  upon  horses  ?  Is 
it  to  be  supposed  that  an  active  Mexican,  accustomed  to  the  woods 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  597 

from  his  infancy,  would  hesitate  to  dash  into  a  stream,  and  cross  it 
almost  as  readily  as  if  it  were  unbroken  ground  ? 

"  But  long  defensive  lines,  even  when  skillfully  constructed  and 
carefully  guarded,  are  but  feeble  laniers  against  courage  and  en 
terprise.  How  long  did  the  Roman  wall  keep  the  North  Britons 
out  of  England  ?  How  long  did  the  Grecian  wall  of  the  Lower 
Empire  keep  the  Turks  out  of  Constantinople,  and  the  horse-tails 
of  their  pashas  from  the  cathedral  of  Saint  Sophia?  And  the 
Chinese  wall — an  immense  labor  of  man — that,  too,  opened  to  the 
Tartars,  and  enabled  the  chief  of  roving  bands  to  ascend  the 
oldest  throne  in  the  world.  The  best  wall  a  country  can  have  is 
the  breasts  of  its  citizens,  free,  prosperous  and  united." 

General  Cass  proceeded  to  say  that  he  did  not  go  for  strength 
ening  the  war  power  because  he  wished  to  have  men  killed  or 
wounded  ;  but  to  enable  it  to  conquer  a  peace  in  the  shortest  space 
of  time  practicable.  This  was  the  publicly-proclaimed  policy  of 
the  administration.  It  was  no  secret. 

The  object  of  the  proposed  appropriation  was  to  put  peace,  if  it 
could  be  honorably  obtained,  at  the  disposal  of  the  President. 
The  amount  of  treasure  already  expended  by  the  United  States 
reached  a  large  figure.  The  Mexican  government,  it  was  well 
known,  was  impoverished,  and  its  finances  at  a  low  ebb.  It  was 
apparent,  hence,  to  the  most  superficial  observer,  that  if  a  negotia 
tion  was  at  any  time  opened,  its  continuance  would  be  unproduc 
tive  of  results  unless  some  inducement,  other  than  a  cessation  of 
hostilities,  could  be  presented  to  the  Mexican  authorities.  As  the 
Mexican  treasury  was  notoriously  bankrupt,  the  President  and  his 
confidential  advisers — and  no  occupant  of  the  Executive  chair 
ever  had  abler — were  well  satisfied  that  territory  would  constitute 
the  indemnity,  and  that  if  the  bones  of  the  Mexican  troops 
bleached  upon  all  the  hills  and  valleys,  and  every  Mexican  fortress 
was  taken,  still  there  would  be  no  formal,  authoritative  peace,  un 
less  the  Mexican  coffers  were,  at  least,  partially  replenished.  To 
be  prepared  for  such  an  emergency  was  the  sole  object  of  this 
measure.  But,  if  new  territory  was  acquired  by  treaty  in  these 
southern  latitudes,  the  opposition  party  in  Congress  wished  to  bar 
the  door,  in  advance,  to  the  further  extension  of  slavery.  That 
question,  and  all  other  questions  emanating  from  this  domestic 
institution  —  is  peculiarly  dear  to  the  southern  members  of  this 


598  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

confederacy  of  States — the  administration  and  its  friends  in  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress  desired,  for  the  present,  to  ignore.  This  was 
the  apple  of  discord,  and  pertinaciously  thrown  into  all  the  de 
bates.  General  Cass  deprecated  it.  He  viewed  the  honor  of  his 
country  as  paramount.  When  peace  prevailed  along  the  borders 
of  the  Eepublic,  he  would  meet  this  question  of  extension  and  act 
as  justice  and  patriotism  might  dictate.  He  did  not  even  stoop  to 
mention  the  topic,  much  less  to  discuss  it,  but  confined  his  remarks 
to  the  immediate  subject  under  consideration.  We  take  another 
extract : 

"  So  much  for  the  difficulties ;  now  for  the  results.  Let  me 
remark,  in  the  first  instance,  sir,  that  not  a  movement,  as  I  under 
stand,  relating  to  operations  on  the  northeast  frontier  of  Mexico, 
has  been  directed  from  the  seat  of  government,  which  has  not  met 
the  approbation  of  the  distinguished  officer  who  has  connected  his 
own  name  with  the  history  of  his  country  by  his  victories  in  the 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande.  So  much  is  due  to  himself  and  the  ad 
ministration.  His  own  movements  he  was  free  to  direct  and  con 
trol.  Immediately  after  the  declaration  of  war,  he  was  requested 
to  communicate  to  the  government  his  views  as  to  what  should  be 
the  future  operations  on  the  Kio  Grande,  and  the  movement  he 
proposed  to  make  before  the  rainy  season. 

"  General  Taylor,  in  answer,  stated  very  clearly  the  nature  of 
the  operations  which  should  take  place,  and  the  difficulties  attend 
ing  them,  resulting  principally  from  deficient  means  of  transpor 
tation,  and  from  a  want  of  breadstuffs.  Considering  the  distance 
from  Camargo  to  Mexico,  and  the  nature  of  the  country,  and  its 
want  of  resources,  he  looked  upon  that  line  of  operations  as  an 
impracticable  one.  He  was,  therefore,  of  opinion  that  operations 
upon  that  frontier  should  be  confined  to  cutting  off  the  northern 
provinces,  and,  in  that  point  of  view,  he  thought  the  expedition  to 
Chihuahua  of  great  importance.  He  says  he  has  abstained  from 
any  reference  to  movements  against  Tampico  or  Vera  Cruz,  be 
cause  the  yellow  fever  would  not  have  permitted  us  to  hold  either, 
and  he  deemed  it  best  to  undertake  no  movement  in  that  direction, 
at  that  season  of  the  year.  He  proposed  the  taking  of  Tampico 
when  the  season  should  favor,  which  would  not  be  until  November 
or  December.  So  far  as  I  have  been  permitted  to  see  the  corres 
pondence,  I  find  nothing  which  controls  the  discretion  of  General 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  599 

Taylor.  Views  are  indicated  and  suggestions  made,  and  very 
properly  made  ;  but  he  is  left  to  act  as  his  own  judgment  indi 
cates,  in  the  operations  intrusted  to  him.  And  it  is  but  an  act  of 
justice,  sir,  to  say,  that  the  instructions  of  the  "War  Department 
are  prepared  with  ability  and  a  wise  forecast,  creditable  to  the 
officer  at  the  head  of  it.  They  will  bear  the  test  of  the  severest 
scrutiny. 

"Three  columns  then,  sir,  moved  upon  Mexico.  One  under 
General  Taylor,  invading  its  north-eastern  frontier  ;  another  un 
der  General  Wool,  striking  at  the  provinces  higher  up  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  in  communication  with  the  preceding  column,  and 
subject  to  the  order  of  General  Taylor  ;  and  a  third  entered  J^ew 
Mexico  and  took  possession  of  its  capital,  Santa  Fe.  It  thence 
moved  on,  through  California  to  the  Pacific,  where  it  has  no  doubt 
arrived  ere  this  time,  and  where  it  will  eventually  put  itself  in 
communication  with  the  regiment  sent  by  sea  from  New  York, 
when  the  whole  force  will  unite  and  occupy  the  commanding 
points  of  the  country.  Our  flag  now  waves  upon  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific  as  well  as  upon  those  of  the  Atlantic ;  and  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Gulf  of  California,  a  distance,  following  the 
boundary  of  our  possessions,  of  almost  two  thousand  miles,  we 
have  overrun  and  occupied  the  enemy's  territory.  I  have  caused 
an  estimate  —  rather  a  vague  one,  indeed  —  to  be  made  of  the 
extent  of  country  belonging  to  Mexico  which  we  hold,  and  I  am 
informed  it  exceeds  six  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  while  the 
portion  yet  subject  to  the  Mexican  government  contains  but  about 
four  hundred  thousand  square  miles  ;  and  the  population"  of  the 
region  possessed  by  us  amounts  to  at  least  one  million  of  inhabi 
tants.  In  the  mean  time,  three  splendid  victories  have  been 
gained,  and  the  Mexican  coast  blockaded  and  almost  hermetically 
sealed ;  and  we  are  yet  in  the  ninth  month  of  the  war.  I  shall 
not  stop,  sir,  to  speak  of  the  results  in  terms  of  eulogy.  They 
need  no  such  tribute  from  me ;  they  speak  for  themselves,  and 
appeal  to  the  head  and  heart  of  every  American,  in  justification 
of  the  conduct  of  the  government  of  his  country,  and  the  armies 
sent  out  to  maintain  her  honor."  Looking  at  the  distance  and  the 
difficulties  of  the  operations,  to  do  this  required  energy." 

General  Cass  was  in  favor  of  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war. 
In  his  judgment,  that  was  the   course  to  pursue  to   save  the 


600  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

shedding  of  blood  and  the  loss  of  treasure,  and  to  bring  the  war  to  a 
speedy  and  successful  result.  Subsequent  events  showed  that  he 
was  right.  It  was  known  that  the  administration  consulted  him, 
in  advance,  relative  to  the  measures  to  be  brought  forward,  and 
consequently  his  action  was  at  all  times  regarded  with  interest. 
He  was  equal  to  the  emergency;  and  both  in  the  committee  rooms 
and  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  his  suggestions  were  heeded,  and, 
in  the  main,  followed  by  the  two  Houses. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  601 


CHAPTER  XXXY. 

Th«  Prospect  of  Peace  —  The  Three  Million  Bill  again  — Wilmot  Proviso  again  —  G  eneral  Casa  on  the 
Proviso — Peace  with  Mexico — The  Nicholson  Letter — Its  Effect  on  Public  Opinion.   ( 

With  the  success  of  the  war,  and  as  it  became  more  and  more 
evident  that  a  peace  would  le  conquered,  members  of  both  Houses 
of  Congress,  and  of  both  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  who 
could  not  brook  the  idea  of  an  extension  of  the  area  of  slave  ter 
ritory,  became  more  and  more  importunate  to  close  the  door  to 
such  extension  by  legislation.  Hence,  whenever  there  was  a  war 
or  peace  bill  up  for  consideration,  every  effort  was  made  to  em 
barrass  action,  by  urging  the  adoption  of  some  such  principle  as 
that  contained  in  Mr.  Wilmot's  proviso.  It  was  evident  enough, 
that  more  territory  would  be  obtained  upon  the  conclusion  of 
peace.  The  chances  that  such  additional  territory  would  be 
adopted  to  slave  labor  increased,  and  finally  resolutions  were,  from 
time  to  time,  offered,  declaratory  of  future  legislation  upon  this 
subject. 

At  the  thirtieth  Congress,  in  the  winter  of  1847,  in  pursuance 
of  the  President's  recommendation,  a  bill  was  introduced  appro 
priating  three  millions  of  dollars  to  enable  him  to  enter  into 
negotiations  for  the  restoration  of  peace  with  Mexico.  Mr.  Web 
ster  moved  the  proviso  as  an  amendment — in  other  words,  if  such 
negotiation  resulted  in  the  cession  of  more  territory  from  Mexico, 
it  should  forever  remain  free  from  slavery.  The  issue  presented 
was  war  or  the  proviso,  or  an  inglorious  peace  or  the  proviso. 
It  was  war  or  the  proviso,  because  southern  members  would  not 
vote  for  the  bill  with  the  proviso  as  a  rider  to  it.  It  was  an  in 
glorious  peace  or  the  proviso,  because  northern  members  would 
not  vote  for  the  bill  without  the  proviso.  Without  the  money,  it 
was  apparent  the  government  could  not  prevail  upon  Santa  Anna 
to  come  to  an  amicable  treaty,  for  his  people  would  not  sustain 
him.  He  would  continue  to  fight,  and  hold  his  ground  somewhere 
in  Mexico.  In  that  event,  it  would  be  necessary  for  the  United 


602  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

States  to  maintain,  at  great  cost  and  loss  of  life  from  disease  and 
battle,  a  large  army  in  that  distant  country,  or,  withdrawing  the 
troops,  relinquish  everything.  By  having  the  means  at  its  disposal 
to  replenish  Santa  Anna's  impoverished  treasury,  our  government 
could  not  only  adjust  the  line  of  boundary,  but  be  re-imbursed  its 
war  expenditures.  The  provisoists  and  the  anti-provisoists  were 
willing  to  vote  the  money  asked  for ;  and  probably,  it  is  true  to 
say,  that  both  desired  to  bring  the  war  to  an  honorable  termina 
tion.  But  the  question  of  extending  the  area  of  slavery,  or  con 
fining  it  within  its  then  present  limits,  was  paramount  to  all  other 
considerations.  General  Cass,  from  his  youth  up  to  manhood,  and 
to  the  age  of  three  score  and  upwards,  never  had  been  an  admirer 
of  slavery;  yet,  he  knew  too  well  the  rights  of  those  States  where 
it  existed,  and  the  advantages,  resulting  from  the  Union,  to  those 
States  where  it  did  not  exist,  ever  to  favor  any  agitation  of  the 
subject  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  It  was  a  subject  to  be  canvassed 
by  the  States  themselves,  where  the  institution  of  slavery  existed. 
They  were  the  sole  judges  of  what  it  was  their  interest  to  do.  Such 
was  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Jefferson  —  such  was  the  doctrine  of 
General  Jackson.  The  federal  Union  —  it  must  ~be  preserved, 
was  the  controlling  policy  of  both  these  distinguished  men ;  and 
having  all  along  subscribed  to  it,  General  Cass  was  content  to 
continue  it. 

But  now  this  embarrassing  subject  assumed  a  wider  scope.  The 
application  of  the  dominant  policy  to  new  territory — acquired  by 
common  effort,  common  treasure,  and  in  a  contest  where  the  blood 
of  all  sections  of  the  Union  had  been  shed  —  now  was  to  be  met 
and  disposed  of.  Abstractedly  considered,  no  northern  man 
wished  to  propagate  slavery,  and  General  Cass  was  among  the 
number.  He  would  vote  against  its  introduction  into  Michigan, 
if  proposed.  He  would  vote  against  its  introduction  into  any 
territory,  if  an  inhabitant  of  such  territory.  But  he  did  not  feel 
himself  called  upon  to  vote  for  others  upon  this  subject.  It  was 
a  State  institution.  So  it  had  been  always  treated  in  the  United 
States ;  so  he  proposed  to  treat  it  thereafter.  The  people,  in  their 
sovereign  capacity,  who  should  go  to  the  new  lands  acquired  from 
Mexico,  and  inhabit  it,  —  to  them  he  would  willingly  leave  all 
legislation  upon  this  vexed  subject.  These  views  he  had  expressed 
in  August,  1846,  to  various  persons,  in  his  private  conversation. 
In  March,  1847,  they  had  undergone  no  change. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  603 

The  three  million  bill  was  before  the  Senate,  and  Mr.  Webster's 
amendment.  From  the  feelings  manifested  by  a  large  number  of 
the  members  of  Congress,  he  believed  that  the  adoption  of  the 
proviso  would  be  detrimental  to  the  honorable  prosecution  of  the 
war :  and,  it  also  appeared  to  him,  that  the  whole  question  of  the 
prosecution  of  the  war  depended  upon  the  decision  in  regard  to 
the  proviso.  The  choice  presented  was,  the  proviso  or  the  war.  If 
the  former  should  be  adopted,  there  would  be  an  inglorious  ter 
mination  of  the  war.  The  honor  of  the  United  States  was  at  stake. 
He  felt  the  responsibility  of  his  position.  He  believed  that  public 
servants  would  be  held  to  a  strict  accountability,  who,  at  so  event 
ful  a  crisis,  should  sacrifice  that  honor  for  the  establishment  of  a 
principle  inopportune  and  inapplicable  to  the  important  subject 
under  consideration.  He  was  satisfied,  likewise,  that  public  opin 
ion  indicated  a  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  that  then 
was  not  the  time  for  the  agitation  of  a  question  involving  the  con 
tingency  of  a  domestic  dispute  :  a  question,  at  any  rate,  of  enough 
importance  of  itself,  under  any  circumstances,  to  receive  the  most 
mature  deliberation  of  Congress.  Six  out  of  eight  State  Legisla 
tures,  which  had  presented  their  views  to  Congress  on  the  subject 
of  the  acquisition  of  Mexican  territory,  and  the  extension  of 
slavery,  had  refrained  from  urging  upon  Congress  the  adoption 
of  the  proviso.  In  a  speech  of  weighty  argument,  General  Cass 
laid  before  the  Senate  his  views  on  this  question,  March  10th, 
1847,  which  he  closed  with  the  following  declaration  of  what 
would  be  his  action  upon  it. 

"  I  shall  vote  against  this  proviso,  because  : 

"  1.  The  present  is  no  proper  time  for  the  introduction  into  the 
country,  and  into  Congress,  of  an  exciting  topic,  tending  to  divide 
us,  when  our  united  exertions  are  necessary  to  prosecute  the 
existing  war. 

"  2.  It  will  be  quite  in  season  to  provide  for  the  government  of 
territory,  not  yet  acquired  from  foreign  countries,  after  we  shall 
have  obtained  it. 

"  3.  The  proviso  can  only  apply  to  British  and  Mexican  terri 
tories,  as  there  are  no  others  coterminous  to  us.  Its  phraseology 
would  reach  either,  though  its  application  is  pointed  to  Mexico. 
It  seems  to  me,  that  to  express  so  much  confidence  in  the  success 
ful  result  of  this  war,  as  to  legislate  at  this  time,  if  not  over  this 
anticipated  acquisition,  at  least  for  it,  and  to  lay  down  a  partial 


604  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

basis  for  its  government,  would  do  us  no  good  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  and  would  irritate,  still  more,  the  Mexican  people. 

"  4.  Legislation  now  would  be  wholly  inoperative,  because  no 
territory,  hereafter  to  be  acquired,  can  be  governed  without  an 
act  of  Congress  providing  for  its  government.  And  such  an  act, 
on  its  passage,  would  open  the  whole  subject,  and  would  leave  the 
Congress,  called  upon  to  pass  it,  free  to  exercise  its  own  discretion, 
entirely  uncontrolled  by  any  declaration  found  on  the  statute 
book. 

"  5.  There  is  great  reason  to  think  that  the  adoption  of  this 
proviso  would,  in  all  probability,  bring  the  war  to  an  untimely 
issue,  by  the  effect  it  would  have  on  future  operations. 

"  6.  Its  passage  would  certainly  prevent  the  acquisition  of  one 
foot  of  territory ;  thus  defeating  a  measure  called  for  by  a  vast 
majority  of  the  American  people,  and  defeating  it,  too,  by  the 
very  act  purporting  to  establish  a  partial  basis  for  its  government. 

"  The  progress  of  public  opinion  upon  the  question  of  the 
adoption  of  this  proviso,  as  the  circumstances  of  the  country  have 
become  more  and  more  difficult,  seems  to  me  to  indicate  very 
clearly,  that  since  its  introduction  at  the  past  session  of  Congress, 
the  conviction  has  been  gaining  ground  that  the  present  is  no  time 
for  the  agitation  of  this  subject ;  and  as  the  foreign  war  becomes 
more  embarrassing,  in  a  greater  degree  than  many  anticipated, 
it  is  best  to  avoid  a  domestic  dispute,  which  would  raise  bitter 
questions  at  home,  and  add  confidence  to  the  motives  for  resist 
ance  abroad.  And  certainly  the  fact  now  ascertained,  that  the 
war  would  be  put  to  hazard,  and  the  acquisition  of  territory  de 
feated,  by  the  adoption  of  this  proviso,  renders  it  impossible  for 
me  to  vote  for  it,  connected,  as  I  deem  both  of  these  objects,  with 
the  dearest  rights  and  honor  of  the  country. 

"  I  have  examined  the  resolutions  which  have  been  presented  to 
Congress  by  the  Legislatures  of  eight  of  the  States  upon  this  sub 
ject,  and  I  find  that  this  proviso  is  a  measure  perhaps  not  called 
for  by  any  of  them,  certainly  not  by  six  of  them,  and  that  its 
simple  adoption  at  this  time  will  leave  unattained  the  perma 
nent  objects  sought,  by  all  of  them.  The  views  expressed  are  as 
follows : 

"  By  the  Legislature  of  Vermont,  against  '  the  admission  into 
the  Federal  Union. of  any  new  State  whose  constitution  tolerates 
slavery,'  &c. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  605 

"  By  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire,  that  measures  should 
be  taken  for  the  extinction  of  slavery  '  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  ;  for  its  exclusion  from  Oregon  and  other  territories,  that  now, 
or  at  any  time  hereafter,  may  belong  to  the  United  States.' 

"  By  the  Legislature  of  Rhode  Island,  '  against  the  acquisition 
of  territory  by  conquest  or  otherwise,  beyond  the  present  limits 
of  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  therein 
slaveholding  States,'  &c. 

"  By  the  Legislature  of  New  York,  c  that  if  any  territory  is 
hereafter  acquired  by  the  United  States,  or  annexed  thereto,  the 
act  by  which  such  territory  is  acquired  or  annexed,  whatever  such 
act  may  be,  should  contain  an  unalterable  fundamental  article  or 
provision,  whereby  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a 
punishment  for  crime,  shall  be  forever  excluded  from  the  territory 
acquired  or  annexed.' 

"  By  the  Legislature  of  New  Jersey,  '  that  the  senators,  &c.,  be 
requested  to  use  their  best  efforts  to  secure  as  a  fundamental  pro 
vision  to,  or  proviso  in,  any  act  of  annexation  of  any  territory 
hereafter  to  be  acquired  by  the  United  States,  &c.,  that  slavery 
or  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  shall 
be  forever  excluded  from  the  territory  to  be  annexed.' 

"  By  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  '  against  any  measure 
whatever,  by  which  territory  will  accrue  to  the  Union,  unless  as  a 
part  of  the  fundamental  law,  upon  which  any  compact  or  treaty 
for  this  purpose  is  based,  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude,  except 
for  crime,  shall  be  forever  excluded.' 

cc  By  the  Legislature  of  Ohio,  for  '  the  passage  of  measures  in 
that  body,  (Congress,)  providing  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from 
the  territory  of  Oregon,  and  also  from  any  other  territory  that 
now  is,  or  hereafter  may  be,  annexed  to  the  United  States.' 

"  By  the  Legislature  of  Michigan,  ;  that  in  the  acquisition  of 
any  new  territory,  whether  by  purchase,  conquest,  or  otherwise, 
we  deem  it  the  duty  of  the  general  government  to  extend  over  the 
same  the  ordinance  of  1787,  with  all  its  rights  and  privileges, 
conditions  and  immunities.' 

"  Now,  sir,  it  is  obvious  that  these  resolutions,  either  by  their 
phraseology  or  by  their  object,  look  to  some  permanent  < provision] 
'fundamental  law]  '  article]  or  '  condition]  by  which  slavery 
should  be  forever  excluded  from  the  territory  in  question.  Six  of 
them  very  clearly  so.  Two  of  them,  however  —  those  of  New 


606  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Hampshire  and  Oliio — are  more  general,  and  this  proviso  would 
perhaps  meet  their  requisitions.  But  certain  it  is,  that  if  adopted 
to-day,  it  could  be  repealed  to-morrow,  and  that  it  is  destitute  of 
any  characteristic  of  permanence.  It  might  leave  as  little  durable 
impression  upon  the  statute  book  as  writing  upon  water,  which 
disappears  the  moment  it  is. traced  there." 

This  bold,  manly,  and  patriotic  stand  taken  by  General  Cass,  at 
a  critical  moment  in  the  progress  of  the  Mexican  war,  and  when 
he  could  not  have  divined  what  would  be  the  final  sentiment 
either  north  or  south,  east  or  west,  commends  itself  to  the  grateful 
remembrance  of  his  countrymen.  His  positions  were  broad,  in 
dependent,  and  unqualified.  His  country's  cause,  his  nation's 
honor,  the  rights  of  his  fellow-citizens  of  every  condition  and 
clime,  are  the  principles  he  asserts,  the  ground  he  occupied.  His 
views  of  government  were  liberal,  progressive,  and  thoroughly 
Democratic.  They  wrere  in  accordance  with  the  political  profes 
sions  of  his  entire  life.  The  Democratic  press  approved — Demo 
crats  in  conventions  in  every  quarter  of  the  country  approved. 
This  declaration  was  the  administration  platform  upon  this  subject. 
It  was  the  talisman  that  aroused  and  guided  the  Democracy  of 
the  Union. 

But  the  war  was  finally  brought  to  a  close.  Peace  once  more 
reigned  in  the  ascendant.  An  immense  region  of  country  was, 
sure  enough,  to  be  taken  from  the  republic  of  Mexico,  and  annex 
ed  to  the  United  States.  The  standard  of  our  country  waved  in 
triumph  in  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas,  and,  ere  long,  was  des 
tined  to  cover  the  coasts  of  the  Pacific,  and  the  mountains  and 
valleys  far  back  in  the  interior.  The  cry  of  No  more  slave  terri 
tory  !  now  rung  louder  than  ever.  The  demands  of  the  north  were 
renewed,  when  Congress  convened  in  December,  1847.  The 
southern  blood  was,  also,  up.  The  leading  men  of  the  country 
were  interrogated,  publicly  and  privately,  lis  to  their  views  and 
future  action.  And  all  this  was  proper.  It  was  right  that  the  subject 
of  the  extension  of  slavery  should  be  canvassed,  and  its  disturbing 
elements,  if  possible,  settled  ;  the  gcod  of  the  entire  Union  re 
quired  this.  Upon  what  principle  the  new  territory  should  be 
treated  ;  upon  what  basis  its  local  government  should  be  con 
structed  ;  and  how,  and  by  whom,  it  should  be  determined — these 
were  questions  demanding  the  calmest  consideration,  and  the 
brightest  and  most  patriotic  minds,  to  solve. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  607 

In  some  quarters,  the  principle  of  the  "Wilmot  Proviso  was 
regarded  as  dangerous  to  the  immediate  interests  of  a  portion  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  its  proposed  application 
subversive  of  their  rights  as  citizens  of  the  confederacy.  An  ex 
pression  of  opinion  from  the  eminent  men  of  the  nation  was 
solicited.  A.  O.  P.  Nicholson — a  distinguished  citizen  of  Tenn 
essee — had  requested  the  views  of  General  Cass,  in  a  private  letter, 
and  they  had  been  freely  given.  They  were  so  clearly  expressed, 
and  so  comprehensive — covering  the  whole  subject — that,  at  the 
urgent  request  of  a  number  of  leading  members  of  Congress,  who 
had  heard  of  the  letter,  General  Cass  consented  to  its  publication. 

This  letter  of  General  Cass  has  been  so  often  referred  to,  and 
commented  upon,  from  the  day  of  its  publication  to  the  present 
time  ;  it  has  become  celebrated  far  and  wide,  both  in  this  country 
and  Europe  ;  and  it  is  an  important  document  to  all  who  wish  to 
understand  the  views  of  its  distinguished  author,  as  expressed  by 
himself,  on  the  momentous  question  which  it  discusses,  it  is 
here  transcribed  from  the  original. 

"WASHINGTON,  December  24th,  1847. 

ACQUISITION  OF  MEXICAN  TEREITOEY  —  INDEMNITY.  —  "Dear 
Sir : — I  have  received  your  letter,  and  shall  answer  it  as  frankly 
as  it  is  written. 

"  You  ask  me  whether  I  am  in  favor  of  the  acquisition  of  Mex 
ican  territory,  and  wrhat  are  my  sentiments  wTith  regard  to  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  ? 

"  I  have  so  often  and  so  explicitly  stated  my  views  of  this  first 
question,  in  the  Senate,  that  it  seems  almost  unnecessary  to  repeat 
them  here.  As  you  request  it,  however,  I  shall  briefly  give  them. 

"  I  think,  then,  that  no  peace  should  be  granted  to  Mexico  till 
a  reasonable  indemnity  is  obtained  for  the  injuries  she  has  done 
us.  The  territorial  extent  of  this  indemnity  is,  in  the  first  instance, 
as  subject  of  Executive  consideration.  There  the  Constitution 
has  placed  it,  and  there  I  am  willing  to  leave  it ;  not  only  be 
cause  I  have  full  confidence  in  its  judicious  exercise,  but  because, 
in  the  ever-varying  circumstances  of  war,  it  would  be  indiscreet, 
by  a  public  declaration,  to  commit  the  country  to  any  line  of 
indemnity,  which  might  otherwise  be  enlarged,  as  the  obstinate 
injustice  of  the  enemy  prolongs  the  contest,  with  its  loss  of  blood 
and  treasure. 


608  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  It  appears  to  me,  that  the  kind  of  metaphysical  magnanimity 
which  would  reject  all  indemnity  at  the  close  of  a  bloody  and 
expensive  war,  brought  on  by  a  direct  attack  upon  our  troops  by 
the  enemy,  and  preceded  by  a  succession  of  unjust  acts  for  a 
series  of  years,  is  as  unworthy  of  the  age  in  which  we  live,  as  it 
is  revolting  to  the  common  sense  and  practice  of  mankind.  It 
would  conduce  but  little  to  our  future  security,  or  indeed  to  our 
present  reputation,  to  declare  that  we  repudiate  all  expectation 
of  compensation  from  the  Mexican  government,  and  are  fighting, 
not  for  any  practical  result,  but  for  some  vague,  perhaps  philan 
thropic  object,  which  escapes  my  penetration,  and  must  be  defined 
by  those  who  assume  this  new  principle  of  national  intercom 
munication.  All  wars  are  to  be  deprecated,  as  well  by  the  states 
man  as  by  the  philanthropist.  They  are  great  evils  ;  but  there 
are  greater  evils  than  these,  and  submission  to  injustice  is  among 
them.  The  nation  which  should  refuse  to  defend  its  rights  and 
its  honor,  when  assailed,  would  soon  have  neither  to  defend  ;  and 
when  driven  to  war,  it  is  not  by  professions  of  disinterestedness 
and  declarations  of  magnanimity  that  its  rational  objects  can  be 
obtained,  or  other  nations  taught  a  lesson  of  forbearance — the 
strongest  security  for  permanent  peace.  We  are  at  war  with 
Mexico,  and  its  vigorous  prosecution  is  the  surest  means  of  its 
speedy  termination,  and  ample  indemnity  the  surest  guarantee 
against  the  recurrence  of  such  injustice  as  provoked  it. 

THE  "WILMOT  PROVISO. — "The  Wilmot  Proviso  has  been  before 
the  country  some  time.  It  has  been  repeatedly  discussed  in 
Congress,  and  by  the  public  press.  I  am  strongly  impressed  with 
the  opinion  that  a  great  change  has  been  going  on  in  the  public 
mind  upon  this  subject — in  my  own  as  well  as  others  ;  and  that 
doubts  are  resolving  themselves  into  convictions,  that  the  princi 
ple  it  involves  should  be  kept  out  of  the  national  Legislature,  and 
left  to  the  people  of  the  confederacy  in  their  respective  local 
governments. 

"  The  whole  subject  is  a  comprehensive  one,  and  fruitful  of  im 
portant  consequences.  It  would  be  ill-timed  to  discuss  it  here.  I 
shall  not  assume  that  responsible  task,  but  shall  confine  myself  to 
such  general  views  as  are  necessary  to  the  fair  exhibition  of  my 
opinions. 

STATE  POWER  OYER  SLAVERY. — "We  may  well  regret  the  ex 
istence  of -slavery  in  the  southern  States,  and  wish  they  had  been 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  609 

saved  from  its  introduction.  But  there  it  is,  and  not  by  the  act 
of  the  present  generation  ;  and  we  must  deal  with  it  as  a  great 
practical  question,  involving  the  most  momentous  consequences. 
We  have  neither  the  right  nor  the  power  to  touch  it  where  it 
exists  ;  and  if  we  had  both,  their  exercise,  by  any  means  hereto 
fore  suggested,  might  lead  to  results  which  no  wise  man  would 
willingly  encounter,  and  which  no  good  man  could  contemplate 
without  anxiety. 

"The  theory  of  our  government  presupposes  that  its  various 
members  have  reserved  to  themselves  the  regulation  of  all  sub 
jects  relating  to  what  may  be  termed  their  internal  police.  They 
are  sovereign  within  their  boundaries,  except  in  those  cases  where 
they  have  surrendered  to  the  general  government  a  portion  of  their 
rights  in  order  to  give  effect  to  the  objects  of  the  Union,  whether 
these  concern  foreign  nations  or  the  several  States  themselves. 
Local  institutions,  if  I  may  so  speak,  whether  they  have  reference 
to  slavery  or  to  any  other  relations,  domestic  or  public,  are  left  to 
local  authority,  either  original  or  derivative.  Congress  has  no 
right  to  say  that  there  shall  be  slavery  in  New  York,  or  that 
there  shall  be  no  slavery  in  Georgia:  nor  is  there  any  human 
power  but  the  people  of  those  States  respectively,  which  can 
change  the  relations  existing  therein  ;  and  they  can  say,  if  they 
will,  We  will  have  slavery  in  the  former,  and  we  will  abolish  it 
in  the  latter. 

TERRITORIAL  POWER. — "  In  various  respects,  the  Territories  dif 
fer  from  the  States.  Some  of  their  rights  are  inchoate,  and  they  do 
not  possess  the  peculiar  attributes  of  sovereignty.  Their  relation 
to  the  general  government  is  very  imperfectly  defined  by  the  Con 
stitution,  and  it  will  be  found  upon  examination,  that  in  that 
instrument  the  only  grant  of  power  concerning  them,  is  conveyed 
in  the  phrase,  '  Congress  shall  have  the  power  to  dispose  of  and 
make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory 
and  other  property  belonging  to  the  United  States.'  Certainly 
this  phraseology  is  very  loose,  if  it  were  designed  to  include  in 
the  grant  the  whole  power  of  legislation  over  persons  as  well  as 
things.  The  expression,  the  '  territory  and  other  property,'  fairly 
construed,  relates  to  the  public  lands,  as  such,  to  arsenals,  dock 
yards,  forts,  ships,  and  all  the  various  kinds  of  property  which  the 
United  States  may  and  must  possess. 

"  But  surely  the  simple  authority,  to  dispose  of  and  regulate 
39 


610  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

these,  does  not  extend  to  the  unlimited  power  of  legislation ;  to 
the  passage  of  all  laws,  in  the  most  general  acceptation  of  the 
word,  which,  by  the  by,  is  carefully  excluded  from  the  sentence. 
And,  indeed,  if  this  were  so,  it  would  render  unnecessary  another 
provision  of  the  constitution,  which  grants  to  Congress  the  power 
to  legislate,  with  the  consent  of  the  States,  respectively,  over  all 
places  purchased  for  the  '  erection  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals, 
dock-yards,'  &c.  These  being  the  '  property '  of  the  United  States, 
if  the  power  to  make  'needful  rules  and  regulations  concerning' 
them  includes  the  general  power  of  legislation,  then  the  grant  of 
authority  to  regulate  '  the  territory  and  other  property  of  the 
United  States '  is  unlimited  wherever  subjects  are  found  for  its 
operation,  and  its  exercise  needed  no  auxiliary  provision.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  does  not  include  such  power  of  legislation  over 
the  '  other  property  '  of  the  United  States,  then  it  does  not  include 
it  over  their  '  territory  ';  for  the  same  terms  which  grant  the  one, 
grant  the  other.  'Territory'  is  here  classed  with  property,  and 
treated  as  such  ;  and  the  object  was  evidently  to  enable  the  gen 
eral  government,  as  a  property  holder — which,  from  necessity,  it 
must  be — to  manage,  preserve  and  '  dispose  of  such  property  as 
it  might  possess,  and  which  authority  is  essential  almost  to  its 
being.  But  the  lives  and  persons  of  our  citizens,  with  the  vast 
variety  of  objects  connected  with  them,  can  not  be  controlled  by 
an  authority  which  is  merely  called  into  existence  for  the  purpose 
of  making  rules  and  regulations  for  the  disposition  and  manage 
ment  of  property. 

TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENTS. — "  Such,  it  appears  to  me,  would  be 
the  construction  put  upon  this  provision  of  the  Constitution,  were 
this  question  now  first  presented  for  consideration,  and  not  con 
trolled  by  imperious  circumstances.  The  original  ordinance  of  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederation  passed  in  1787,  and  which  was  the 
only  act  upon  this  subject  in  force  at  the  adoption  of  the  Consti 
tution,  provided  a  complete  frame  of  government  for  the  country 
'  north  of  the  Ohio  while  in  a  territorial  condition,  and  for  its  even 
tual  admission  in  separate  States  into  the  Union.  And  the  per 
suasion  that  this  ordinance  contained  within  itself  all  the  necessary 
means  of  execution,  probably  prevented  any  direct  reference  to  the 
subject  in  the  Constitution,  farther  than  vesting  in  Congress  the 
right  to  admit  the  States  formed  under  it  into  the  Union.  How- 
;ever,  circumstances  arose  which  required  legislation,  as  well  over 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  611 

the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  as  over  other  territory,  both 
within  and  without  the  original  Union  ceded  to  the  general  gov 
ernment  ;  and  at  various  times  a  more  enlarged  power  has  been 
exercised  over  the  territories — meaning  thereby  the  different  ter 
ritorial  governments — than  is  conveyed  by  the  limited  grant 
referred  to.  How  far  an  existing  necessity  may  have  operated  in 
producing  this  legislation,  and  thus  extending  by  rather  a  violent 
implication  powers  not  directly  given,  I  know  not.  But  certain 
it  is  that  the  principle  of  interference  should  not  be  carried  beyond 
the  necessary  implication  which  produces  it.  It  should  be  limited 
to  the  creation  of  proper  governments  for  new  countries  acquired 
or  settled,  and  to  the  necessary  provision  for  their  eventual  admis 
sion  into  the  Union;  leaving,  in  the  meantime,  the  people  inhab 
iting  them  to  regulate  their  internal  concerns  in  their  own  way. 
They  are  just  as  capable  of  doing  so  as  the  people  of  the  States; 
and  they  can  do  so,  at  any  rate,  as  soon  as  their  political  indepen 
dence  is  recognized  by  admission  into  the  Union.  During  this 
temporary  condition,  it  is  hardly  expedient  to  call  into  exercise  a 
doubtful  and  invidious  authority,  which  questions  the  intelligence 
of  a  respectable  portion  of  our  citizens,  and  whose  limitation, 
whatever  it  may  be,  will  be  rapidly  approaching  its  termination — 
/^an  authority  which  would  give  to  Congress  despotic  power,  uncon 
trolled  by  the  Constitution,  over  most  important  sections  of  our 
common  country.  For,  if  the  relation  of  master  and  servant  may 
be  regulated  or  annihilated  by  its  legislation,  so  may  the  relation 
of  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child,  and  of  any  other  condition 
which  our  institutions  and  the  habits  of  our  society  recognize. 
What  would  be  thought,  if  Congress  should  undertake  to  prescribe 
the  terms  of  marriage  in  Xew  York,  or  to  regulate  the  authority 
of  parents  over  their  children  in  Pennsylvania?  And  yet  it  would 
be  as  vain  to  seek  one  justifying  the  interference  of  the  National 
Legislature  in  the  cases  referred  to  in  the  original  States  of  the 
Union.  I  speak  here  of  the  inherent  power  of  Congress,  and  do 
not  touch  the  question  of  such  contracts  as  may  be  formed  with  new 
States  when  admitted  into  the  Confederacy. 

SECTIONAL  QUESTIONS. — "  Of  all  the  questions  that  can  agitate 
us,  those  which  are  merely  sectional  in  their  character  are  the  most 
dangerous,  and  the  most  to  be  deprecated.  The  warning  voice  of 
him  who  from  his  character  and  services  and  virtue  had  the  best 
right  to  warn  us,  proclaimed  to  his  countrymen  in  his  farewell 


612  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

address — that  monument  of  wisdom  for  him,  as  I  hope  it  will  be  of 
safety  for  them — how  much  we  had  to  apprehend  from  measures  pe 
culiarly  affecting  geographical  portions  of  our  country.  The  grave 
circumstances  in  which  we  are  now  placed,  make  those  words  of 
safety;  for  I  am  satisfied,  from  all  I  have  seen  and  heard  here,  that 
a  successful  attempt  to  ingraft  the  principles  of  the  Wilmot  proviso 
upon  the  legislation  of  this  government,  and  to  apply  them  to  new 
territory,  should  new  territory  be  acquired,  would  seriously  affect 
our  tranquillity.  I  do  not  suffer  myself  to  foresee  or  to  foretell  the 
consequences  that  would  ensue,  for  I  trust  and  believe  there  is  good 
sense  and  good  feeling  enough  in  the  country  to  avoid  them,  by 
avoiding  all  occasions  which  might  lead  to  them. 

THE  REASONS  FOE  LEAVING  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  TEEKITOKY 
THE  EIGHTS  OF  LEGISLATION. — "  Briefly,  then,  I  am  opposed  to  the 
exercise  of  any  jurisdiction  by  Congress  over  this  matter,  and  I 
am  in  favor  of  leaving  to  the  people  of  any  territory  which  may 
be  hereafter  acquired,  the  right  to  regulate  it  for  themselves  under 
the  general  principles  of  the  Constitution.  Because — 

"  1.  I  do  not  see  in  the  Constitution  any  grant  of  the  requisite 
power  to  Congress  ;  and  I  am  not  disposed  to  extend  a  doubtful 
precedent  beyond  its  necessity, — the  establishment  of  territorial 
governments  when  needed, — leaving  to  the  inhabitants  all  the 
rights  compatible  with  the  relations  they  bear  to  the  Confed 
eration. 

"  2.  Because  I  believe  this  measure,  if  adopted,  would  weaken,  if 
not  impair,  the  union  of  the  States,  and  would  sow  the  seeds  of 
future  discord,  which  would  grow  up  and  ripen  into  an  abundant 
harvest  of  calamity. 

"  3.  Because  I  believe  a  general  conviction  that  such  a  proposi 
tion  would  succeed,  wrould  lead  to  an  immediate  withholding;  of 

rt 

the  supplies,  and  thus  to  a  dishonorable  termination  of  the  wrar. 
I  think  no  dispassionate  observer  at  the  seat  of  government  can 
doubt  this  result. 

"  4.  If,  however,  in  this  I  am  under  a  misapprehension,  I  am 
under  none  in  the  practical  operation  of  this  restriction,  if  adopted 
by  Congress,  upon  a  treaty  of  peace  making  acquisition  of  Mexican 
territory.  Such  a  treaty  would  be  rejected,  just  as  certainly  as 
presented  to  the  Senate.  More  than  one-third  of  that  body  would 
vote  against  it,  viewing  such  a  principle  as  an  exclusion  of  the  citi 
zens  of  the  slave-holding  States  from  a  participation  in  the  benefits 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  613 

acquired  by  the  treasure  and  exertions  of  all,  and  which  should  be 
common  to  all.  I  am  repeating — neither  advancing  nor  defending 
these  views.  That  branch  of  the  subject  does  not  lie  in  my  way, 
and  I  shall  not  turn  aside  to  seek  it. 

"  In  this  aspect  of  the  matter,  the  people  of  the  United  States 
must  choose  between  this  restriction  and  the  extension  of  their 
territorial  limits.  They  can  not  have  both;  and  which  they  will 
surrender  must  depend  upon  their  representatives  first,  and  then, 
if  these  fail  them,  upon  themselves. 

"  5.  But  after  all,  it  seems  to  be  generally  conceded  that  this 
restriction,  if  carried  into  effect,  could  not  operate  upon  any  State 
to  be  formed  from  newly-acquired  territory.  The  well  known 
attributes  of  sovereignty,  recognized  by  us  as  belonging  to  the 
State  governments,  would  sweep  before  them  any  such  barrier, 
and  would  leave  the  people  to  express  and  exert  their  wrill  at  plea 
sure.  Is  the  object,  then,  of  temporary  exclusion  for  so  short  a 
period  as  the  duration  of  the  territorial  government,  worth  the 
price  at  which  it  would  be  purchased  ? — worth  the  discord  it  would 
engender,  the  trial  to  which  it  would  expose  our  Union,  and  the 
evils  that  would  be  the  certain  consequence,  let  that  trial  result  as 
it  might?  As  to  the  course  which  has  been  intimated  rather  than 
proposed,  of  ingrafting  such  a  restriction  upon  any  treaty  of  acqui 
sition,  I  persuade  myself  it  would  find  but  little  favor  in  any  por 
tion  of  this  country.  Such  an  arrangement  would  render  Mexico 
a  party,'  having  a  right  to  interfere  in  our  internal  institutions  in 
questions  left  by  the  Constitution  to  the  State  governments,  and 
would  inflict  a  serious  blow  upon  our  fundamental  principles. 
Few,  indeed,  I  trust,  there  are  among  us  who  would  thus  grant  to 
a  foreign  power  the  right  to  inquire  into  the  constitution  and  con 
duct  of  the  sovereign  States  of  this  Union;  and  if  there  are  any,  I 
am  not  among  them  and  never  shall  be.  To  the  people  of  this 
country,  under  God,  now  and  hereafter  are  its  destinies  committed; 
and  we  want  no  foreign  power  to  interrogate  us,  treaty  in  hand, 
and  to  say,  Why  have  you  done  this,  or  why  have  you  left  that 
undone  ?  Our  own  dignity  and  the  principle  of  national  indepen 
dence  unite  to  repel  such  a  proposition. 

DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  INCREASE  AND  DIFFUSION  OF  SLAVERY. — 
"But  there  is  another  important  consideration,  which  ought  not 
to  be  lost  sight  of,  in  the  investigation  of  this  subject.  The 
question  that  presents  itself,  is  not  a  question  of  the  increase,  but 


614:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

of  the  diffusion  of  slavery.  Whether  its  sphere  be  stationary  or 
progressive,  its  amount  will  be  the  same.  The  rejection  of  this 
restriction  will  not  add  one  to  the  class  of  servitude,  nor  will  its 
adoption  give  freedom  to  a  single  being  who  is  now  placed 
therein.  The  same  numbers  will  be  spread  over  greater  terri 
tory;  and  so  far  as  compression,  with  less  abundance  of  the 
necessaries  of  life,  is  an  evil,  so  far  will  that  evil  be  mitigated  by 
transporting  slaves  to  a  new  country,  and  giving  them  a  larger 
space  to  occupy. 

THE  IMPROBABILITY  OF  SLAVERY  GOING  TO  THE  CALIFORNIAS 
AND  NEW  MEXICO. — "  I  say  this  in  the  event  of  the  extension  of 
slavery  over  any  new  acquisition.  But  can  it  go  there  ?  This  may 
well  be  doubted.  All  the  descriptions  which  reach  us  of  the  con 
dition  of  the  Californias  and  of  New  Mexico,  to  the  acquisition 
of  which  our  efforts  seem  at  present  directed,  unite  in  representing 
those  countries  as  agricultural  regions,  similar  in  their  products 
to  our  middle  States,  and  generally  unfit  for  the  production  of  the 
great  staples  which  can  alone  render  slave  labor  valuable.  If 
we  are  not  grossly  deceived  —  and  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how 
we  can  be — the  inhabitants  of  those  regions,  whether  they  depend 
upon  their  plows  or  their  herds,  can  not  be  slaveholders.  In 
voluntary  labor,  requiring  the  investment  of  large  capital,  can 
only  be  profitable  when  employed  in  the  production  of  a  few 
favored  articles,  confined  by  nature  to  special  districts,  and  paying 
larger  returns  than  the  usual  agricultural  products  spread  over 
more  considerable  portions  of  the  earth. 

"  In  the  able  letter  of  Mr.  Buchanan  upon  this  subject,  not  long 
since  given  to  the  public,  he  presents  similar  considerations  with 
great  force.  c  Neither,'  says  this  distinguished  writer,  '  the  soil, 
the  climate,  nor  the  productions  of  California,  south  of  36°  30', 
nor  indeed  of  any  portion  of  it,  north  or  south,  is  adapted  to  slave 
labor ;  and  besides,  every  facility  would  be  there  afforded  for  the 
slave  to  escape  from  his  master.  Such  property  would  be  entirely 
insecure  in  any  part  of  California.  It  is  morally  impossible, 
therefore,  that  a  majority  of  the  emigrants  to  that  portion  of  the 
territory  south  of  36°  30',  which  will  be  chiefly  composed  of  our 
own  citizens,  will  ever  re-establish  slavery  within  its  limits. 

"  '  In  regard  to  New  Mexico,  east  of  the  Eio  Grande,  the 
question  has  already  been  settled  by  the  admission  of  Texas  into 
the  Union. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  615 

" '  Should  we  acquire  territory  beyond  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  it  is  still  more  impossible  that  a 
majority  of  the  people  would  consent  to  re-establish  slavery.  They 
are  themselves  a  colored  population,  and  among  them  the  negro 
'does  not  belong  socially  to  a  degraded  race.' 

"  With  this  last  remark  Mr.  Walker  fully  coincides,  in  his  letter 
written  in  1844  upon  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  which  every 
where  produced  so  favorable  an  impression  upon  the  public  mind, 
as  to  have  conduced  very  materially  to  the  accomplishment  of 
that  great  measure.  '  Beyond  the  Del  Norte,'  says  Mr.  Walker, 
4  slavery  will  not  pass  ;  not  only  because  it  is  forbidden  by  law, 
but  because  the  colored  race  there  preponderates  in  the  ratio  of 
ten  to  one  over  the  whites  ;  and  holding,  as  they  do,  the  govern 
ment  and  most  of  the  offices  in  their  possession,  they  will  not 
permit  the  enslavement  of  any  portion  of  the  colored  race  which 
makes  and  executes  the  laws  of  the  country.' 

"  The  question,  it  will  be  therefore  seen  on  examination,  does  not 
regard  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  a  region  where  it  now  exists, 
but  a  prohibition  against  its  introduction  where  it  does  not  exist, 
and  where,  from  the  feelings  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  laws  of 
nature,  '  it  is  morally  impossible,'  as  Mr.  Buchanan  says,  '  that  it 
can  ever  re-establish  itself.' 

THE  POWER  OF  THE  UNION — THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES  OF 
OUR  UNION — THEIR  POWER. — "  It  augurs  well  for  the  permanence 
of  our  Confederation,  that  during  more  than  half  a  century  which 
has  elapsed  since  the  establishment  of  this  government,  many 
serious  questions,  and  some  of  the  highest  importance,  have  agi 
tated  the  public  mind,  and  more  than  once  threatened  the  gravest 
consequences ;  but  that  they  have  all  in  succession  passed  away, 
leaving  our  institutions  unscathed,  and  our  country  advancing  in 
numbers,  power,  and  wealth,  and  in  all  the  other  elements  of 
national  prosperity,  with  a  rapidity  unknown  in  ancient  or  in 
modern  days.  In  times  of  political  excitement,  when  difficult  and 
delicate  questions  present  themselves  for  solution,  there  is  one  ark 
of  safety  for  us ;  and  that  is  an  honest  appeal  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  our  Union,  and  a  stern  determination  to  abide  their 
dictates.  This  course  of  proceedings  has  carried  us  in  safety  through 
many  a  trouble,  and  I  trust  will  carry  us  safely  through  many 
more,  should  many  more  be  destined  to  assail  us.  The  Wilmot 
proviso  seeks  to  take  from  its  legitimate  tribunal  a  question  of 


616  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

domestic  policy,  having  no  relation  to  the  Union,  as  such,  and  to 
transfer  it  to  another  created  by  the  people  for  a  special  purpose, 
and  foreign  to  the  subject  matter  involved  in  this  issue.  By  going 
back  to  our  true  principles,  we  go  back  to  the  road  of  peace  and 
safety.  Leave  to  the  people,  who  will  be  affected  by  this  question, 
to  adjust  it  upon  their  own  responsibility,  and  in  their  own  manner, 
and  we  shall  render  another  tribute  to  the  original  principles  of 
our  government,  and  furnish  another  guarantee  for  its  permanence 
and  prosperity. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir, 

"  Kespectfully 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

u  LEWIS  CASS. 
"A  O.  P.  NICHOLSON,  Esq.,  Nashville,  Tenn." 

This  letter  expresses  frank,  statesmanlike  and  national  senti 
ments,  and  contains  not  a  single  word  which  an  impartial  reader 
can  interpret  as  favoring  slavery.  On  the  contrary,  many  expres 
sions  indicate  that  General  Cass  regretted  its  existence  no  less 
than  do  all  enlightened  men  and  genuine  friends  of  human  liberty. 
Envy  and  disappointed  ambition  may  pretend  otherwise,  but  the 
proof  is  lacking  to  countenance  the  shameless  effrontery.  It  was 
the  offspring  of  a  conviction  in  the  mind  of  its  distinguished 
author,  that  the  pressing  upon  Congress  the  adoption  of  the  pro 
viso,  was  urging  useless  legislation  —  by  many  deemed  plainly 
unconstitutional,  and  defiant  to  the  wishes  of  tens  of  thousands  of 
patriotic  citizens.  He  treated  the  question  as  one  not  having 
reference  to  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  territory  where  it  ex 
isted,  but  a  prohibition  against  its  introduction  where  it  did  not 
exist,  and  where,  in  his  judgment,  from  the  feelings  of  the  inhab 
itants  and  the  laws  of  nature,  he  believed  it  morally  impossible  to 
go  and  plant  itself.  Indeed,  he  took  occasion  expressly  to  say, 
that,  in  his  opinion,  "  slavery  never  would  extend  to  California  or 
New  Mexico,  and  that  the  inhabitants  of  those  regions,  whether 
they  depend  on  their  plows  or  their  herds,  can  not  be  slave 
holders."  The  letter  contained  his  honest  sentiments,  and  by 
them  has  he  guided  all  his  public  action  on  this  subject.  Subse 
quent  events  have  proven  the  truth  of  his  prediction  in  relation 
to  New  Mexico  and  California.  The  territory  is  free — the  State 
government  does  not  tolerate  slavery ;  and  it  was  a  government 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  617 

made  by  the  people  who  dwelt  there,  acting  in  their  own  sove 
reign  capacity.  This  right  was  no  new  doctrine  with  General 
Cass.  He  recognized  it  when  Michigan  was  a  Territory  —  he 
referred  to  it  and  countenanced  it  in  his  article  upon  the  Georgia 
difficulties,  before  alluded  to,  which  we  reproduce  from  the  review 
of  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  in  1832,  heretofore  given, 
as  appears  in  the  following  extract.  He  observed  : 

"That  the  clause  of  the  Constitution  authorizing  Congress  'to 
dispose  of,  and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting 
the  territory  or  other  property  of  the  United  States,  refers  to  ter 
ritorial  rights,  and  grants  no  jurisdiction  over  persons.'  Among 
other  things  I  say:  'The  power  to  dispose  of,  and  make  needful 
rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  and  other  property 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  power  to  exercise  general  jurisdic 
tion  over  persons  upon  it,  are  essentially  different  and  independent. 
The  former  is  general,  and  is  given  in  the  clause  referred  to;  the 
latter  is  special,  and  is  found  in  another  clause,  and  is  confined  to 
the  federal  tract  (the  District  of  Columbia,)  and  to  places  pur 
chased  by  consent  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State  in  which  the 
same  shall  be,  for  the  erection  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dock 
yards  and  other  needful  buildings.'  " 

And  it  is  worthy  of  note,  that  the  views  expressed  in  this  letter 
have  entered  into  and  marked  the  legislation  of  Congress,  and 
received  the  approbation  of  many  eminent  men  of  the  country, 
who  at  first  differed  with  him;  thus  evidencing  the  soundness  of 
the  position  he  assumed  at  the  outset  of  the  agitation  on  this 
subject. 

The  letter  was  read  by  several  gentlemen,  northern  and  southern, 
before  its  publication.  Some  of  the  latter  requested  the  General 
to  omit  that  part  of  it  which  asserted  the  right  of  the  people  of 
the  territories  to  legislate  for  themselves  on  all  questions  relating 
to  their  internal  policy.  He  declined  to  accede  to  this  request, 
because  of  his  unwillingness  to  misstate  his  views  by  omission. 
It  did  not  comport  with  his  self-respect  to  do  so;  although  hewTas 
not  unmindful  that  this  doctrine  might  ever  afterward  be  regarded 

O  O 

an  inexpiable  offense  by  extreme  southern  men.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  aware  that  the  position  that  Congress  had  no  power 
to  legislate  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  would  be  equally  unac 
ceptable  and  unpardonable  with  extreme  northern  men. 


618  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

The  introdaction  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  into  Congress  created 
quite  a  stir  among  the  politicians,  without  distinction  of  party,  all 
through  the  southern  States.  The  opinion  soon  became  prevalent, 
that  it  was  not  slavery  or  involuntary  bondage,  but  the  power 
which  the  institution  exercised  in  the  political  world,  that  induced 
people  to  pay  it  so  much  attention.  It  was  a  hot-bed  of  parties. 
On  the  platform  of  opposition,  an  anti-slavery  party  could  exist 
in  the  free  States ;  on  the  platform  of  self-defense,  another  party 
could  exist  in  the  slave  States  ;  whilst  between  these  two  extremes, 
another  party  still  was  always  to  be  found,  composed  of  the  con 
servative  mind  of  the  entire  country. 

The  prospect  of  territorial  acquisitions  awakened  into  new  life 
all  the  elements  of  politics.  "Whether  these  vast  domains  should 
be  bond  or  free,  was,  indeed,  a  magnificent  question.  Anti-slavery 
had  opened  the  battle,  and  made  a  vital  attack ;  it  was  no  less 
than  a  pronunciamento  of  entire  interdiction  ;  the  area  of  slavery 
was  never,  under  any  circumstances,  to  be  extended.  No  matter 
if  the  blood  of  the  slaveholder  had  watered  the  roads,  valleys 
and  mountains  of  Mexico ;  and  southern  armies,  with  chivalrous 
bravery,  were  first  among  the  foremost  to  plant  the  standard  of 
their  country  upon  the  walls  of  the  imperial  capital.  This  should 
not  give  their  relatives  and  families  at  home,  the  right  to  emigrate 
with  their  property.  Not  so,  thought  they  ;  and  their  statesmen 
echoed  the  sentiment  in  the  halls  of  Congress. 

Action  for  self-defense  was  necessary.  A  convention  was  sug 
gested,  to  combine  the  efforts  of  the  citizens  of  the  slave  States. 
Mr.  Calhoun  favored  it;  others  did  the  same.  This  looked  sec 
tionalism  in  earnest.  The  government  of  Washington  was  evi 
dently  fast  drifting  to  the  rubicon.  Statesmen  who  would  cling  to 
the  Constitution  to  the  last  extremity,  paused  to  take  a  reckoning. 
And  with  the  annexation  of  new  territory,  what  would  be  the 
relative  rights  of  the  inhabitants  thereof,  was  the  great  problem 
to  be  solved.  General  Cass  had  no  misgivings  ;  to  his  mind,  it 
was  clear  upon  what  tack  to  put  the  ship  of  State. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  619 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

Harbor  Appropriations  —  Views  of  General  Cass  —  The  Chicago  Convention  —  The  Famons  Letter  — 
General  Cass'  Official  Acts  for  Harbor  and  other  Public  Improvements  —  His  Speeches  and 
Votes  —  His  Vindication. 

The  subject  of  making  appropriations  for  the  improvement  of 
harbors  on  the  northern  lakes,  has  frequently  been  before  Con 
gress  since  General  Cass  has  been  a  member.  Uniformly  he  has 
favored,  advocated  and  voted  for  all  reasonable  and  necessary 
appropriations.  Several  times  he  has  drawn  up  and  introduced 
bills  appropriating  moneys  for  this  purpose.  If  he  has  not  always 
been  successful  in  his  efforts,  it  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  variety  of 
interests  which,  unfortunately,  the  extent  of  our  country  has  crea 
ted  ;  and  the  question  has  become  involved  with  other  measures 
of  public  expenditure,  having  no  natural  connection  with  it.  The 
constitutional  right  of  Congress  to  appropriate  money  for  the  im 
provement  of  rivers  and  harbors  on  the  lakes,  has  been  designedly 
connected  with  the  right  of  that  body  to  commence  and  prosecute 
a  general  system  of  internal  improvements,  so  that  frequently 
those  who  believe  that  the  constitutional  right  exists  in  the  one 
case  and  not  in  the  other,  are  compelled,  by  the  arts  of  parliamen 
tary  tacticians,  to  oppose  the  system  entirely,  as  it  is  presented 
to  them. 

It  has  been  charged  upon  General  Cass  that  he  is  opposed  to 
appropriations  for  harbor  and  river  improvements.  The  history 
of  his  votes,  during  his  career  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
disproves  the  truth  of  the  unfounded  allegation.  He  supports  the 
creed  of  the  Democratic  party  on  this  subject,  early  established, 
and  frequently  reiterated  in  National  Convention.  It  is  summed 
up  in  the  following  declaration  :  "  that  the  federal  government  is 
one  of  limited  powers,  derived  solely  from  the  Constitution,  and 
the  grants  of  power  shown  therein  ought  to  be  strictly  construed 
by  all  the  departments  and  agents  of  government,  and  that  it  is 
inexpedient  and  dangerous  to  exercise  doubtful  constitutional 


620  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

powers ;  that  the  Constitution  does  not  confer  upon  the  general 
government  the  power  to  commence  and  carry  on  a  GENERAL 
system  of  internal  improvements." 

It  does  not  deny  the  power  of  Congress  to  improve  the  great 
harbors,  and  rivers,  and  lakes  of  the  country,  that  can  be  consid 
ered  national  in  their  character,  and  important  to  its  defense  and 
commerce.  He  recommended  appropriations  for  such  purposes 
when  Secretary  of  "War ;  but  lie  does  deny  the  power,  and  is  op 
posed  to  its  exercise,  to  devise  and  prosecute  a  vast  system,  whose 
pecuniary  extent  can  not  be  foreseen,  and  whose  corrupting  influ 
ence  in  and  out  of  Congress,  may  well  excite  apprehension ;  at 
the  same  time  he  has  advocated  and  voted  for  particular  appro 
priations,  justified  by  the  position  and  importance  of  the  location 
to  be  improved. 

In  one  of  his  speeches  on  this  subject  he  says,  "With  respect 
to  harbor  improvements  upon  the  great  lakes,  in  which  my  con 
stituents  feel  a  deep  interest,  I  may  be  permitted,  I  trust,  to  make 
a  few  remarks.  It  is  the  exercise  of  a  power  essential  to  the  pros 
perity  of  the  country,  and  necessary  to  prevent  a  prodigal  waste  of 
human  life" 

We  will  give  one  instance,  from  Congressional  record,  to  show 
the  position  of  General  Cass  on  this  question : 

In  July,  1846,  Mr.  Dix  moved  to  take  up  the  river  and  harbor 
bill. 

Mr.  Bagby  (of  Alabama)  objected.  He  was  opposed  to  the  bill 
in  principle,  and  with  a  view  to  record  his  vote,  asked  for  the  yeas 
and  nays  on  the  question,  and  they  were  ordered. 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  taken  on  the  question,  and  stood,  yeas 
thirty-seven  —  nays  fourteen;  GENERAL  CASS  VOTING  IN  THE  AF 
FIRMATIVE. 

July  21. — On  motion  of  Mr.  Dix,  the  Senate  resumed  the  con 
sideration  of  the  river  and  harbor  appropriation  bill. 

Mr.  Atchinson  moved  the  reconsideration  of  the  vote  by  which 
the  following  clause  was  stricken  out : 

"  For  the  improvement  of  Little  Fort  harbor,  on  Lake  Mich 
igan,  $12.000." 

Upon  this  motion  discussion  ensued. 

•General  Cass  advocated  the  appropriation.  He  argued  for  it  on 
the  ground  of  expediency  and  constitutional  right.  He  denied 
that  they  were  legislating  for  mere  local  views.  It  was  the  duty 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  621 

of  Congress  to  legislate  with  a  regard  to  local  as  well  as  general 
interests.  He  contrasted  the  importance  of  harbors  on  the  lakes 
with  the  rivers.  On  the  Mississippi  and  great  western  rivers  every 
species  of  craft  could  land  at  any  point ;  but,  on  the  lakes,  the 
God  of  nature  had  imposed  the  most  formidable  difficulties.  lie 
himself  was  once  shipwrecked  near  the  town  of  Cleveland,  and 
saved  his  life  at  imminent  hazard.  He  alluded  to  the  commerce 
of  the  lakes.  Last  year  the  number  of  vessels  of  all  kinds  navi 
gating  the  lakes  was  four  hundred  and  ninety-five,  and  thirty  were 
building  ;  thirty-six  vessels  had  been  driven  ashore — twenty  total 
wrecks,  and  four  had  foundered. 

The  vote  was  reconsidered — yeas  32,  noes  19 — General  Cass 
voting  for  the  reconsideration.  The  further  consideration  of  the 
bill  was  postponed. 

July  23d. — Mr.  Dix  moved  that  the  Senate  resume  the  consid 
eration  of  the  river  and  harbor  appropriation  bill. 

Mr.  Atherton  offered  an  amendment :  Provided  that  no  money 
shall  be  drawn  from  the  treasury  on  account  of  any  appropriation 
contained  in  tliis  act,  unless  the  revenues  of  the  government  shall 
be  sufficient  to  pay  the  current  expenses  of  the  year  without 
resorting  to  treasury  notes  or  loans. 

On  the  amendment  Mr.  Atherton  demanded  the  ayes  and  noes, 
which  being  called,  the  amendment  was  lost — ayes  18,  noes  33 — 
General  Cass  voting  in  the  negative. 

After  offering  and  discussing  various  amendments,  upon  which 
General  Cass  invariably  voted  to  sustain  the  bill,  the  question  was 
taken  upon  ordering  the  bill  to  a  third  reading,  which  was  done — 
ayes  31,  noes  16 — General  Cass  voting  in  the  affirmative. 

The  bill  was  then,  by  unanimous  consent,  read  a  third  time  and 
passed,  General  Cass  voting  for  the  passage  of  the  bill. 

Here,  then,  is  the  irrefragable  proof  that  General  Cass  advo 
cated  in  his  speeches,  and  supported  by  his  vote,  appropriations 
for  the  improvement  of  our  rivers  and  harbors ;  and  he  voted 
against  Mr.  Atherton's  amendment,  which  was  intended  to,  and 
would,  if  adopted,  defeat  the  operation  of  the  bill. 

In  further  illustration  of  General  Cass'  construction  of  the  con 
stitutional  power  of  Congress  to  make  grants  for  specific  improve 
ments  where  the  benefit  will  accrue  to  the  country  in  general,  in 
1846  lie  advocated  and  voted  for  the  bill  to  grant  alternate  sections 
of  public  land  to  the  State  of  Michigan,  to  complete  certain  works 


622  LIFE  AXD  TIMES 

of  internal  improvement.  Upon  a  more  recent  occasion,  in  the 
winter  of  1848,  he  advocated  and  voted  for  a  grant  to  the  State  of 
Illinois  of  the  right  of  way  and  a  donation  of  public  lands  for 
making  a  railroad,  connecting  the  upper  and  lower  Mississippi 
with  the  lakes  at  Chicago. 

Probably  much  of  the  misrepresentation  of  the  General's  views 
on  this  question  should  be  attributed  to  a  studied  purpose,  on  the 
part  of  his  political  opponents.  Perhaps  there  are  persons  so 
inimical  to  any  measure  which  receives  the  sanction  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  that,  at  times,  they  oppose  what  their  judgment  con 
vinces  them  is  right.  However  this  may  be,  in  the  summer  of 
1847,  an  attempt  was  made  to  commit  the  people  of  the  west,  who 
were  personally  interested  in  river  and  harbor  improvements,  to 
a  disavowal  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Democratic  party  in  this  par 
ticular  ;  and,  with  this  view,  a  convention  was  called  and  held  at 
the  city  of  Chicago  in  July  of  that  year.  The  delegates  to  this 
convention  were  self-appointed,  and  it  was  numerously  attended. 
The  ultimate  object  of  it  was  to  procure  action  condemnatory  of 
the  policy  of  the  Democratic  party,  as  was  thought  in  many  quar 
ters  ;  and  if  persons,  known  to  be  members  of  that  party,  were  in 
attendance,  such  a  vote  would  have  the  appearance,  at  least,  of 
being  sustained  by  a  portion  of  the  Democratic  party.  The  dis 
tinguished  men  of  all  parties  were  invited  to  be  present  by  a  com 
mittee  of  arrangements.  To  these  invitations  answers  in  writing 
were  returned.  Some  of  the  more  prominent  men  of  the  Whig 
school  of  politics  discussed  the  question  at  length  in  their  replies, — 
and  very  properly,  if  such  was  their  inclination.  Among  other 
distinguished  men  of  the  Democratic  party,  General  Cass  was  very 
politely  invited  to  be  present.  He  had  prior  engagements  on  his 
hands  to  fulfill,  and  he  declined  accepting  the  invitation,  in  the 
following  neat  and  concise  note  in  reply,  nearly  two  months  in 
advance  of  the  assembling  of  the  convention : 

"  DETROIT,  May  l^th. 

"DEAK  SIR  : — I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  kind  attention 
in  transmitting  me  an  invitation  to  attend  the  Convention  on  In 
ternal  Improvements,  which  will  meet  in  Chicago  in  July.  Cir 
cumstances,  however,  will  put  it  out  of  my  power  to  be  present  at 
that  time.  "  I  am,  dear  sir, 

"  Respectfully  yours, 

"  LEWIS  CASS. 
"  W.  L.  WHITIXG,  ESQ.,  Chicago,  111." 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  623 

There  was  no  occasion  for  an  expression  of  his  opinions  or  views 
upon  the  subject  matter  of  the  invitation,  or  what  the  action  of 
the  convention  to  which  it  alluded  should  be.  The  records  of 
Congressional  legislation  contained  them  in  abundance,  and  all 
who  had  taken  the  trouble  to  inform  themselves  of  the  current 
history  of  their  country,  could  not  be  otherwise  than  fully  informed. 
Perhaps  a  man  less  scrupulous  about  obtruding  his  personal  sen 
timents  upon  the  public  than  General  Cass,  might  have  seized 
upon  the  opportunity  to  avow,  unasked,  his  private  views ;  but 
such  an  answer  to  a  simple  invitation  to  attend  a  public  meeting, 
all  will  readily  admit  would  have  been  in  bad  taste,  especially 
when  it  is  understood  (for  such  was  the  fact,)  that  the  General  was 
not  aware  that  Mr.  Whiting  was  a  member  of  any  committee,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  regarded  his  note  as  a  private  communication 
from  one  gentleman  to  another. 

This  brief  and  very  intelligible  letter,  however,  in  a  subsequent 
year,  formed  the  text  for  much  political  badinage;  and  we  do  not 
now  remember  that  ever  six  lines  were  written  which  have  been 
the  subject  of  so  much  perversion.  It  has  been  cited,  frequently, 
as  evidence  of  the  General's  hostility  to  harbor  and  river  improve 
ments,  when  it  does  not  contain  one  word  on  the  subject,  or  inti 
mation,  even,  from  which  such  an  unfounded  and  unwarranted 
inference  could  be  drawn. 

As  there  has  been  so  much  anxiety  manifested  to  know  why  the 
General  did  not  attend  the  convention,  it  is  but  just  to  say,  that, 
in  addition  to  prior  engagements  that  put  it  entirely  out  of  his 
power  to  be  present,  without  much  inconvenience  personally,  he 
did  not  deem  it  absolutely  necessary  for  himself  to  attend,  because 
it  was  his  opinion  that  the  object  of  the  convention  was  political, 
entirely  incompatible  with  his  views  and  practice  ;  and,  above  all, 
that  its  labors  would  not  effect  any  particular  benefit.  He,  in 
short,  was  unable  to  perceive  how  any  useful  plan  of  action  could 
be  devised  or  adopted  by  a  large  assemblage,  among  whom  differ 
ences  of  opinion  existed,  in  a  time  of  great  political  excitement, 
gathered  from  many  sections  of  the  country,  without  limitation  as 
to  numbers,  and  possessing  no  degree  of  responsibility  for  the 
wisdom  or  felicity  of  the  measures  it  might  happen  to  propose ; 
and  the  result  proved  he  was  right,  for  no  good  resulted  from 
its  labors. 

On  his  route  homeward  from  Washington,  immediately  after 


624  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

his  acceptance  of  the  Presidential  nomination  in  1848,  General 
Cass  was  welcomed  at  Cleveland  by  a  large  concourse  of  his  fel 
low-citizens.  Judge  Wood,  of  that  plate — an  old  acquaintance 
and  political  friend  of  the  General — at  their  request,  formally 
addressed  him.  To  this,  General  Cass  made  a  suitable  reply, 
acknowledging  the  respect  paid  him,  that  his  voice  was  weak,  his 
health  feeble,  and  his  strength  prostrated  with  the  fatigue  of  sev 
eral  days'  travel,  and  suggested  that  he  was  doubtful  whether, 
amidst  the  noise  and  confusion  that  prevailed,  he  could  be  dis 
tinctly  heard  by  all  present.  After  making  a  few  further  ob 
servations  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  he  concluded  his  reply, 
and  received  the  personal  congratulations  of  such  as  saw  fit  to 
approach  him. 

It  has  since  been  alledged,  that  the  General  sheltered  himself 
behind  the  noise  and  confusion,  to  avoid  an  expression  of  his 
views  on  the  subject  of  harbor  and  river  improvements.  As  if 
his  views  on  that  topic  were  not  fully  before  the  people,  the  alle 
gation  has  often  been  reiterated,  until  the  words  italicised  in 
the  preceding  paragraph,  have  become  classical  in  our  political 
nomenclature.  The  allegation  is  untrue,  and  was  regarded  as  too 
silly  to  be  noticed  by  the  General's  political  friends,  until  Janu 
ary,  1850,  when,  having  been  revived  by  the  Washington  Repub 
lic,  Messrs  J.  W.  Gray,  the  editor  of  the  Cleveland  Plaindealer, 
and  II.  Y.  Willson,  a  respectable  citizen  and  lawyer  of  Ohio,  ad 
dressed  Judge  Wood — then  Governor  of  Ohio — and  received 
from  him  the  following  explicit  statement  of  what  transpired  on 
the  occasion  alluded  to  : 

"EXECUTIVE  OFFICE,  Columbus,  January  21st,  1851. 

"  GENTLEMEN  : — Your  favor  of  the  28th  instant  came  duly  to 
hand  last  evening,  on  the  subject  of  that  stale  slander,  the  speech 
of  General  Cass  at  Cleveland  in  1848,  as  reported  in  the  Herald^ 
and  requesting  my  recollection  of  it,  and  the  order  in  which  it 
occurred. 

"In  justice  to  myself,  I  must  say,  at  the  time  of  the  reception 
of  General  Cass  at  Cleveland,  I  had  not  read  his  letter  accepting 
the  nomination  for  President,  or  no  opportunity  would  have  been 
given  for  the  perverse  and  silly  version  of  his  speech,  which  was 
published  in  the  Herald  on  that  occasion. 

"  The  speech  attributed  to  the  General,  that  there  was  'so  much, 
noise  and  confusion  '  that  he  could  not  be  heard  in  answer  to  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  625 

particular  subjects  of  river  and  harbor  improvements,  and  the 
extension  of  slavery  into  the  free  territories  of  the  United  States, 
to  which  his  attention  had  been  especially  invited,  was  not  made 
by  him  in  that  connection  at  all. 

"  His  remarks  were  very  able,  eloquent,  and  appropriate,  for  an 
effort  of  the  kind.  He  commenced  by  saying  he  was  fatigued 
with  several  days'  travel;  that  his  health  was  feeble,  his  voice  but 
weak,  and  he  was  doubtful  whether,  amidst  the  noise  and  confu 
sion  that  prevailed,  he  could  be  distinctly  heard  by  all  in  that 
vast  assembly. 

"  General  Cass  then  gave  a  brief  history  of  his  emigration  to 
Ohio  when  a  youth ;  his  residence  in  the  State  of  his  adoption. 
He  spoke  of  the  condition  of  Ohio  when  he  first  settled  at  Zanes- 
ville;  of  her  rapid  advance  in  intelligence,  population,  and  wealth, 
and  of  the  interest  he  had  always  felt  in  her  institutions  and  pros 
perity,  &c.,  &c. 

"  General  Cass  then,  in  order,  alluded  to  the  recent  events  in 
Europe,  and  drew  a  comparison  between  the  governments  of  Eng 
land,  France,  and  Germany,  and  the  American  Republic,  &c.,  &c., 
which  occupied  him  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  ;  and  then,  turning 
from  the  assembly  directly  to  me,  he  observed  that  the  particular 
subjects  to  which  I  had  called  his  attention  were  those  upon  which 
lie  had  hoped  his  sentiments  were  well  known  and  understood. 
For  a  knowledge  of  his  opinions  on  those  subjects,  he  could  only 
refer  to  his  votes  and  action  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  for 
several  years — to  his  letter  to  Mr.  Nicholson,  in  which  he  had  ex 
pressed  himself  without  reserve;  and  he  thought  they  would  afford 
more  satisfactory  evidence  of  his  sentiments  than  any  assurances 
he  could  then  give,  under  the  circumstances  by  which  he  was  sur 
rounded.  'Besides,'  (said  he)  'in  my -letter  accepting  the  nomina 
tion  for  President,  I  have  stated  that  it  must  close  my  professions 
of  political  faith,  and  to  this  declaration  I  think  I  ought  to  adhere.' 

"  This  was  the  substance  of  the  speech,  according  to  my  recol 
lection  of  it,  and  the  order  in  which  it  was  delivered.  The  report 
of  it  in  the  Cleveland  Herald,  and  which  was  put  into  my  hands 
but  a  short  time  after  General  Cass  left  the  stand,  was  doubtless 
an  artful  and  designed  misrepresentation  of  the  whole  affair. 
"  I  am,  gentlemen,  very  respectfully, 

"  E,  WOOD. 

"ME-SRS.  GHAY  and  WILLSON.  ESQS.,  Cleveland,  &c.,  &c." 
40 


626  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

In  order  that  there  may  be  no  misconception  of  his  views  on 
this  interesting  topic,  we  make  a  few  extracts  from  a  speech  of  his, 
delivered  in  the  Senate  at  the  close  of  the  session  of  Congress  in 
March,  1851.  on  the  river  and  harbor  bill. 

"Now,  sir,  the  honorable  senator  from  South  Carolina  [Mr. 
Eutler]  has  referred,  rather  triumphantly,  I  thought,  to  the  reso 
lutions  of  the  Baltimore  Convention,  and  seems  to  suppose  that 
their  faithful  observance  would  prevent  those  of  us  who  acknowl 
edge  their  obligations  from  voting  for  any  river  or  harbor  bill. 
Mr.  President,  for  one,  I  see  neither  difficulty  in  the  case,  nor  in 
consistency  in  the  course.  This  resolution,  disavowing  the  right 
to  establish  a  general  system  of  internal  improvements  —  for  that 
is  the  doctrine  reproved  —  was  first  presented  to  the  Democratic 
party  by  that  able  and  incorruptible  statesman,  Silas  Wright, 
whose  memory  is  embalmed  in  the  heart  of  every  true  Democrat. 
Well,  sir,  he,  its  acknowledged  father,  held  at  the  time  he  urged 
it,  and  continued  to  hold  till  his  lamented  death,  the  same  opinions 
upon  this  subject  which  are  now  sanctioned  by  the  Democratic 
party,  and  which  authorize  these  appropriations  for  certain  na 
tional  objects.  Can  a  doubt  rest  upon  the  mind  of  any  man, 
fairly  disposed,  respecting  the  construction  he  put  upon  his  own 
declaration  ?  What  he  meant,  and  wThat  the  Democratic  party 
mean  to  repudiate,  is  the  power  to  spread  a  great  system  of  public 
wrorks  through  the  whole  country,  embracing  roads,  canals,  rivers 
and  harbors,  and  ponds,  too,  for  aught  I  know — a  system  by  which 
the  Union  was  to  be  covered  with  roads  and  canals,  as  by  a  net 
work,  and  whose  consequences,  as  well  financially  in  the  enor 
mous  expenditure  it  would  entail,  as  morally  and  politically  by 
the  corruptions  it  would  lead  to,  no  man  can  seriously  contemplate 
without  alarm.  Why,  sir,  a  fact  which  has  just  been  stated  by  an 
honorable  member,  [Mr.  Downs,]  that  at  the  time  of  the  Maysville 
veto  there  were  propositions  before  committees  of  Congress  for 
lines  of  roads  to  the  amount  of  8106,000,000,  as  I  understood  him, 
for  I  have  not  time  to  refer  to  the  documents,  places  in  a  striking 
light  the  dangers  wre  were  exposed  to,  and  from  which  we  escaped 
by  the  firmness  and  wisdom  of  Andrew  Jackson ;  and,  by  the 
adherence  of  the  Democratic  party  to  the  principles  of  this  great 
act  we  are  yet  safe  from  this  peril.  They  have  taken  roads  and 
canals  from  the  grasp  of  the  general  government,  and  all  the 
rivers,  except  a  few,  which  can  be  considered  national  in  their 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  627 

character,  by  the  contributions  they  furnish  to  the  commerce  of 
the  country.  A  great  system  of  internal  improvements  is  exploded, 
and  the  powers  of  the  government  are  confined  within  their  legit 
imate  boundaries, — the  right  to  regulate  commerce,  and  to  improve 
natural  reservoirs  and  some  of  the  principal  natural  avenues  of 
communication. 

"  Look,  sir,  at  the  votes  in  the  Senate  in  1847,  the  last  time  a 
bill  upon  this  subject  passed,  and  but  a  year  before  the  meeting 
of  the  Baltimore  Convention.  You  will  find  that  on  a  test  vote, 
so  announced  by  the  mover,  Mr.  Bagby,  to  strike  out  the  sum  of 
$156,000  for  the  improvement  of  the  Ohio  river  below  the  falls, 
there  were  thirty-nine  nays  and  but  six  yeas.  My  name  is  recorded 
among  the  former ;  and  a  far  greater  one  than  mine  is  there,  too, 
— the  name  of  Calhoun. 

"  With  respect  to  harbor  improvements  upon  the  great  lakes,  in 
which  my  constituents  feel  a  deep  interest,  I  may  be  permitted,  I 
trust,  to  make  a  few  remarks.  It  is  the  exercise  of  a  power  es 
sential  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country,  and  necessary  to  prevent 
a  prodigal  waste  of  human  life.  When  I  first  removed  to  th 
region,  there  was  but  one  natural  harbor  free  from  a  bar  between 
the  mouth  of  the  Detroit  river  and  Black  Rock,  the  whole  extent 
of  Lake  Erie,  and  that  was  at  Put-in-Bay  Island.  How  this  great 
defect  was  to  be  remedied  was  a  subject  of  anxious  inquiry;  for 
almost  every  day  demonstrated  both  the  danger  and  the  difficulty 
of  the  navigation.  I  have  never  been  exposed  to  more  peril  than 
at  Cleveland,  where  I  wras  driven  ashore,  and  narrowly  escaped 
with  my  life, — the  mouth  of  the  river  being  entirely  closed.  At 
length  the  plan  of  building  piers  was  suggested  and  adopted,  by 
which  the  current  of  the  rivers  being  confined  within  narrow 
limits,  they  were  thus  enabled,  when  high,  to  sweep  away  the  bars, 
and  so  to  create  and  preserve  navigable  channels.  Experience 
soon  came  in  aid  of  the  system,  and  it  is  now  found  effectual  for 
its  object.  It  must  be  recollected  that  storms  arise  violently  and 
suddenly  upon  those  great  fresh-water  seas ;  and  as  there  is  not 
sea  room,  as  sailors  say,  to  work  a  vessel  off,  she  must  often  perish, 
with  cargo  and  crew,  unless  there  is  a  harbor  near,  in  which  she 
can  take  refuge.  And  these  circumstances  render  a  greater  num 
ber  of  ports  necessary,  than  would  otherwise  be  required.  But 
as  it  is,  and  with  all  the  improvements  which  have  taken  place, 
the  statistics  of  the  lake  commerce  for  1850  exhibit  a  most 


628  LIFE  AKD  TIMES 

lamentable  loss  of  life  and  property,  as  the  following  abstract 
will  show : 

Loss  of  life 305 

Loss  of  property $558,000 

Number  of  vessels  lost 32 

"  The  value  of  the  property  and  number  of  persons  running  this 
risk  are  stated  as  follows  : 

Value  of  the  commerce $191,000,000 

Passengers 355,000 

American  tonnage 167,000 

"  Here,  sir,  is  an  exhibit  of  danger  great  enough  to  awaken  the 
solicitude  and  to  command  the  active  attention  of  the  most  care 
less  Legislature.  I  can  never  surrender  a  principle  which  enables 
the  government  to  discharge  a  sacred  duty,  dear  to  all  my  con 
stituents  ;  and  I  should  faithlessly  discharge  my  obligations  to 
them,  (and  those  obligations  are  many  and  great,)  if  I  did  not  use 
all  my  efforts  to  have  this  trust  fulfilled  by  the  general  government, 
so  far  as  I  can  consistently  with  the  Constitution  and  the  true 
principles  of  sound  legislation. 

"  Harbors  of  commerce  and  of  refuge  are  not  only  necessary, 
but  harbors  are  also  indispensable  for  the  purposes  of  war.  A  fact 
that  occurred  in  1813  should  teach  us  to  be  provident  in  season: 
the  fleet,  commanded  by  Commodore  Perry,  which  gained  the 
most  glorious  naval  battle  recorded  in  our  annals,  was  constructed 
at  Erie,  in  Pennsylvania.  At  that  time  the  waters  of  the  Lake 
were  low,  and  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor  could  not  be 
passed  without  lighting  the  vessels.  The  British  fleet  was  off  the 
shore,  blockading  ours,  which  could  not  go  out  while  the  enemy 
was  there,  because  the  guns  could  not  be  mounted,  as  they  would 
have  occasioned  too  great  a  draught  of  water.  A  violent  storm 
arose,  which  compelled  the  hostile  squadron  to  leave  the  coast, 
and,  by  great  energy  and  activity,  Commodore  Perry  was  enabled 
to  get  his  vessels  over  the  bar,  and  to  embark  his  guns  and  follow 
the  enemy,  and  thus  to  gain  that  splendid  victory  W7hich  he  fought 
with  Spartan  courage,  and  reported  with  Spartan  brevity,  when 
lie  met  the  enemy,  and  tliey  were  ours. 

"Anxiously  did  I  look  out  for  tidings  of  the  result,  for  the  boom 
ing  cannon  had  told  that  the  contest  had  gone  on  and  was  finished ; 
and  joyfully  did  I  open  the  dispatch  of  the  gallant  commander. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  629 

for  it  was  my  fortune  to  receive  it  in  the  absence  of  General  Har 
rison  ;  and  the  shouts  of  the  express,  as  he  rode  through  the  camp 
to  my  quarters,  prepared  us  for  the  intelligence  he  brought; — but 
what  I  felt  when  I  read  the  glorious  letter,  no  tongue  or  pen  can 
tell  or  record.  It  opened  to  us  the  road  to  the  conquest  of  western 
Canada,  and  to  the  recovery  and  security  of  our  own  northwestern 
frontier.  The  British  would  otherwise  have  retained  the  command 
of  the  Lake,  and  our  whole  operations  would  have  ended  in  useless 
and  enormously  expensive  efforts  to  invade  the  hostile  possessions 

by  land. 

********** 

"  I  repeat  that  I  am  in  favor  of  the  great  principle  of  keeping 
the  expenditures  within  the  receipts,  and  I  am  prepared  to  support 
it,  if  the  deficiency  is  thrown  equally  upon  all  the  objects  of  ex 
penditure  which  are  in  the  same  circumstances.  I  agree  that  the 
authorized  and  usual  expenses  of  the  government  —  those  sanc 
tioned  by  existing  laws,  and  the  private  claims  which  have  become 
acknowledged  debts  by  our  legislation,  should  be  first  met.  We 
can  not  avoid  these  without  the  most  serious  injury,  and  without 
the  palpable  violation  of  a  moral  duty.  But  I  can  not  extend  this 
immunity  any  further  than  our  existing  obligations.  I  can  not  con 
sent  that  all  the  excess  should  be  thrown  upon  the  river  and  harbor 
appropriations ;  it  is  not  just.  There  is  a  vast  variety  of  objects, 
for  which  we  are  providing  with  railroad  rapidity,  and  amid  a  rail 
road  noise  and  confusion^  which  are  far  inferior  in  real  importance 
and  utility  to  many  of  those  contemplated  by  this  bill.  Among 
them  are  appropriations  made  or  anticipated  for  the  capitol,  for 
mints,  custom-houses,  post  offices,  steamboat  lines,  and  books — no 
inconsiderable  source  of  expense — and  many  other  purposes,  all  of 
which  may  be  delayed,  and  many  of  which  may  be  omitted  with 
out  injury  to  the  public  service.  I  repeat,  sir,  it  is  unjust,  flagrantly 
so,  to  throw  all  the  deficiencies  upon  the  river  and  harbor  bill,  and 
leave  everything  else  to  go  on,  money  or  no  money.  I  propose  to 
the  senator  from  Maine  to  accept  an  amendment  which  will  carry 
out  this  view,  and  I  will  then  vote  for  his  proposition." 

General  Cass  did  not  vote  on  this  bill,  because  the  question  was 
not  reached  before  midnight  of  the  third  of  March.  We  have, 
some  pages  back,  given  his  views  of  the  Sabbath.  But,  in  addition, 
he  had  constitutional  scruples  on  another  point — the  right  of  sit 
ting  after  the  third  of  March,  at  alternate  sessions  of  Congress. 


630  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

So  had  General  Jackson  ;  so  had  Mr.  Polk  :  and  for  the  reason, 
that  the  terra  of  Congress  expires  on  the  third  day  of  March.  The 
only  pretense  for  prolonging  it  until  noon  of  the  fourth,  is  because 
General  Washington  was  inaugurated  at  that  hour.  General 
Cass  believes  that  the  Presidential  term  commences  with  the 
fourth,  but  that  the  power  to  execute  the  duty  of  the  office  com 
mences  only  with  the  qualification.  General  Taylor's  term  com 
menced  on  Sunday,  although  he  was  not  sworn  in  until  Monday. 
He  had  just  as  much  right  to  be  sworn  in  at  one  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  Monday,  as  he  had  at  ten,  eleven  or  twelve  o'clock ;  and 
then  this  strange  anomaly  would  result — that  we  should  have  two 
Presidents  from  the  time  the  new  one  is  sworn  in  until  twelve, 
two  lawful  Presidents  of  the  United  States  ;  for  we  take  it  for 
granted,  that  the  same  rule  of  construction  is  as  applicable  to 
the  President  as  to  Congress.  And  who  ever  drew  pay  for  half 
a  day  ?  The  pay  of  members  of  Congress,  by  common  consent 
'and  usage,  terminates  on  the  third  of  March.  How,  then,  break 
the  calendar  and  legal  day,  and  run  into  the  fourth  ?  General 
Cass'  constitutional  scruples  and  invariable  practice  are  against  it. 

Again,  in  1852,  on  the  sixteenth  of  August,  he  spoke  in  the 
Senate  for  appropriations,  when  that  body,  as  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  had  under  consideration  the  bill  granting  to  the  State  of 
Michigan  the  right  of  way,  and  a  donation  of  public  lands,  for 
the  construction  of  a  ship  canal  around  the  Falls  of  St.  Mary. 

In  addition  to  the  advantages  to  accrue  from  such  a  canal  to 
commerce,  and  to  the  people  at  large  who  resided  along  the  bor 
ders  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin, 
he  advocated  the  passage  of  the  bill  because  of  the  facility  it 
would  afford  in  case  of  war,  for  the  transportation  of  munitions 
of  war,  and  for  defense  to  the  frontiers  generally.  Eead  what 
he  says  : 

"  In  the  course  of  this  discussion,  besides  the  improbability  of 
war,  we  have  heard  it  charged  as  another  reason  for  refusing  to 
grant  this  application,  that  it  would  be  useless,  because,  should 
war  come,  Canada  would  fall  with  comparatively  little  opposition; 
certainly  with  so  little  as  to  render  a  military  marine  upon  the 
lakes  unnecessary.  Mr.  President,  we  are  taught  as  well  by  the 
book  of  history  as  by  the  book  of  revelation,  that  the  race  is  not 
always  to  the  swift,  nor  the  latile  to  the  strong.  Too  much  pre 
sumption  and  self-confidence  have  often  robbed  powerful  nations 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  631 

of  victory,  and  driven  them  recreant  from  the  field  of  contest.  It 
is  not  easy  to  reduce  a  people  determined  upon  resistance  ;  and 
in  any  future  war  with  England,  come  when  or  how  it  may,  the 
success  of  our  operations  in  Canada,  or  at  any  rate  their  facility, 
will  depend  essentially  upon  the  disposition  of  the  inhabitants. 
England  has  great  means  of  annoyance;  no  one  denies  that;  and 
if  she  should  put  forth  her  full  strength — and  who  doubts  it — she 
would  be  a  formidable  coadjutor  with  her  Canadian  subjects  in 
the  defense  of  the  country.  That  we  could  overrun  and  deprive 
her  of  her  possessions  in  our  neighborhood,  I  am  perfectly  satisfied. 
But  I  wish  neither  to  underrate  the  difficulties  we  should  have 
to  encounter,  nor  the  preparations  we  ought  to  make.  It  is  an 
error  we  committed  once  to  our  cost,  and  which  I  hope  we  shall 
not  commit  again.  It  is  an  error  of  which  I  partook  as  well  as 
others ;  but  from  which,  for  my  own  part,  I  recovered  forty  years 
years  ago  this  very  day,  when  the  surrender  of  Detroit  told  the 
dishonor  of  our  country  and  the  uncertainty  of  human  expecta 
tions.  There  was  even  then  a  great  disparity  in  our  strength, 
compared  with  that  of  our  opponents.  It  is  indeed  greater  now; 
but  still  British  North  America  has  increased  since  then  in  a 
rapid  ratio  in  population  and  power.  In  the  event  of  a  war  with 
England,  it  wTill  undoubtedly  be  our  policy,  among  other  means 
of  annoyance,  to  seize  her  continental  colonies,  and  to  hold  them 
to  await  the  arrangement  of  a  treaty  of  peace.  For  myself,  sir,  I 
should  be  glad  to  see  those  countries  annexed  to  the  United  States, 
as  well  from  their  position  and  contiguity  as  from  the  nature  of 
the  population,  which  is  capable  of  appreciating  the  benefits  of  a 
free  government,  and  of  aiding  in  its  administration.  I  live  in 
sight  of  Western  Canada,  and  a  beautiful  country  it  is,  rejoicing 
the  heart  and  the  eye  of  the  traveler  ;  but  I  want  no  annexation 
at  the  expense  of  political  honesty,  nor  of  a  war  with  England, 
nor  without  the  free  consent  of  the  people  themselves.  I  would 
not,  if  wre  could,  unjustly  deprive  that  country  of  her  existing 
territorial  possessions,  whatever  examples  I  might  find  in  her 
own  history  of  successful  spoliations.  But  should  war  come,  which 
is  a  contest  of  injury  as  well  as  of  strength  between  the  parties, 
we  should  have  a  moral  right  to  carry  our  arms  into  her  colonies, 
and  to  subdue  them  if  we  could,  and  then  to  retain  them  on  the 
conclusion  of  peace,  should  England  find  it  necessary  to  assent  to 
the  cession.  But  even  then,  I  repeat,  I  would  not  hold  on  to  an 


632  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

acre  without  the  free  consent  of  the  people ;  for  their  intellectual 
and  moral  condition  is  such  that  they  ought  to  be  permitted  to 
decide  that  vital  question  for  themselves.  I  would  rather  have 
them  contented  neighbors,  than  reluctant  citizens. 

"  I  have  been  charged,  sir,  with  a  great  desire  to  swallow  terri 
tory,  and  I  do  not  deny  but  that  I  have  the  bump  of  acquisition 
tolerably  well  developed  for  a  Jonathan;  but  for  a  John  Bull, 
even  mine  would  be  a  very  small  organ,  a  molehill  to  a  moun 
tain.  But  I  should  like  a  reasonable  slice  north,  and  one  near 
insular  acquisition  on  the  south ;  both  of  which  regions  are  im 
portant  to  our  security  and  prosperity.  But  I  would  not  receive 
either  of  them  but  upon  condition  that  the  deed  were  done  openly, 
honestly,  acceptably  to  all  parties;  unless,  indeed,  a  just  war 
should  give  us  a  right  to  subdue  them,  and  thereby  to  violate  no 
principle  of  national  conduct. 

"  But  I  must  return  to  the  lakes,  which,  while  they  separate  us 
from  Canada,  furnish  also  the  means  of  communication  along 
almost  the  whole  frontier.  I  have  before  said,  they  constitute 
three  plateaus^  the  lower  being  Lake  Ontario,  the  middle,  Lakes 
Erie,  Huron,  and  Michigan,  and  the  upper,  Lake  Superior.  The 
interruption  of  navigation  between  the  upper  and  middle  of  these 
great  reservoirs,  I  have  already  shown.  Between  the  middle  and 
the  lower,  the  Falls  of  Niagara  are  interposed,  which,  however, 
have  been  overcome  by  the  Welland  Canal,  constructed  by  the 
British  government,  and  which  furnishes  a  navigable  communi 
cation  for  vessels  ;  and  we  learn,  from  recent  information,  that  a 
surveying  party  was  a  few  days  ago  at  St.  Mary's,  surveying  a 
route  for  a  canal  across  the  falls,  to  be  constructed  by  the  British 
government, — a  wise  precautionary  measure,  which  we  shall  do 
well  to  imitate.  The  slightest  inspection  of  the  map  will  show 
that  the  command  of  these  lakes  by  one  party,  restricts  the 
other,  both  for  its  supplies  and  for  all  its  means  of  communica 
tion,  to  three  or  four  points  where  the  frontiers  approach  each 
other,  thus  facilitating  the  powers  of  offense  and  defense  by  the 
command  of  the  water. 

"  Now,  sir,  in  the  event  of  hostilities,  wre  must  have  armed  ves 
sels  upon  Lake  Superior,  as  well  as  upon  Huron,  Michigan,  Erie, 
and  Ontario.  We  can  not  neglect  the  country  upon  the  greatest 
of  our  lakes.  It  is  growing  into  importance  ;  and  the  further 
our  researches  are  pushed,  the  greater  becomes  its  promise.  The 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  633 

mineral  treasures,  already  so  productive,  though  but  yet  in  the 
infancy  of  our  knowledge  of  them,  and  the  population  there,  and 
daily  going  there,  must  be  protected,  both  from  the  civilized  and 
uncivilized  foe,  who  will  be  sure  to  take  hold  of  the  tomahawk 
together  in  that  region,  should  war  render  their  co-operation 
desirable.  And  a  heavy  Indian  force  can  be  collected  there,  from 
the  extensive  northern  and  northwestern  regions,  ready  to  strike 
upon  our  frontiers,  if  the  necessary  supplies  can  be  secured,  which 
can  only  be  done  by  the  command  of  the  lakes.  Our  naval 
superiority  would  enable  us  to  intercept  all  this  atrocious  inter 
course,  leading  to  blood  and  destruction. 

"  Well,  sir,  open  a  passage  for  vessels  from  Lake  Huron  to 
Lake  Superior,  and  the  same  squadron  can  act,  as  necessity  may 
require,  upon  the  appearance  of  clanger,  on  all  the  lakes  above 
Ontario.  Leave  the  present  interruption  to  exist,  and  you  must 
double  your  marine  force,  as  it  can  not  be  transferred  from  one  of 
these  theaters  of  operation  to  the  other.  We  may  be  driven  to 
another  war  of  ship-carpenters,  such  as  we  fought,  at  an  enormous 
expense,  upon  Lake  Ontario,  in  1813-'14.  All  who  lived  in  those 
days  know  from  recollection,  and  those  who  have  come  upon  the 
stage  of  action  since  know  from  history,  what  prodigious  efforts 
both  the  parties  made  for  maritime  superiority.  The  dock-yards 
were  kept  in  constant  activity,  and  when  a  new  ship  gave  too 
great  an  ascendency  to  one  fleet,  the  other  kept  out  of  harm's 
way  till  the  trees  of  the  forests — for  they  were  cut  as  they  were 
wanted — could  be  fashioned  into  a  vessel,  and  an  equality  or 
superiority  insured.  And  thus  the  contest  went  on,  with  no  deci 
sive  results,  till  the  peace,  which  found  us  with  the  largest  ship  in 
the  world,  or  almost  the  largest,  upon  the  stocks,  and  I  do  not 
know  how  many  others  in  process  of  construction  ;  and  I  believe 
the  British  commander,  Sir  James  Yeo,  was  not  a  whit  behind  us 
in  this  race  for  power.  The  expense  must  have  been  prodigious ; 
and,  I  think,  after  the  peace,  that  our  huge  monster  rotted  in  her 
cradle. 

"  Xow,  sir,  if  after  the  naval  battle  of  Lake  Erie,  by  which  the 
whole  British  armament  was  destroyed,  the  gallant  Perry  had 
possessed  the  means  of  conveying  his  squadron  to  Lake  Ontario, 
the  naval  warfare  would  have  been  finished  in  a  week,  or  the 
British  vessels  would  have  been  hermetically  shut  up  in  their 
ports,  leaving  to  us  the  command  of  the  lake.  The  canal  we  ask, 


631  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

being  once  made,  would  exist  forever,  for  light  tolls  would  keep  it 
in  repair,  and  its  cost  would  be  for  less  than  the  necessary  expense 
to  provide  vessels  even  upon  a  single  occasion  for  Lake  Superior, 
whose  destruction  a  few  years  would  witness  by  natural  decay, 
leaving  us  to  do  the  work  of  building  again, 

"  It  has  been  asked  here,  with  a  kind  of  ex  cathedra  manner,  in 
what  remote  generation  can  hostilities  occur  on  Lake  Superior? 
I  do  not  precisely  understand  the  purport  of  the  question  ;  but  as 
it  was  put  with  a  good  deal  of  emphasis,  I  suppose  it  was  intended 
to  include  a  good  deal  of  argument  or  objection,  or  both.  But 
whether  it  intimates  that  the  country  will  not  be  worth  fighting 
for,  or  that  there  will  be  no  inhabitants  requiring  our  protection, 
I  know  not.  It  seems  to  concede  that  there  may  be  a  foe  in  that 
region,  in  some  remote  period,  no  man  knows  when. 

"  Xow,  sir,  the  history  of  our  whole  progress  is  the  best  answer 
to  such  an  interrogatory,  and  especially  the  history  of  the  West. 
There  is  one  simple  fact,  within  my  own  knowledge,  winch  I  trust 
the  Senate  will  pardon  me  for  referring  to,  because  nothing  can 
place  in  a  more  striking  aspect  the  wonderful  advance  of  this' 
country  in  power  and  prosperity.  I  have  often  conversed  with  a 
venerable  relative,  who  was  the  cotemporary  of  Peregrine  White, 
the  first  child  born  to  the  Pilgrims  after  their  arrival  upon  this 
continent.  But  one  generation  between  him  who  tells  the  story, 
in  this  great  depository  of  political  power — a  portion  of  the  power 
of  one  of  the  mightiest  nations  on  the  face  of  the  earth — and  the 
oldest  of  the  sons  of  the  Puritan  patriarchs.  Verily,  though  God 
made  no  covenant  with  them,  as  he  did  with  Abraham  the  patri 
arch  of  Israel,  when  he  said  to  him,  u  Look  now  toward  heaven, 
and  tell  the  stars,  if  thou  be  able  to  number  them,"  and  then  gave 
him  the  memorable  promise,  "  So  shall  thy  seed  be  ;"  though  we 
can  point  to  no  such  covenant,  yet,  if  we  have  not  been  a  chosen, 
we  have  been  a  favored  people,  and  already  have  become  like  the 
stars  in  the  heavens,  which  it  is  hard  to  number. 

"  But  though  our  mighty  progress  marks  every  page  of  our  his 
tory,  and  attracts  the  admiration  of  the  world,  provoking,  also,  less 
justifiable  feelings  in  some  portions  of  it,  at  least,  yet  we  are  asked 
here,  in  the  American  Senate,  in  what  remote  generation  one  of 
our  magnificent  regions  will  be  worth  defending  ?  Why,  sir,  when 
I  crossed  the  Ohio  river,  in  the  last  century,  there  was  but  one 
organized  political  community — the  old  North-western  Territory, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  635 

with  a  venerable  revolutionary  officer  (General  St.  Clair)  at  the 
head  of  it,  and  with  a  population  of  a  few  thousand  inhabitants 
— north  of  that  river,  and  east  of  the  Mississippi ;  and  now  there 
are  five  States  of  this  Union  and  five  millions  of  people  there, 
occupying  as  fair  a  country  as  God  ever  gave  to  man  to  enjoy— 
a  rate  of  increase  which  outstrips  all  previous  human  experience, 
as  it  almost  outstrips  the  human  imagination;  and  the  advance  in 
the  other  elements  of  power  and  prosperity  have  not  been  less 
striking  than  the  augmentation  of  numbers,  and  all  this  within 

o  e>  ' 

the  limits  of  an  active  life.  Why,  sir,  at  that  time  we  had  but 
one  small  American  vessel,  I  believe,  of  perhaps  a  hundred  tons, 
upon  all  the  middle  lakes  ;  and  now  we  have  upon  the  various 
lakes  a  navigating  interest  of  not  less  than  two  hundred  thousand 
tons.  I  remember  when  a  single  vessel — the  Adams — made  two 
annual  trips  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago;  one  in  the  spring,  to  take 
the  supplies  to  the  upper  country,  and  the  other  in  the  autumn, 
to  bring  down  the  furs,  almost  the  only  article  of  trade  collected 
there.  And  those  two  voyages  occupied  the  navigating  portion 
of  the  year.  Now,  the  annual  value  of  the  freight  carried  over 
the  lake  routes  is  not  less  than  8200,000,000  ;  and  a  solitary  pas 
senger  or  two,  who  then  ranged  over  an  almost  unknown  world, 
is  now  succeeded  by  hosts  of  travelers,  with  splendid  homes  on 
the  waters,  numbering  certainly  more  than  half  a  million,  probably 
nearly  approaching  a  million,  every  year. 

"Well,  sir,  I  shall  say  no  more  upon  this  subject;  but  beg  gen 
tlemen  to  judge  the  future  by  the  past,  and  to  look  forward  to  the 
day  when  a  numerous  and  thriving  population  upon  both  shores 
of  Lake  Superior  will  demand  the  attention,  and,  if  need  be,  the 
protection,  of  the  governments  who  may  then  have  jurisdiction 
there. 

u  Is  it  really  believed,  says  one  of  the  senators  opposed  to  this 
measure,  that  we  shall  ever  have  war  vessels  on  the  lakes  ?  The 
question  is  so  emphatically  put,  that  it  is  intended  to  carry  with  it 
its  own  answer — as  if  the  thing  were  impossible,  and  the  supposi 
tion  absurd.  Proper  confidence  is  well,  but  presumption  is  prone 
to  lead  to  disaster.  I  have  already  shown,  I  trust,  that  whether 
we  may  ever  need  a  military  marine  upon  our  inland  seas,  de 
pends  upon  considerations  not  within  the  reach  of  human  sagacity; 
and  that  ordinary  circumspection  requires  us,  not,  indeed,  to  pro 
vide  such  an  armament  before  it  is  needed,  but  to  construct  a  work 


636  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

which  can  not  be  hastily  done,  and  which  will  greatly  reduce  the 
expense  and  extent  of  our  naval  arrangements  when  the  period 
for  their  use  shall  come,  and  which,  in  the  mean  time,  will  add 
essentially  to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  frontier." 

With  these  evidences  of  General  Gass'  uniform  friendship  for 
appropriations  from  the  general  government,  and  his  steady  efforts 
to  obtain  the  same,  we  pass  on  to  other  points  in  his  life. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  637 


CHAPTER  XXXYII. 

Foreign  Governments — General  Cass'  Sympathies  with  the  King-ridden  People — Austrian  Intercourse 
— General  Cass  favors  Suspension — Extracts  from  his  Speech — Ireland — The  Distress  of  the  People — 
General  Cass  moves  an  Appropriation  in  their  Behalf— His  Relations  with  Mr.  Polk's  Administration 
— Yucatan. 

The  position  which  General  Cass  has  so  long  held  in  public  life 
has  given  him  unsurpassed  opportunities  to  acquire  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  schemes  of  foreign  powers.  ~Not  only  that,  but 
also  to  become  conversant  with  the  wants  of  the  inhabitants.  He 
has  always  found  that  under  monarchical  governments  there  is  a 
proneness  to  tyranny.  To  the  bondage  of  either  body  or  mind 
he  has  ever  been  an  unyielding  opponent.  Democratic  in  his  own 
sensations  and  education,  he  sympathizes  with  the  oppressed 
every  where.  Hence,  in  all  the  popular  movements  that  from  time 
to  time  have  occurred  to  improve  the  condition  of  mankind,  his 
sympathies  have  been  for  success.  He  has  regretted,  it  is  true, 
on  many  occasions,  that  the  leaders  of  the  masses  in  the  thickly 
populated  districts  of  city  and  country,  where  the  phrensy  of  the 
hour  has  broken  the  bonds  of  municipal  regulation,  were  not 
possessed  of  more  wisdom,  and,  as  it  sometimes  seemed  to  him, 
genuine  patriotism — a  patriotism  that  merges  all  selfish  consider 
ations  in  the  promotion  of  the  common  cause  of  their  country  and 
all  its  citizens.  But  he  has  made  due  allowance  for  poor  human 
nature  on  such  occasions,  and,  overlooking  personal  glory  or 
aggrandizement,  wished  them  in  his  heart  God-speed.  Often  a 
witness  of  the  wrongs  and  injustice  heaped  upon  the  king-ridden 
subjects  of  European  monarchs,  he  observed  that  the  people  of 
those  countries  were,  in  most  instances,  mere  machines,  submissive 
to  the  will  of  their  masters  only  because  the  sword  and  the  bay 
onet  were  there  to  wring  obedience  ;  and  he  could  well  appreciate 
how  grateful  to  the  fugitive  from  oppression  is  this  land  of  the 
free,  and  how  consolatory  to  their  aching  minds  and  bodies  is  the 
word  of  kind  welcome  and  the  hand  of  friendly  greeting.  Neither 


638  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

has  he  been  insensible  to  the  alleviation  afforded  to  those  left  be 
hind  and  still  struggling,  by  a  recognition  of  them  from  the  high 
places  of  republican  power  on  this  continent ;  and,  when  an 
opportunity  has  offered,  no  one  has  been  more  prompt  to  give 
utterance  to  that  glorious  impulse  which  would,  if  it  had  the  power, 
strike  off  every  manacle.  When  freedom  has  cried  for  sympathy 
or  aid  from  any  quarter,  with  a  generous  enthusiasm  he  was  always 
ready  to  unite  in  sending  them  the  encouragement  of  millions  of 
brave  citizens  of  a  happy  and  prosperous  republic. 

When  Napoleon  was  banished  to  Elba,  he  felt  that  freedom  had 
retrograded  a  century  in  the  old  world — notwithstanding  this  pro 
digy  of  the  age  occupied  the  throne  of  an  emperor,  and  was 
invested  with  the  robes  and  paraphernalia  of  imperial  power. 
When  the  tri-colored  banner  waved  in  triumph  over  distracted 
Paris  in  1830,  he  rejoiced  that  Louis  Phillippe  ascended  to  the  high 
seat  of  authority.  And  again,  when  Lamartine  and  his  philoso 
phical  compeers  hurled  Louis  Phillippe,  in  turn,  from  the  throne, 
he  celebrated  the  event  writh  his  fellow-citizens  assembled  at  the 
capital  of  his  country.  He  addressed  them.  He  briefly  reviewed 
the  conditions  of  the  governments  beyond  the  Atlantic,  the  efforts 
of  the  people  to  establish  freedom,  and  rear  a  regenerated  gov 
ernment  on  the  platform  of  equality  and  justice,  in  such  a  form 
as  would  most  conduce  to  their  happiness  and  safety.  He  traced 
the  revolutions  all  over  the  continent  to  their  sources — to  the 
abuses  and  oppressions  which  for  centuries  had  been  engrafting 
themselves  upon  those  governments.  And  the  origin  of  the  move 
ments  of  1848,  he  traced  to  the  avowal  by  the  Pope  of  his  attach 
ment  to  free  principles. 

"  One  of  the  strangest  events,"  said  he,  "in  this  day  of  great 
events,  is  the  origin  of  these  movements  in  favor  of  liberty  upon 
the  continent  of  Europe.  Whence  come  they  ?  From  the  Eternal 
City — from  the  head  of  the  Catholic  religion — the  successor  of  St. 
Peter.  Immediately  on  his  elevation  to  the  pontificate,  the  Pope 
avowed  his  attachment  to  free  principles,  and  from  the  Vatican 
went  out  the  decree  which  is  now  spreading  through  the  earth.  The 
pontiff  who  holds  the  keys  of  St.  Peter,  has  found  a  key  to  unlock 
the  recesses  of  the  human  heart.  His  moral  courage  was  but  the 
more  tried  by  the  difficulties  of  his  position.  The  abuses  of  the 
government  were  the  work  of  ages,  and  had  entered  into  all 
the  habits  of  life  and  the  ramifications  of  society;  and  he  was 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  639 

surrounded  by  despotic  governments,  jealous  of  the  first  aspirations 
of  liberty,  and  maintaining  their  sway  by  powerful  armies.  The 
Austrian,  too,  with  his  Pandours  and  his  Croats  from  the  banks  of 
the  Danube,  had  descended  the  ridges  of  the  Alps,  and  had  spread 
himself  over  the  sunny  plains  of  Italy.  Almost  in  sight  of  the 
dome  of  St.  Peter's,  he  watched,  with  interest  and  with  many  a 
threatening  word,  the  progress  of  the  Pope.  But  the  work  went 
on.  Xaples  is  in  a  state  of  revolution  ;  Tuscany  and  Sardinia  in 
a  state  of  reform ;  and  France  of  apparently  peaceful  progress  in 
the  new  career  opened  to  her." 

He  also  supported  and  voted  for  the  resolution  introduced,  ten 
dering  the  congratulations  of  Congress,  in  the  name  of  the  Ameri 
can  people,  to  the  people  of  France  upon  their  successful  efforts 
to  consolidate  the  principles  of  liberty  in  a  republican  form  of 
government. 

The  same  desire  to  spread  the  doctrines  of  republicanism,  and 
give  a  word  of  encouragement  to  the  patriotic  reformers  of  Europe, 
prompted  General  Cass  to  support  the  proposition  to  send  a  min 
ister  to  the  Papal  States.  There  was  another  consideration:  the 
United  States  had  commercial  relations  with  those  States,  and 
many  of  our  citizens  resided  there  ;  the  protection  of  these  inter 
ests,  argued  the  General,  required  that  our  government  should  be 
represented  in  this  new  capacity. 

Again  ;  when  the  gallant  people  of  oppressed  Hungary  rose 
against  their  rulers,  and  in  an  organized  combination  made  one 
mighty  and  vigorous  effort  to  shake  off  Austrian  domination,  and 
regain  their  long-lost  constitutional  rights  and  religious  privileges, 
General  Cass'  heart  was  with  them,  and  his  voice  was  heard  cheer 
ing  them  on  in  their  holy  work.  To  him  the  opportunity  seemed 
a  proper  and  a  favorable  one  to  offer,  by  one  strong  act  of  national 
legislation,  the  condolence  of  a  great  and  powerful  people  to  the 
bravery  of  the  oppressed,  and  their  indignation  against  the  cruel 
ties  and  barbarities  of  the  hoary  and  tyrannical  oppressor.  With 
these  emotions,  on  the  24h  of  December,  1849,  he  offered  for  the  con 
sideration  of  the  Senate  a  resolution  instructing  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Eolations  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  suspending 
diplomatic  relations  with  Austria.  It  was,  indeed,  a  bold  measure, 
but  such  as  a  patriot  would  wish  to  see  adopted.  He  supported 
the  proposition  with  a  manly  speech,  and  summoned  the  patriot 
ism  of  the  Senate  to  its  duty. 


640  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Iii  the  course  of  liis  remarks  we  observe  the  following  : 

"  But,  sir,  while  I  maintain  that  the  cessation  of  diplomatic 
intercourse  with  Austria  would  give  the  government  of  that 
country  no  just  cause  of  offense,  I  do  not  seek  to  deny  or  conceal 
that  the  motives  for  the  adoption  of  this  measure  will  be  unaccept 
able  and  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  the  feelings  of  a  power  prover 
bially  haughty  in  the  days  of  its  prosperity,  and  rendered  more 
susceptible  by  recent  events,  which  have  destroyed  much  of  its 
ancient  prestige,  and  compelled  it  to  call  for  Kussian  aid  in  the 
perilous  circumstances  wiiere  the  noble  efforts  of  Hungary  to  assert 
her  just  rights  had  placed  the  oppressor.  On  the  contrary,  the 
course  I  propose  would  lose  half  its  value  were  any  doubts  to  rest 
upon  the  motives  that  dictate  it. 

"And  certainly,  were  they  not  open  to  the  day,  I  should  not 
look  for  that  cordial  approbation  which  I  now  anticipate  from  the 
American  people  for  this  first  effort  to  rebuke,  by  public  opinion 
expressed  through  an  established  government,  in  the  name  of  a 
great  republic,  atrocious  acts  of  despotism,  by  which  human 
liberty  and  life  have  been  sacrificed  under  circumstances  of  auda 
cious  contempt  for  the  rights  of  mankind  and  the  sentiments  of 
the  civilized  world,  without  a  parallel  even  in  this  age  of  warfare 
between  the  oppressors  and  the  oppressed.  I  say  this  first  effort, 
for,  though  the  principle  of  public  disapprobation  in  situations 
not  very  dissimilar  may  be  traced  in  the  proceedings  of  at  least 
one  of  the  representative  bodies  of  Europe,  I  do  not  recollect  that 
any  formal  act  has  been  adopted  rendering  the  censure  more  sig 
nal  and  enduring.  If  we  take  the  first  step  in  this  noble  cause, 
where  physical  force  with  its  flagitious  abuse,  if  not  conquered, 
may  be  ultimately  restrained  by  moral  considerations,  we  shall 
add  to  the  value  of  the  lesson  of  3776,  already  so  important  to  the 
world,  and  destined  to  become  far  more  so  by  furnishing  one 
guarantee  the  more  for  the  preservation  of  human  rights  where 
they  exist,  and  for  their  recovery  where  they  are  lost, 

"Mr.  President,  I  do  not  mistake  the  true  position  of  my  coun 
try,  nor  do  I  seek  to  exaggerate  her  importance  by  these  sugges 
tions.  I  am  perfectly  aware  that  whatever  we  may  do  or  say,  the 
immediate  march  of  Austria  will  be  onward  in  the  course  of  des 
potism,  with  a  step  feebler  or  firmer  as  resistance  may  appear 
near  or  remote,  till  she  is  stayed  by  one  of  those  upheavings  of  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  641 

people,  which  is  as  sure  to  come  as  that  man  longs  for  freedom, 
and  longs  to  strike  the  blow  which  shall  make  it  his. 

"  Pride  is  blind,  and  power  tenacious  ;  and  Austrian  pride  and 
power,  though  they  may  quail  before  the  signs  of  the  times — before 
barricades  and  fraternization,  by  which  streets  are  made  fort 
resses  and  armies  revolutionists,  new  and  mighty  engines  in  popu 
lar  warfare — will  hold  out  in  their  citadel  till  the  last  extremity. 
But  many  old  things  are  passing  away;  and  Austrian  despotism 
will  pass  away  in  its  turn.  Its  bulwarks  will  be  shaken  by  the 
rushing  of  mighty  winds — by  the  voice  of  the  world,  wherever  its 
indignant  expression  is  not  restrained  by  the  kindred  sympathies 
of  arbitrary  power." 

He  asked  that  the  senators  of  the  United  States,  from  their  high 
places  of  government,  might  reflect  the  true  sentiments  of  their 
fellow-citizens,  and  express,  in  an  effective  form,  their  sympathy 
for  struggling  millions,  seeking,  in  circumstances  of  peril  and  op 
pression,  that  liberty  which  was  given  them  by  God,  but  wrested 
from  them  by  man.  This  sentiment  is  beautifully  and  powerfully 
portrayed  in  the  following  extract : 

"  Here  is  an  empire  of  freemen,  separated  by  the  broad  Atlantic 
from  the  contests  of  force  and  oppression,  which  seem  to  succeed 
each  other  like  the  waves  of  the  ocean  in  the  mighty  changes 

O         J  O 

going  on  in  Europe — twenty  millions  of  people  enjoying  a  mea 
sure  of  prosperity  which  God,  in  his  providence,  has  granted  to 
no  other  nation  of  the  earth.  With  no  interest  to  warp  their 
judgment ;  with  neither  prejudice  nor  animosity  to  excite  them  ; 
and  with  a  public  opinion  as  free  as  the  air  they  breathe,  they  can 
survey  these  events  as  dispassionately  as  is  compatible  with  that 
natural  sympathy  for  the  oppressed  which  is  implanted  in  the 
human  breast.  Think  you  not,  sir,  that  their  voice,  sent  from 
these  distant  shores,  would  cheer  the  unfortunate  onward  in  their 
work — would  encourage  them  while  bearing  their  evils  to  bear 
them  bravely  as  men  who  hope — and  when  driven  to  resist  by  a 
pressure  no  longer  to  be  borne,  to  exert  themselves  as  men  who 
peril  all  upon  the  effort?  But  where  no  demonstration  of  interest 
on  the  part  of  a  government  is  called  for  by  circumstances,  a 
sound  public  opinion  is  ready  to  proclaim  its  sentiments,  and  no 
reserve  is  imposed  upon  their  expression.  It  is  common  to  this 
country,  and  to  every  country  where  liberal  institutions  prevail; 
and  it  is  as  powerful  and  as  powerfully  exerted  in  France  and  in 
41 


64:2  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

England  as  in  the  United  States.  Its  effects  may  not  be  imme 
diate  or  immediately  visible ;  but  they  are  sure  to  coine,  and  to 
come  in  power.  Its  voice  is  louder  than  the  booming  of  cannon  ; 
and  it  is  heard  on  the  very  confines  of  civilization.  Our  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  has  laid  the  foundation  of  mightier  changes 
in  the  world  than  any  event  since  the  spirit  of  the  Crusades  pre 
cipitated  Europe  upon  Asia  with  zealous  but  mistaken  views  of 
religious  duty." 

This  speech  reached  the  banished  patriots  of  Hungary ;  and 
Kossuth,  in  his  exile  at  Kutalya,  (Asia  Minor,)  in  a  letter  to  Gene 
ral  Cass,  under  date  of  May  25th,  1850,  thus  utters  the  deep  joy 
of  his  heart : 

**•£*•  «  X  * 

"It  is  not  a  coward  lamentation  that  makes  me  say  all  this, 
General,  but  the  lively  sense  of  gratitude  and  thankful  acknowl 
edgments  for  your  generous  sympathy.  I  wanted  to  sketch  the 
darkness  of  my  destiny,  that  you  might  feel  what  benefit  must 
have  been  to  me  your  beam  of  light,  by  which  you,  from  the 
capital  of  free  America,  have  brightened  my  night.  It  wras  in 
Broussa,  General,  that  the  notice  of  your  imposing  speech  reached 
me ;  in  yonder  Broussa  where  Hannibal  bewailed  his  country's 
mischief,  and  foretold  the  fall  of  its  oppressors. 

-*  *  -X-  -3f  -jf  -Jf  * 

"  Yes,  General,  your  powerful  speech  was  not  only  the  inspira 
tion  of  sympathy  for  unmerited  misfortune,  so  natural  to  noble, 
feeling  hearts ;  it  was  the  revelation  of  the  justice  of  God  —  it 
was  a  leaf  from  the  book  of  Fate,  unveiled  to  the  world.  On  that 
day,  General,  you  were  sitting,  in  the  name  of  mankind,  in  tribunal, 
passing  judgment  on  despotism  and  the  despots  of  the  world ; 
and  as  sure  as  the  God  of  justice  lives,  your  verdict  will  be 
accomplished." 

On  another  occasion  his  heart  was  warm  for  the  sufferings  of 
poor  Ireland.  When  famine  stalked  abroad  over  this  gem  of  the 
sea,  and  disease  was  busy  in  the  work  of  death  ;  when  her  people 
cried  for  bread,  and,  without  resources,  laid  clown  and  died  from 
the  cravings  of  hunger,  General  Cass  came  to  their  aid,  and  gave 
them  the  benefit  of  his  eloquence  and  influence  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States.  This  secured  the  adoption  by  that  body  of  a 
bill  authorizing  the  President  to  purchase  such  provisions  as  he 
might  consider  suitable,  and  to  cause  the  same  to  be  transported, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  6±3 

and  tendered  to  the  government  of  Great  Britain  in  the  name  of 
the  United  States,  for  the  relief  of  the  people  of  Ireland  and  Scot 
land  from  famine,  and  appropriating  the  munificent  sum  of  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  carry  into  effect  the  provisions  of 
the  bill. 

He  was  aware  that  many  of  his  political  friends  in  the  Senate 
had  doubts  as  to  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  to  pass 
such  a  bill,  yet  he  gave  it  his  unqualified  support.  In  speaking 
for  the  sufferings  of  Ireland's  oppressed  children  —  her  strong- 
claims  for  sympathy  —  the  advantages  we  have  enjoyed  by  the 
immigration  of  her  industrious,  free-hearted  sons,  who  have  added 
to  our  numbers,  and  increased  the  elements  of  our  power  and 
prosperity,  he  remarked  : 

"  As  one  member  of  this  body,  I  feel  obliged  to  the  senator  from 
Kentucky  for  the  motion  he  has  submitted  and  for  the  appropri 
ate  remarks  with  which  he  introduced  it.  He  has  expressed  my 
sentiments,  but  with  an  eloquence  peculiarly  his  own.  While 
physical  want  is  unknown  in  our  country,  the  angel  of  death  is 
striking  down  the  famishing  population  of  Europe,  and  especially 
the  suffering  people  of  Ireland.  The  accounts  which  reach  us 
from  that  country,  indicate  a  state  of  distress,  in  extent  and  de 
gree  far  exceeding  any  previous  experience  in  modern  times.  It 
is  a  case  beyond  the  reach  of  private  charity ;  its  fountains  are 
drying  up  before  the  magnitude  of  the  evil ;  it  is  a  national  ca 
lamity,  and  calls  for  national  contribution.  The  starving  millions 
have  no  Egypt  '  where  they  can  go  and  buy  corn,  that  they  may 
live  and  not  die.'  From  our  granary  of  abundance  let  us  pour 
forth  supplies.  Ireland  has  strong  claims  upon  the  sympathy  of 
the  United  States.  There  are  few  of  our  citizens  who  have  not 
Irish  blood  in  their  veins.  That  country  has  sent  out  a  large 
portion  of  the  emigrants  who  have  added  numbers  to  our  popula 
tion,  industry  and  enterprise  to  our  capital,  and  the  other  elements 
of  power  and  prosperity  which  are  doing  that  mighty  work  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  that  is  already  exciting  the  admiration 
of  the  Old  World,  and  will  stimulate,  by  its  example,  the  exertions 
of  the  New.  Our  population  of  Irish  descent  have  fought  the  bat 
tles  of  the  country  with  as  much  zeal  and  bravery  as  any  class  of  citi 
zens;  and  from  the  Hights  of  Abraham,  where  Montgomery  fell,  to 
the  walls  of  Monterey,  their  blood  has  been  poured  out  like  water 
in  defense  of  liberty. 


644  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  We  can  now  send  to  Ireland,  not  indeed  what  she  has  sent  us, 
her  children — those  we  can  not  pr.rt  with — but  food  for  their  rela 
tions,  our  friends  upon  whom  the  hand  of  God  is  heavily  laid.  In 
a  petition  presented  yesterday  by  the  senator  from  New  York,  was 
a  suggestion  which  I  am  gratified  to  find  embodied  in  the  bill 
reported  by  the  senator  from  Kentucky,  and  which  I  should  be 
happy  to  see  carried  into  effect:  to  employ  in  the  transportation 
of  provisions  such  of  the  armed  ships  of  the  United  States  as  are 
not  required  for  the  operations  of  the  war.  It  would  be  a  beauti 
ful  tribute  to  the  advancing  spirit  of  the  age.  The  messenger  of 
death  would  thus  become  a  messenger  of  life  ;  the  agents  of  de 
struction,  agents  of  preservation  ;  and  our  eagle,  which  has  flown 
above  them,  and  carried  our  arms  to  the  very  coast  of  Ireland, 
would  then  become  the  signal  of  hope  where  it  has  been  the  signal 
of  defiance.  I  shall  lend  the  bill  my  support  with  pleasure." 

While  the  bill  was  under  debate,  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  moved 
to  change  its  character,  so  as  to  make  it  authorize  the  free  trans 
portation  of  food  to  Ireland  in  national  vessels,  instead  of  being 
a  direct  grant  of  money  for  the  purchase  and  transportation  of 
provisions.  General  Cass  voted  against  this  amendment,  moved 
by  his  political  a'nd  personal  friend.  He  preferred  that  the  meas 
ure  should  be  a  direct  grant  of  money  for  relief  purposes.  The 
final  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  was  taken  on  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  February,  1847,  and  General  Cass  voted  for  the  bill, 
as  he  declared  he  should  do  when  it  wras  first  introduced  before 
the  Senate. 

General  Cass  gave  a  willing  support  to  the  leading  measures  of 
Mr.  Folk's  administration.  He  did  so,  because  they  accorded 
with  his  own  opinions  of  what  the  good  of  the  country  required. 
He  advocated  and  voted  for  the  constitutional  treasury,  to  enable 
the  government  to  be  its  own  banker  —  to  collect,  keep,  and  dis 
burse  its  own  moneys,  without  inflation  of  the  currency,  and  free 
from  the  fear  of  and  losses  incidental  to  bankruptcy,  lie  believed 
the  measure  expedient ;  and  also  that  it  was  the  only  way  of 
managing  the  public  finances  recognized  in  the  Constitution. 

He  was  opposed,  upon  principle,  to  a  protective  tariff.  He 
believed  it  to  be  unequal  in  its  operations,  and  unnecessarily 
oppressive  to  large  portions  of  our  people.  It  was  class  legisla 
tion,  favoring  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  His  vote, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  645 

consequently,  stands  recorded  against  the  tariff'  of  1842,  and  in 
favor  of  that  passed  in  1846,  and  which  is  still  in  full  force. 

He  supported  the  bill  to  enable  the  President  to  take  temporary 
military  possession  of  Yucatan.  The  correspondence  between  the 
Secretary  of  State  and  the  commissioner  from  that  country,  was 
laid  before  the  Senate  in  May,  1848.  From  that,  it  appeared 
that  the  blacks  and  the  Indians  had  murdered  the  white  popula 
tion,  burnt  and  sacked  the  towns,  and  the  people  of  that  country 
solicited  relief.  Subsequently,  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs 
reported  a  bill  for  that  purpose.  Yucatan  had  also  sought  pro 
tection  from  England  and  Spain.  This  circumstance  furnished  an 
additional  reason  to  induce  General  Cass  to  give  the  bill  his  sup 
port.  The  interference  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  a  neighboring 
country,  contemplated  by  this  bill,  was  an  important  step  in  the 
policy  of  preventing  any  foreign  government  from  planting  its 
standard  on  this  continent.  We  quote  what  he  says  on  this  point: 

"During  the  palmy  days  of  Napoleon,  it  is  said  that  one  of  his 
projects  was  to  convert  the  Mediterranean  into  a  French  lake. 
England  has  nearly  done  what  defied  the  power  and  ambition  of 
the  great  conqueror.  She  has  almost  converted  it  into  an  English 
lake  in  time  of  war.  Gibraltar  commands  its  entrance,  Malta  the 
channel  between  Sicily  and  Africa,  and  the  Ionian  Islands  the 
waters  of  the  Levant.  There  were  good  reasons  for  believing,  a 
short  time  since,  that  England  was  seeking  to  obtain  a  cession  of 
the  island  of  Crete,  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Minos,  which  would 
give  her  the  port  of  Canea — that  I  found  one  of  the  most  magni 
ficent  harbors  in  the  world,  equally  capacious  and  secure.  If 
England,  in  the  pursuit  of  the  same  system,  should  acquire  similar 
commanding  positions  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  that  great  reservoir 
would  become  a  mare  dausuin,  and  no  keel  would  plow  it,  nor 
canvass  whiten  it,  in  time  of  war,  but  by  her  permission.  Now, 
sir,  looking  to  the  extent  of  our  coast  in  that  direction — to  the 
productions  which  must  pass  there  to  seek  a  market — to  the  nature 
of  our  population — and  to  the  effect  upon  all  these,  which  a  per 
manent  naval  superiority  would  produce — where  is  the  American 
who  is  not  prepared  to  adopt  any  measures  to  avert  such  a  calam 
itous  state  of  things?  Who  can  fail  to  see  the  nature  of  the  pred 
atory  warfare  which  England  would  carry  on,  in  all  times  of 
hostilities,  from  her  various  positions,  which  would  encircle  the 
Gulf  from  the  Bahamas  to  Cuba  and  to  Yucatan?  and  who,  also, 


G46  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

can  fail  to  see  that,  even  in  time  of  peace,  her  many  harbors  would 
become  places  of  refuge  for  a  certain  class  of  our  population,  and 
that  perpetual  collisions  would  occur,  involving  the  peace  of  the 
two  countries? 

"The  Gulf  of  Mexico,  sir,  must  be  practically  an  American  lake, 
for  the  great  purpose  of  security;  not  to  exclude  other  nations 
from  its  enjoyment,  but  to  prevent  any  dominant  power,  with 
foreign  or  remote  interests,  from  controlling  its  navigation.  It 
becomes  us  to  look  our  difficulties  in  the  face.  Nothing  is  gained 
by  blinking  a  great  question.  Prudent  statesmen  should  survey 
it,  and,  as  far  as  may  be,  provide  for  it.  We  have,  indeed,  no 
Mount  Carmel,  like  that  of  Judea,  nor  prophet  to  ascend  it  and 
to  warn  us  against  a  coming  storm,  but  the  home  of  every  citizen 
is  a  Mount  Carmel  for  us,  whence  he  can  survey  the  approaching 
cloud,  even  when  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  which  threatens 
to  overspread  the  political  atmosphere,  and  to  burst  in  danger 
upon  his  country.  It  should  be  a  cardinal  principle  in  our  policy, 
never  to  be  lost  sight  of,  that  the  command  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
must  never  pass  into  foreign  hands.  Its  great  geographical  fea 
tures  indicate  at  once  our  safety  and  our  danger.  From  the 
southern  point  of  Florida  to  Yucatan,  the  chord  of  the  arc  does  not 
probably  exceed  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles — a  shorter  distance 
than  that  from  Yucatan  to  Yera  Cruz.  From  the  southern  point 
of  Florida  to  Cuba,  it  is  not  more  than  forty  miles;  and  from  the 
western  extremity  of  Cuba  to  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  it  is  not 
more  than  sixty  miles.  These  two  outlets — the  latter  into  the 
Caribbean  sea.  and  the  former  into  the  Atlantic  ocean — do  not, 
therefore,  exceed  one  hundred  miles  in  their  united  width,  and 
together  make  the  exit  and  entrance  of  the  Gulf.  Opposite  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  is  the  noble  harbor  of  Havana,  almost 
within  sight  of  which  the  whole  commerce  of  the  Gulf  passes. 
England  has  already  got  the  Bahama  Islands,  with  the  port  of 
Nassau,  and  other  positions.  So  long  as  Cuba  and  Yucatan  are 
held  by  their  present  possessors,  neither  we  nor  the  commercial 
world  have  anything  to  fear  from  English  projects,  whatever  they 
may  be.  But  let  their  dominion  be  transferred  to  England,  and 
where  are  we?  The  mouth  of  our  great  river  might,  at  any  time, 
be  hermetically  sealed,  and  the  most  disastrous  injuries  inflicted 
upon  us.  One  important  step,  in  the  command  of  the  outlet  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  she  has  already  taken,  by  the  possession  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  64:7 

the  Bahamas.  If  she  gets  peaceable  possession  of  Yucatan,  by  our 
remissness,  she  will  have  taken  the  second.  Cuba  may  be  the 
last.  I  will  ask  the  distinguished  senator  from  South  Carolina  if 
he  would  advocate  the  interference  of  this  country,  by  force,  if 
England  were  attempting  by  force  to  take  possession  of  Yucatan ; 
and,  if  he  would — as  I  believe  he  would — how  can  he  consent  to 
permit  her  to  do  peacefully  what  we  may  peacefully  prevent?  I 
have  already,  sir,  alluded  to  the  effects  which  steam  navigation  is 
to  produce  upon  the  commercial  and  military  marine  of  the  world; 
and  the  various  harbors  and  inlets  of  these  possessions  would  be 
rendezvous  whence  armed  steam  vessels  would  issue  to  prey  upon 
our  commerce,  to  close  the  great  channels  of  communication,  or 
to  carry  on  marauding  expeditions  against  our  coast." 


648  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTEE  XXXVIII. 

The  Baltimore  Convention  of  1848 — The  New  York  Difficulties — General  Cass  again  named  for  the 
Presidency — His  Nomination — Resigns  his  Sonatorship — The  Canvass  before  the  People — The 
Buffalo  Convention — The  Clay  Letter  of  1825 — The  Result. 

As  the  time  drew  near  for  another  Presidential  election,  the 
National  Democratic  Committee,  in  pursuance  of  usage,  desig 
nated  the  twenty-second  of  May,  1848,  at  Baltimore,  as  the  time 
and  place  for'the  holding  of  the  Democratic  convention.  Demo 
cratic  politicians,  in  all  the  States,  began  the  incipient  movements 
for  the  campaign ;  Democratic  presses  began  to  fill  the  newspapers 
with  columns  of  editorial  matter  relative  to  the  nominee,  on  the 
question  of  preference  ;  primary  assemblages,  composed  of  persons 
who  adhered  with  tenacity  to  the  political  tenets  of  Jefferson  and 
Jackson,  canvassed  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  prominent  men 
suggested  for  the  Presidency,  and,  by  resolve,  indicated,  in  many 
instances,  their  preferences  ;  States  were  delegated,  with  and  with 
out  instruction  as  to  their  vote  in  the  convention.  In  all,  save 
one,  the  party  was  a  unit  on  the  delegates  selected,  and  evinced  a 
willingness  to  abide  by  their  action.  This  exception  was  the 
Empire  State  of  New  York. 

In  the  State  of  New  York  there  were  two  party  organizations, 
each  professing  to  be  regular,  and  claiming  the  right  to  speak  for 
all  the  Democracy  within  the  limits  of  the  commonwealth.  This 
double-headed  organization  had  its  origin  in  domestic  difficulties, 
which  occurred  in  October,  1847.  A  State  convention  convened 
in  the  city  of  Syracuse  in  the  latter  part  of  September  in  that  year, 
extending  its  deliberations  into  the  following  month.  The  con 
vention  was  called  to  nominate  candidates  for  State  officers,  and 
the  delegates  to  it  were  acrimoniously  contested  in  nearly  every 
county.  In  many  instances  dissatisfaction  was  openly  proclaimed ; 
and,  on  the  organization  of  the  convention  at  Syracuse,  there 
appeared  many  contestants  for  seats  in  that  body.  The  adjust 
ment  of  these  difficulties  consumed  much  time,  arrd  produced 
great  acerbity  of  feeling  among  the  members  and  a  numerous 
and  excited  lobby. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  649 

Finally,  the  convention,  in  due  order  of  business,  reached  the 
resolutions.  Not  two  months  before,  Mr.  Wilmot  had  offered  his 
celebrated  proviso  in  Congress.  Several  of  the  Democratic  mem 
bers  of  Congress  from  New  York  had  voted  for  that  proviso, 
and  many  of  these  gentlemen  now  had  seats  in  this  convention. 
Naturally  enough,  they  wished  the  convention  to  endorse  their 
congressional  action,  and  declared,  in  unmistakable  language, 
that  the  proviso  must  thereafter  be  the  chief  corner  stone  in  all 
Democratic  platforms.  Several  delegates  interposed  their  objec 
tions,  and  declared,  in  as  unmistakable  language,  that  they  could 
not,  consistently  with  their  political  antecedents,  consent  to  any 
new  platform  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  deprecated  in  their 
speeches  any  incipient  steps  in  relation  thereto. 

The  debate  resulted  in  a  motion  to  lay  the  proviso  on  the  table, 
which  was  carried,  on  a  division  by  ayes  and  noes,  and  the  con 
vention  adjourned  sine  die,  amid  much  noise  and  confusion. 

The  provisoists  in  a  few  days  assembled  in  mass  convention, 
in  the  village  of  Ilerkirner,  and  resolved  that  they  were  against 
the  introduction  of  slavery  into  any  new  territory,  and  that  Mr. 
Wilmot  was  right,  and  that,  thereafter,  the  doctrine  contained  in 
his  amendment  would  be  regarded  by  them  as  of  vital  importance 
in  all  party  movements.  They  also  resolved  that  the  decision  of 
the  then  late  Syracuse  convention  on  contested  seats  was  all  wrong; 
that  the  action  of  the  convention  was  not  obligatory  upon  Demo 
crats  ;  and,  by  solemn  resolve,  repudiated  the  nominated  ticket  of 
State  officers.  On  the  contrary,  those  members,  of  the  convention 
who  constituted  the  majority,  returned  to  their  several  homes,  and 
gave  the  ticket  their  usual  cordial  support. 

Here,  then,  were  two  party  organizations — both  professedly 
within  the  lines  of  the  same  party,  and  each  claiming  the  right  to 
act  for  New  York  with  the  Democratic  party  of  the  nation. 

Public  opinion,  as  indicated  in  the  various  State  conventions, 
pointed  to  General  Cass,  and  gradually  but  steadily  settled  upon 
him  as  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  The  nu 
merous  manifestations  of  public  feeling  evidenced  the  fact  that  he 
was  the  favorite  candidate  of  the  Democracy  of  a  majority  of  the 
States,  and  of  the  Democratic  party  within  those  respective  States. 
Indeed,  all  over  the  Union,  excepting  those  States  having  a  distin 
guished  citizen  of  their  own  aspiring  for  the  Presidency,  public  sen 
timent  pointed  to  him.  Endowed  by  nature  with  great  physical 


650  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  mental  energy,  and  the  latter  highly  cultivated  by  science 
and  experience ;  trusted  with  official  power  and  responsibility  by 
Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Jackson,  and  Van  Bnren,  and  honored 
with  the  confidence  of  Polk,  he  had  shown  himself  worthy  and 
competent  to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  these  distinguished  states 
men.  In  his  views  on  the  Oregon  question,  on  the  slavery  ques 
tion,  on  the  tariff,  currency,  annexation  of  territory,  and  foreign 
interference,  he  looked  upon  the  entire  country  as  alike  interested, 
and,  in  acting  upon  them,  he  was  governed  by  what,  in  his  judg 
ment,  seemed  most  beneficial  to  all.  Many  of  the  eminent  states 
men  of  the  country  thought  it  ^Tas  most  fit  that  such  a  man  should 
be  at  the  head  of  the  government  at  a  time  when  agitation,  party 
spirit,  and  an  unhealthy  sentiment  on  some  topics,  prevailed  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent. 

The  nominating  convention  convened  at  Baltimore  on  the  day 
designated.  Andrew  Stevenson,  of  Virginia,  was  selected  to  pre 
side  over  its  deliberations.  As  was  anticipated,  two  sets  of  dele 
gates  appeared,  with  credentials  in  their  hands,  from  New  York. 
After  an  elaborate  discussion,  running  through  three  days,  the 
convention  ruled  to  admit  both  delegations,  with  the  right  to  cast, 
altogether,  the  vote  of  New  York.  The  delegation  known  as 
Barnburners  protested  against  this  decision,  and  retired  from  the 
convention.  The  delegation  known  as  Hunkers,  remained,  but 
declined  to  cast  the  vote  of  the  State.  The  former  were  under 
stood  to  be  opposed  to  the  nomination  of  General  Cass  ;  the  latter, 
in  his  favor. 

The  primitive  cause  of  the  double-headed  organization  above 
alluded  to,  dates  back  to  an  anterior  period.  It  had  its  origin  in 
the  winter  of  1838,  when  Mr.  Van  Buren — then  President  of  the 
United  States — broached  the  financial  measure  of  an  independent 
treasury.  A  portion  of  the  Democracy  of  New  York  at  first 
disapproved  of  it,  and  were  known  in  political  nomenclature  as 
Conservatives.  But  a  short  period  of  time  intervened,  however, 
before  this  cognomen  was  merged  again  in  the  word  Democratic, 
and  the  Conservatives  as  well  as  the  Hard  Currency  Men  again 
shared  victory  and  defeat.  The  Democratic  party  of  the  State 
passed  into  a  minority  for  a  brief  season,  and,  upon  restoration  to 
place  and  power,  once  more  divided ;  but  the  division  this  time 
was  upon  the  financial  policy  of  the  State.  This  diversity  of 
opinion  strengthened  at  the  capital,  and  gradually  spread  its 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  651 

influence  in  all  parts  of  the  empire  commonwealth.  At  length, 
in  18:1:3,  this  diversity  of  sentiment  widened,  so  as  to  embrace  the 
national  question  of  the  annexation  of  Texas ;  and  then,  in  a 
modified  form,  the  immediate  annexation  to  the  United  States  of 
all  the  country  known  as  Texas,  as  far  south  as  the  Rio  Grande. 
William  L.  Marcy  was  the  recognized  leader  of  those  who  were  in 
favor  of  annexation,  and  Silas  Wright  of  those  who  were  disposed 
"  to  wait  a  time  in  patience."  In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Yan  Buren — 
a  prominent  candidate  for  the  Presidency — was  interrogated  as  to 
his  views  upon  this,  then  the  great  political  question  of  the  day, 
and  such  was  his  response  that  the  national  Democratic  Conven 
tion  of  1814  set  him  aside  for  James  K.  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  as  the* 
reader  already  has  been  apprised.  Immediately  upon  the  ad 
journment  of  this  national  convention,  a  circular  —  commonly 
known  as  the  Secret  Circular — emanated  from  several  gentlemen 
supposed  to  be  privy  to  the  confidential  views  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren, 
and  circulated  among  prominent  Democrats  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  who  were  supposed  to  be  imbued  with  similar  views,  sug 
gesting  the  propriety  of  giving  particular  attention  to  the  Con 
gressional  canvass  that  was  to  occur  simultaneously  with  the 
Presidential,  leaving  an  impression  upon  the  minds  of  those.  wTho 
were  in  favor  of  annexation,  that  the  design  was  to  let  the  electoral 
ticket  float  without  chart  or  compass. 

As  was  quite  natural,  those  who  wrere  content  with  the  final 
action  of  the  National  Convention,  were  somewhat  alarmed  at 
this  unlocked  for  and  unprecedented  proceeding.  They  redoubled 
their  energies  for  the  success  of  the  Presidential  ticket,  and  Mr. 
Wright  was  nominated  for  the  office  of  Governor,  and  triumph 
antly  elected.  His  majority  was  some  five  thousand  higher  than 
that  cast  for  the  electoral  ticket;  this  discrepancy  confirmed  the 
suspicion  on  the  part  of  the  Annexationists,  that  all  the  friends  of 
Mr.  Wright  had  not  cast  their  suffrages  for  Mr.  Polk. 

As  the  day  approached  for  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Polk,  in 
March,  1815,  much  interest  was  felt  in  the  caste  of  the  Cabinet. 
Inasmuch  as  New  York  had  cast  her  electoral  votes — then  thirty- 
six  in  number  —  for  the  successful  candidate,  it  was  taken  for 
granted  that  she  would  be  honored  with  a  seat.  Governor  Marcy 
was  named  by  the  Annexationists,  and  Asariah  C.  Flagg  by  the 
personal  friends  of  Governor  Wright.  After  an  animated  strug 
gle,  Governor  Marcy  was  invited  to  the  War  Department.  Under 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  circumstances,  this  selection  seemed  very  obnoxious  to  the 
supporters  of  his  competitor,  and  much  murmuring  ensued.  This 
dissatisfaction,  nevertheless,  was  more  or  less  held  in  abeyance 
until  the  close  of  the  year  J  846,  when,  upon  the  retirement  of 
Governor  Wright  from  the  gubernatorial  chair,  the  pent-up  feeling 
burst  the  barriers  of  prudence,  and  crimination  and  recrimination 
were  freely  indulged  by  all  grades  and  classes.  Congressional 
appropriations  to  conquer  a  peace  with  Mexico  occasioned  the 
introduction  of  the  Wilmot  proviso,  and  the  Wilmot proviso  rup 
tured  the  harmony  of  the  Democratic  party  in  New  York,  and 
finally  rent  it  in  twain.  Pari  passu  with  the  progress  of  the 
events  above  referred  to,  there  were  numerous  intrigues  and 
schemes  for  personal  advancement  among  the  leaders  and  the  led 
on  all  sides,  the  details  of  which  we  omit  to  elucidate. 

To  recur  to  the  convention.  In  conformity  to  precedent,  the 
two  third  rule  was  adopted,  and  the  convention  proceeded  to  take 
a  ballot  for  the  nominee.  The  result  of  the  first  ballot  was 
announced  as  follows: 

Lewis  Cass,  of  Michigan,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  votes; 

James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  fifty-five  votes; 

Le,vi  Woodbury,  of  New  Hampshire,  fifty-three  votes; 

John  C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  nine  votes; 

William  J.  Worth,  of  the  United  States  Army,  six  votes; 

George  M.  Dallas,  of  Pennsylvania,  three  votes.  (Florida  and 
New  York  not  voting.) 

The  whole  number  of  votes  cast  on  this  ballot  was  therefore  two 
hundred  and  fifty-one;  and  the  necessary  number  for  a  choice  was 
one  hundred  and  sixty-seven.  No  one  having  received  this  num 
ber,  a  second  ballot  was  taken,  and  announced  as  follows: 

Cass,  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  votes; 

Woodbury,  fifty-six  votes; 

Buchanan,  fifty-four  votes; 

Worth,  five  votes; 

Dallas,  three  votes.     (Florida  and  New  York  not  voting.) 

No  one  receiving  two  thirds  of  the  votes  cast,  the  convention 
proceeded  to  a  third  ballot,  with  the  following  result : 

Cass,  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  votes; 

Woodbury,  fifty-three  votes; 

Buchanan,  forty  votes; 

Worth,  five  votes.     (New  York  not  voting.) 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  653 

The  necessary  number  (Florida  having  voted)  was  one  hundred 
and  sixty-nine.  The  States  were  again  called,  and  on  the  fourth 
balloting  the  following  result  was  attained  : 

Cass,  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  votes; 

Woodbury,  thirty -eight  votes; 

Buchanan,  thirty-three  votes; 

Butler,  three  votes; 

"Worth,  one  vote,  (New  York  not  voting) — in  all  two  hundred 
and  fifty-four  votes.  General  Cass  had  received  two  thirds  and 
ten  to  spare,  and  was  declared  the  nominee  of  the  convention  for 
President  of  the  United  States.  This  was  received  with  enthusi 
astic  applause,  the  members  of  the  several  delegations  almost 
instantaneously  and  universally  springing  to  their  feet,  and  uniting 
in  one  spirit-stirring  shout  of  approbation. 

William  O.  Butler,  of  Kentucky,  was  nominated  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent;  and,  with  the  adoption  of  resolutions  and  the  ordinary  busi 
ness  of  a  nominating  convention,  the  members  separated  for  their 
homes,  full  of  confidence  and  strong  in  the  expectation  of  victory. 

Mr.  Stevenson,  the  president  of  the  convention,  on  taking  leave 
of  it,  took  occasion  to  pay  the  following  tribute  to  the  character 
and  capacity  of  their  nominee  for  President : 

"  I  congratulate  you,"  said  he,  "  and  the  country  upon  the  issue 
of  your  deliberations.  I  rejoice  that  you  have  done  that  which  I 
knew  you  would  do — honored  yourselves,  honored  the  party,  hon 
ored  the  country,  by  presenting  two  candidates  worthy — most 
worthy — to  fill  these  high  and  distinguished  stations.  Gentlemen, 
you  have  discharged  that  duty.  "With  one  of  these  nominees  I 
have  been  intimate  from  early  life.  I  know  him  wrell.  I  have 
observed  him  at  home  and  abroad,  and  I  can  say,  unhesitatingly, 
that  if  there  be  one  man  of  stainless  character — if  there  be  one 
man  whose  claims  to  public  confidence  are  founded  upon  private 
virtue,  that  man  is  LEWIS  CASS." 

General  Cass  was  notified  of  his  nomination  at  "Washington, 
-where  he  then  was,  and,  with  grateful  appreciation  of  the  partial 
ity  and  confidence  of  the  convention,  accepted  it  in  a  handsomely 
written  letter,  and  in  which  he  took  occasion  to  express  his  unre 
served  approval  of  the  resolutions  which  the  convention  had 
adopted. 

On  accepting  this  nomination,  General  Cass  resigned  his  seat 
in  the  Senate,  and  retired  to  his  residence  at  Detroit.  His  route 


654:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

homeward  was  a  continued  scene  of  welcome.  In  all  the  principal 
towns  through  which  he  passed  he  was  received  with  every  mani 
festation  of  respect.  Congratulatory  addresses  were  made  to  him, 
and  the  Democracy  everywhere  proclaimed  their  approval  of  the 
nomination,  so  far  as  public  expression  was  given. 

In  a  few  days,  the  Whig  National  Convention  met  in  Philadel 
phia,  and,  casting  aside  all  their  favorite  statesmen,  nominated 
General  Zachary  Taylor  for  the  office  of  President — taking  him 
up  on  the  score  of  availability.  His  military  successes  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  before  the  walls  of  Monterey,  and  on  the  plain  of  Buena 
Yista,  were  his  recommendations.  These  startling  achievements 
had  won  for  him  a  high  place  in  the  affections  of  the  people,  and 
his  friends  had  brought  him  forward  at  an  early  day.  Letters 
reached  him,  one  after  the  other,  in  Mexico,  asking  him  to  declare 
himself  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  To  these  letters  it  was 
his  wont  to  reply,  that  he  was  ready  to  receive  the  votes  of  all, 
without  distinction  of  party,  who  were  disposed  to  sustain  him. 
He  declared  that  he  had  no  particular  politics,  and  had  not  been 
in  the  habit  of  availing  himself  of  the  right  of  suffrage.  He  did 
not  appear  to  desire  the  nomination  of  either  of  the  political  par 
ties,  but  was  willing  to  receive  the  support  of  all  at  the  polls. 
Efforts  were  made  to  commit  him  to  the  support  of  certain  politi 
cal  dogmas,  and,  if  elected,  to  a  pledge  to  adhere  to  them  in  his 
administration;  but  without  avail.  He  expressed  his  unalterable 
determination  to  stand  upon  the  no-party  platform.  And  thus  he 
remained  to  the  moment  of  his  nomination  by  the  Philadelphia 
convention;  and  that  convention  adjourned  without  any  declara 
tion  of  principles  for  the  public  eye.  This  action — so  peculiar 
and  novel  for  a  delegated  political  body — gave  umbrage  to  many 
of  the  staunch,  and  intelligent,  and  influential  Whigs,  in  various 
quarters.  Some  of  them  went  so  far  as  to  repudiate  the  nomina 
tion  openly,  and,  without  stint,  to  express  their  abhorrence  at  this 
unexpected  result  of  the  deliberations  of  the  convention. 

.In  the  meantime,  the  Barnburners  of  New  York  called  and  held 
a  delegated  convention  at  the  city  of  Utica;  and  inasmuch  as  the 
Baltimore  Convention  had  precluded  them  from  casting  the  undi 
vided  vote  of  their  State  in  that  convention,  they  resolved  to 
oppose  the  nominees  in  the  canvass,  and  designated  Martin  Yan 
Buren  as  the  man  for  whom  they  should  vote  for  the  office  of 
President.  The  evident  disaffection  prevailing  among  the  Whigs 


OF  LEWIS  CAS3.  655 

encouraged  and  emboldened  them  in  their  efforts.  That  class  of 
citizens  at  the  North,  who  had  been  known  in  the  political  world 
as  Abolitionists,  believed  that  they  might  fraternize  with  the 
Barnburners  and  disaffected  Whigs,  throughout  the  northern 
and  north-western  States;  and  if  a  combination  could  be  made, 
a  choice  of  President  and  Yice-President  in  the  electoral  colleges 
might  be  prevented,  and  the  election  of  these  high  officers  be 
transferred  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  A  plan  was  soon 
devised  to  bring  all  these  conflicting  elements  into  a  consolidated 
policy  of  action,  and  a  mass  convention  assembled  at  the  city  of 
Buffalo,  in  the  month  of  August,  for  the  purpose  of  achieving  this 
result. 

There  were  a  large  number  in  attendance  from  the  States 
of  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Ohio.  Other  northern  and 
north-western  States  were  represented  by  smaller  delegations. 
The  deliberations  extended  through  three  days,  and  resulted  in 
an  agreement  to  support  Mr.  Yan  Buren  for  the  office  of  Presi 
dent,  and  Charles  F.  Adams,  of  Boston,  for  Yice-President.  This 
latter  gentleman  was  a  son  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  in  attend 
ance  on  the  convention.  Both  himself  and  Mr.  Yan  Buren 
accepted  the  nomination;  and  their  supporters,  with  the  platform 
of  free  soil,  free  speech,  and  free  men,  worked  with  energy  to 
draw  off  voters  from  the  Democratic  and  Whig  parties. 

The  acceptance  of  this  nomination,  from  such  a  constituency, 
by  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  surprised  and  mortified  thousands  of  his  old 
friends  and  partizans,  and  occasioned  much  unpleasant  crimina 
tion  and  recrimination.  Many  of  them  insisted  that  his  conduct 
was  only  reconcilable  with  the  supposition,  that,  since  1844,  lie  had 
nurtured  in  his  bosom,  in  the  peaceful  quietude  of  Lindenwald, 
a  deep  resentment  against  the  Democratic  party,  and  re 
sorted  to  this  mode  of  gratifying  it,  in  the  hope  that  the  defeat 
of  that  party  in  this  struggle  would  be  inevitably  permanent. 
What  rendered  his  course  more  reprehensible  than  it  otherwise 
would  have  been,  was  the  fact,  that  the  doctrines  in  regard  to 
slavery,  promulgated  by  the  convention  that  nominated  General 
Cass,  were  identical  with  those  adopted  by  the  convention  of 
1840,  which  nominated  Mr.  Yan  Buren;  and  that  the  resolutions 
of  the  last  named  convention  were  drawn  by  Silas  Wright,  and, 
as  was  generally  understood,  examined  and  approved  by  Mr. 
Yan  Buren  prior  to  their  adoption  by  the  convention.  The  late 


656  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

Governor  Hill,  of  New  Hampshire,  stated  in  a  letter,  that  Mr. 
Yan  Buren  not  only  approved  of  the  resolutions  referred  to,  but 
suggested  that  the  resolution  relating  to  slavery  should  be  pointed 
and  unequivocal;  and  that,  upon  his  suggestion,  the  concluding 
clause  of  that  resolution  was  added  to  the  draft,  namely:  "  That 
all  efforts  of  the  Abolitionists  or  others,  made  to  induce  Congress 
to  interfere  with  questions  of  slavery,  or  to  take  incipient  steps  in 
relation  thereto,  are  calculated  to  lead  to  the  most  alarming  and 
dangerous  consequences;  and  that  all  such  efforts  have  an  inevi 
table  tendency  to  diminish  the  happiness  of  the  people,  and 
endanger  the  stability  and  permanency  of  the  Union,  and  ought 
not  to  be  countenanced  by  any  friend  of  our  political  institutions." 

The  Democratic  platforms  of  1840-of  1844— of  1848— were  iden 
tical  on  all  questions  relating  to  slavery.  With  reference  to  its 
extension  or  non-extension,  on  what  should  be  the  policy  with 
reference  to  the  government  of  new  territories  that  might  be 
acquired,  nothing  was.  said.  That  subject  was  still  open  for  con 
sideration. 

The  action  of  the  Buffalo  Convention  completed  the  programme 
of  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1848.  There  were  three  tickets 
in  the  field  :  Cass  and  Butler,  Democratic — Taylor  and  Fillmore, 
Whig — Yan  Buren  and  Adams,  Free  Soil.  As  the  canvass  pro 
gressed,  it  became  very  personal.  Partizan  spirit  was  intensely 
excited:  the  Whigs,  generally,  in  the  northern  States,  really  did 
not  care  so  much  for  the  election  of  their  nominated  candidates 
as  they  did  for  the  defeat  of  General  Cass.  The  free-soilers  pre 
ferred  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren  to  the  success  of  the  Demo 
cratic  candidate  ;  and  thus,  in  effect,  General  Cass  w^as  at  all 
times  and  on  all  occasions  the  main  point  of  attack.  His  political 
opinions  were  misrepresented — his  private  character  was  maligned 
in  every  manner  that  could  be  divined  by  vigilant  and  skillful 
politicians.  The  rubbish  of  times  long  gone  by  were  raked  up 
to  see  if  something  could  not  be  discovered  to  be  used  as  a  make 
weight  against  him.  True,  he  had  served  his  government  for  full 
forty  years,  and  during  that  time  had  disbursed  hundreds  of  thou 
sands  of  dollars  for  the  government.  [But  it  came  out  upon  the 
call  of  Congress  and  the  consequent  report  of  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment,  that  his  accounts  were  balanced,  and  that  he  did  not  owe 
the  United  States  one  cent.]  True,  when  Henry  Clay — the  intre 
pid  champion  of  the  war  measures  of  Mr.  Madison,  whose  patriotic 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  657 

services  are  written  upon  the  history  of  our  country,  and  whose 
memory  is  impressed  upon  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen — was 
elevated  to  the  premiership  of  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams'  admin 
istration,  General  Cass  wrote  him  a  letter  congratulating  him  on 
his  personal  advancement;  but  not  a  blot  upon  the  bright  pages 
of  his  own  political  history  could  be  found.  II is  record  was  clean. 
Of  a  patriotic  and  democratic  ancestry,  he  had  not  dishonored  it; 
but  in  all  his  actions,  private  or  public,  personal  or  political,  he 
stood  on  an  eminence  too  high  to  be  reached  by  the  shafts  of  envy 
or  malevolence. 

The  Democrats  of  the  whole  country  were  alive  to  their  duty. 
The  efforts  of  the  opposition  were  too  vigorous  and  tireless  for 
them  to  remain  idle.  There  was  not  a  city,  village,  or  hamlet, 
from  the  lakes  to  the  Rio  Grande,  that  was  not  canvassed ;  and  when 
the  polls  closed,  he  had  no  occasion  to  be  ashamed  of  the  result. 
Fifteen  States — or  half  the  entire  number — cast  their  electoral 
vote  for  Lewis  Cass :  the  remaining  fifteen  for  Zachary  Taylor. 
The  name  of  Martin  Van  Buren  does  not  appear  on  the  returns 
from  the  electoral  colleges.  The  States  of  New  York  and  Penn 
sylvania  voted  for  the  Whig  candidate,  and  outnumbered  the 
Democratic  candidate  thirty-six  electoral  votes.  The  aggregate 
vote  of  the  people  amounted  to  2,872,000,  of  which  General 
Cass  received  1,219,902— General  Taylor,  1,360,752— Mr.  Yan 
Buren,  291,342,  of  which  120,000  came  from  New  York— thus 
plainly  showing  that  he  diverted  a  sufficient  number  of  Democratic 
voters  from  their  accustomed  allegiance  to  party  to  turn  the  scale 
in  favor  of  General  Taylor.  Taking  into  consideration  the  vote 
for  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  General  Cass  received  a  very  large  majority 
of  the  votes  of  the  people  over  General  Taylor;  but  the  sixty-two 
electoral  votes  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  turned  the  scale, 
and  the  hero  of  Buena' Vista  was,  in  due  time,  declared  elected 
President  of  the  United  States. 

To  this  decision  no  one  submitted  more  cheerfully  than  General 
Cass.  He  had  no  regrets.  The  Democratic  party  was  defeated; 
but  the  polls  told,  too  plainly  to  be  mistaken,  that  it  was  not  van 
quished  ;  and  that  its  principles,  and  its  distinguished  candidate, 
still  lived  in  the  hearts  of  American  freemen. 

The  Presidential  vote  in  the  electoral  colleges,  as  announced  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  stood  thus  : 
42 


658  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

For  LEWIS  CASS — 

Maine,  nine  votes; 

New  Hampshire,  six  votes; 

Virginia,  seventeen  votes; 

South  Carolina,  nine  votes; 

Ohio,  twenty-three  votes; 

Indiana,  twelve  votes; 

Illinois,  nine  votes; 

Michigan,  five  votes; 

Wisconsin,  four  votes; 

Iowa,  four  votes; 

Missouri,  seven  votes; 

Mississippi,  six  votes; 

Alabama,  nine  votes; 

Texas,  four  votes; 

Arkansas,  three  votes; — one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  votes. 
For  ZACIIABT  TAYLOR — 

Massachusetts,  twelve  votes; 

Rhode  Island,  four  votes; 

Connecticut,  six  votes; 

Yermont,  six  votes; 

New  York,  thirty -six  votes; 

New  Jersey,  seven  votes ; 

Pennsylvania,  twenty-six  votes' 

Delaware,  three  votes; 

Maryland,  eight  votes; 

North  Carolina,  eleven  votes; 

Georgia,  ten  votes; 

Kentucky,  twelve  votes; 

Tennessee,  thirteen  votes; 

Louisiana,  six  votes; 

Florida,  three  votes; — one  hundred  and  sixty-three  votes. 

The  entire  north-west — Missouri   included—in   one  unbroken 

column,  pronounced  for  the  Democratic  nominee — the  man  who 

had  wintered  arid  summered  with  them,  and  never  deserted  their 

interests.     His  native  State,  although  voting  for  Mr.  Woodbury 

in  the  nominating  convention,  did  not  forget  her  son  at  the  polls. 

Surely  General  Cass  had  no  reason  to  be  restless  at  such  a  result. 

The  Wilmot  proviso  had  done  its  work.     It  alone  had  caused 

the  defeat.     Upon  calm  reflection,  and  in  the  exercise  of  dispas- 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  659 

sionate  judgment,  after  the  smoke  and  roar  of  the  battle  had 
passed  away,  General  Cass  was  better  satisfied  than  ever  with  his 
position  upon  that  exciting  topic.  He  believed  that  he  had  not 
abandoned  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  and  was  still  within  the  pale  of 
the  Democratic  church.  It  was  alleged  against  him,  as  for  years 
previously  against  Mr.  Van  Buren,  that  he  was  a  dougJi-face  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  ;  but  the  glorious  vote  of  the  old  north 
west  territory  repudiated  the  charge.  It  was  urged  that  his 
reliance  was  upon  the  southern  States;  but  a  majority  of  the  slave 
States  had  voted  for  his  competitor,  and  a  majority  of  the  free 
States  had  voted  for  himself.  In  every  aspect,  then,  as  he  reviewed 
the  field  of  battle,  the  position  was  rightly  taken;  and  all  that  now 
remained  for  him  to  do,  was  quietly  to  pursue  the  even  tenor  of 
his  way,  diverging  neither  to  the  right  nor  the  left,  strong  in  the 
integrity  of  his  own  political  career,  and  impressed  with  an  unal 
terable  conviction  that  the  doctrines  enunciated  by  the  Baltimore 
Convention  were  alone  compatible  with  the  prosperity  of  his 
country  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  for  the  reader  to  know  with  what 
philosophic  coolness  General  Cass  received  the  result. 

It  was  about  midnight  of  the  day  of  the  Presidential  election 
in  1818,  that  Mr.  Ledyard,  his  son-in-law,  handed  to  the  General 
a  telegraphic  dispatch  from  an  esteemed  friend — Wilson  McCand- 
less,  of  Pittsburgh — which  gave  the  returns  from  Alleghany  Co., 
Pennsylvania.  The  General,  upon  reading  the  dispatch,  at  once 
remarked,  "that  the  whole  question  was  settled;  the  election  had 
resulted  in  favor  of  General  Taylor,  and  that  he  was  going  to 
bed,"  and  he  did  so,  and  slept  soundly. 

The  next  morning  he  was  waited  upon  by  a  committee  of  the 
New  England  Society  of  Michigan,  and  invited  to  deliver  the 
annual  address  at  its  then  approaching  anniversary.  lie  accepted 
the  invitation,  and  that  evening  commenced  to  write  what  proved 
to  be  one  of  his  best  literary  efforts.  It  was  a  wonderful  instance 
of  philosophical  submission  to  the  defeat  of  his  aspirations  to  the 
highest  prize  in  our  political  lists. 

lie  commenced  his  address  before  the  society  on  the  22d  of 
December,  1 848,  in  the  following  beautiful  style  : 

"It  was  a  bleak  and  sterile  coast,  and  an  arctic  winter  began  to 
brood  over  sea  and  land.  Neither  man  nor  his  works  disturbed 
the  solitude  of  nature.  All  was  dreary,  silent  and  desolate — all, 


660  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

save  a  tempest-tossed  bark,  with  its  weary  inmates,  which,  two 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  years  ago,  approached  the  shore  of  the 
new  continent,  then  recently  made  known  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  old.  For  sixty -three  days,  this  feeble  vessel  had  plowed  the 
ocean,  leaving  behind  it  many  of  the  associations  dearest  to  man, 
and  many  of  the  intellectual  and  physical  enjoyments  which  make 
life  desirable,  and  having  before  it  an  unknown  world,  unknown 
indeed  in  its  great  features,  but  known  to  be  covered  with  a  prim 
itive  forest,  stretching  beyond  human  knowledge,  and  almost 
beyond  human  imagination,  inhabited  by  fierce  and  roving  sav 
ages,  and  offering  nothing  but  to  laborious  exertion  defended  by 
constancy  and  courage.  This  sterile  coast,  thus  approached,  was 
New  England  ;  this  tempest-tossed  bark  wras  the  Mayflower,  and 
its  passengers  were  the  Pilgrims." 

As  his  mind  lingered  upon  the  departure  of  the  Pilgrims  from 
their  father-land,  his  imagination  seized  upon  their  last  act  on  their 
native  coast,  and  pictured  the  solemn  transaction  with  the  colors 
of  reality. 

"And  now  came  the  embarkation;  the  first  act  in  the  great 
drama  of  their  pilgrimage.  The  Mayflower,  —  I  pass  over  the 
history  of  her  consort,  as  she  did  not  reach  America,  —  the  May 
flower,  destined  to  become  their  ark  across  the  ocean,  was  ready 
to  receive  them  at  the  small  port  of  Delft,  in  Holland.  The  little 
colony,  male  and  female,  youth,  manhood  and  old  age,  marched 
in  solemn  procession  to  the  strand,  and  here  occurred  an  impres 
sive  scene,  one  of  those  incidents  which  mark  the  character  of 
events,  and  leaves  its  impress  upon  history  during  all  time  to 
come.  The  departing  band  kneeled  down  upon  the  beach,  and 
their  venerable  pastor  blessed  their  enterprise,  and  commended 
all,  with  all  their  interests,  to  Him  who  made  the  sea,  and  land, 
and  could  save  them  from  the  perils  of  the  deep,  as  he  saved  his 
chosen  people,  and  guided  them  in  his  own  miraculous  path 
through  the  waters  of  the  Red  sea. 

"And  on  the  strand  of  the  ocean,  in  that  temple  not  made  with 
hands,  was  the  last  offering  of  the  Pilgrims.  The  old  cathedrals 
of  Europe  are  imposing  structures,  powerfully  affecting  the  human 
imagination,  and  preparing  the  human  mind  for  the  solemn  duties 
of  religion.  Their  dim  light,  mellowed  by  the  stained  glass, 
painted  with  interesting  scenes  from  biblical  story,  their  lofty 
arches,  their  clustered  columns,  their  long  aisles,  their  silence  and 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  661 

their  magnitude,  and  the  centuries  that  have  passed  over  tliera, 
with  the  memory  of  the  numberless  host  who  worshiped  there 
and  have  now  gone  to  their  account,  all  these  impress  the  fac 
ulties  with  awe,  and  while  they  shut  out  external  nature,  they 
invite  man  to  the  contemplation  of  himself  and  of  his  relation  to 
the  Creator.  But  the  shore  of  the  ocean  was  the  cathedral  of  the 
exiles.  They  had  the  blue  firmament  of  heaven,  God's  own  can 
opy,  over  them ;  their  altar  was  the  tide-worn  beach,  where  land 
and  water  had  met  and  contended  for  mastery  since  the  creation ; 
around  them  was  the  coast  of  Europe,  they  were  about  to  leave, 
and  the  broad  Atlantic,  they  were  about  to  cross,  rolling  its  surges 
upon  the  strand,  and  mingling  its  mighty  voice  with  the  voice  of 
the  preacher;  and  between  them,  their  wives  and  children,  and 
the  forest  of  the  new  world,  was  nothing  but  the  sky  and  the 
water,  and  the  wonders  of  the  great  deep.  And  thus  they  prayed 
and  departed." 

He  possesses  kindly  feelings  towards  his  political  opponents, 
although  strong  in  his  attachment  to  political  friends,  and  firm 
and  ardent  in  his  political  faith.  Years  afterwards,  he  obtained 
from  President  Pierce  a  commission  in  the  army  for  the  grandson 
of  General  Taylor,  who  was  then  in  his  grave. 


662  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

Re-election  to  the  Senatorship — General  Cass  proceeds  to  Washington — Reception  in  New  York  City — 
Campbell  P.  White  and  others  address  him — Invited  to  a  Public  Dinner — His  Letter  of  Declension 
— In  the  Senate  again — Wilmot  Proviso — Instructed  to  vote  for  it — Declines — Instruction  repealed 
— General  Cass'  Motives  impugned — Charged  with  Inconsistency— The  Refutation. 

The  Legislature  of  Michigan,  in  January,  1849,  returned  Gen 
eral  Cass  to  the  United  States  Senate,  to  fill  the  vacancy  occasioned 
by  his  resignation.  This  was  in  accordance  with  the  general  wish 
of  the  Democratic  party  in  Michigan,  and  elsewhere,  and  he 
immediately  resumed  his  seat  in  that  body. 

On  his  way  to  "Washington  in  the  following  autumn,  he  was 
waited  on  by  many  of  his  fellow-citizens  in  the  city  of  ~New  York, 
and  invited  to  partake  of  their  hospitality.  The  following  cor 
respondence  was  of  importance  at  the  time,  as  disclosing  his 
opinions  and  position  on  the  difficult  questions  that  then  presented 
themselves  on  the  horizon,  relative  to  the  newly  acquired  terri 
tories  of  New  Mexico  and  California. 

"NEW  YORK,  November  21st,  1849. 

"Hon.  LEWIS  CASS.  SIR:  —  Even  amid  the  fierce  contests  of 
party,  all  men  have  awarded  to  you  the  praise  and  admiration 
due  to  one  who  has  so  highly  distinguished  himself  as  the  father 
of  the  west,  a  soldier  in  war,  a  statesman  in  peace,  an  eloquent 
advocate  and  defender  of  the  honor  of  his  country,  both  in  her 
councils  at  home  and  her  representation  abroad  ;  and,  therefore, 
you  can  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  the  Democracy  of  this  city, 
whose  leader  and  champion  you  are,  regard  you  with  an  affection 
almost  filial.  Your  arrival  in  this  city  affords  them  the  long  de 
sired  opportunity  to  testify  to  you  the  sincerity  of  their  devotion, 
as  ardent  now  as  when  they  were  struggling  to  crown  you  with 
the  highest  honor  of  the  republic.  To  enable  them  to  do  so,  we 
respectfully  solicit  you  to  name  some  day  when  you  will  partake 
of  a  public  dinner,  at  which,  we  are  well  assured,  you  will  be 
joined  by  those  who  can  and  do  appreciate  the  eminent  services 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  C63 

of  one  who  has  devoted  his  whole  life  to  the  good  of  his  fellow- 
men,  and  contributed  so  much  to  the  permanency  of  the  Union, 
the  happiness  of  our  people,  and  the  elevation  of  our  national 
character. 

"  With  sentiments  of  profound  respect, 
"  We  are,  sir, 

"  Your  Democratic  fellow-citizens, 

CAMPBELL  P.  WHITE,  HENRY  STORMS, 

HENRY  M.  WESTERN.  EDWARD  STRAIIAN, 

JAMES  C.  STONE  ALL,  LORENZO  13.  SHEPARD, 

C.  S.  BOGARDUS,  GUSTAVUS  A.  CoNOVER, 

C.  W.  LAWRENCE,  DANIEL  E.  DELAVAN, 

HENRY  JSTicoLL,  JOHN  J.  Cisco, 

M.  D.  FRENCH,  DANIEL  E.  SICKLES, 

JOHN  M.  •  BRADHURST,  EGBERT  J.  DILLON, 

J.  W.  BELL,  JAMES  M.  SMITH,  JR., 

CHARLES  O'CONNER,  JOHN  AUG.  BOGART, 

EDWARD  C.  WEST,  and  many  others." 

"NEW  YORK,  November,  20th,  1849. 

"  GENTLEMEN  : — I  thank  you  for  the  honor  you  have  conferred 
on  me,  by  the  offer  of  a  public  dinner;  and  while  I  decline  the 
invitation,  which  I  trust  you  will  excuse  me  for  doing,  I  can  not 
withhold  the  expression  of  my  feelings  for  such  a  testimonial  of 
regard  from  the  Democracy  of  this  great  city.  I  shall  cherish  it 
with  grateful  recollection  during  life. 

"  I  thank  you,  also,  for  the  favorable  terms  in  which  you  have 
been  pleased  to  allude  to  my  position  and  services.  These,  I  am 
very  sensible,  have  few  claims  to  consideration,  but  such  as  are 
derived  from  your  kind  partiality.  An  emigrant  to  the  West  in 
early  youth,  the  better  portion  of  my  life  has  been  passed  in  that 
great  contest  with  nature  in  which  the  forest  has  given  way  and 
an  empire  has  arisen,  already  among  the  most  magnificent  crea 
tions  of  human  industry  and  enterprise.  Placed  in  a  geographical 
position  to  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  duration  of  this 
confederacy  of  republics,  attached  to  the  Union  and  to  the  whole 
Union,  and  attached  equally  to  the  principles  of  freedom,  and  to 
the  Constitution  by  which  these  are  guarded  and  secured,  should 


664:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  time  ever  come — as  I  trust  it  will  not — and  come  whence  and 
why  it  may,  when  dissolution  shall  find  advocates,  and  the  hand 
of  violence  shall  attempt  to  sever  the  bond  that  holds  us  together, 
the  West  will  rise  up  as  one  man  to  stay  a  deed  so  fatal  to  the 
cause  of  liberty  here  and  throughout  the  world — ay,  and  it  will  be 
stayed.  Success  can  never  hallow  the  effort.  If  we  are  not  struck 
by  judicial  blindness,  we  shall  hold  on  to  the  Constitution  with  a 
tenacity  defying  time  and  accident,  thanking  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  and  our  own  God,  for  political  institutions  which  have 
securccUto  us  a  greater  measure  of  national  prosperity  than  it  has 
ever  been  the  lot  of  any  people  before  us  to  enjoy. 

"We  have  but  one  danger  to  fear.  As  to  military  power  and 
the  general  corruption  of  manners  and  morals — causes  to  which 
history  attributes  the  fall  of  many  republics  in  ancient  and  in 
modern  days — I  believe,  if  they  are  not  the  last,  they  are  among 
the  last  of  the  evils  we  have  to  apprehend.  Our  future  would  be 
all  the  patriot  could  desire,  if  that  future  contained  no  other  seeds 
of  danger  than  these.  The  prophetic  sagacity  of  Washington 
foresaw  and  foretold  the  true  danger  which  threatens  us :  the 
clanger  of  sectional  interests  and  passions  arraying  one  portion  of 
the  Union  against  another.  A  spirit  of  compromise  was  necessary 
to  create  this  confederation,  and  it  is  equally  necessary  to  preserve 
it  in  its  integrity  and  efficiency.  When  questions  come,  deeply 
affecting  the  country,  and  dividing  it  by  geographical  lines,  then 
comes  the  time  of  trial,  which  no  true  American  can  contemplate 
without  anxiety.  It  is  seldom  that  such  issues  can  be  presented 
when  mutual  forbearance  is  not  dictated  alike  by  duty  and  by 
wisdom.  If  one  half  of  a  great  country,  abandoning  all  other 
differences  of  opinion,  is  unanimous  in  its  sentiments  upon  any 
measure  of  internal  policy  locally  affecting  itself,  its  citizens  should 
meet  from  their  countrymen  of  the  other  section  kindness,  and  not 
denunciation ;  argument,  and  not  recrimination  ;  and  a  desire 
to  reconcile  conflicting  opinions  as  harmoniously  as  is  compatible 
with  the  nature  of  the  controversy.  No  such  views,  respecting 
their  rights  or  their  position,  can  be  so  held  by  an  extensive  com 
munity  without  the  existence  of  forcible  considerations  which  call 
for  careful  inquiry,  and  for  a  wise  as  well  as  a  kind  decision.  In 
this  spirit  should  sectional  questions  be  discussed ;  and,  if  they 
are  so,  they  will  bring  with  them  no  danger,  but  will  furnish 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  665 

additional  motives  for  union,  and  will  contribute  powerfully  to 
our  strength  and  prosperity. 

"I  am,  gentlemen,  with  great  respect, 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"LEWIS  CASS. 
"  CAMPBELL  P.  WHITE,  ESQ.,  and  others." 

The  first  session  of  the  thirty-first  Congress,  in  1849-50,  was 
prolific  with  propositions,  resolutions,  and  bills,  that  augured  no 
good  to  the  internal  peace  of  the  country.  The  southern  members 
had  long  complained  of  trespasses  upon  their  rights  as  members 
of  the  confederacy.  This  feeling  was  not  confined  simply  to  their 
peculiar  domestic  institutions,  but  extended  to  commercial  and 
monetary  matters.  The  politicians  of  the  north  retorted;  and  this 
crimination  and  recrimination,  increasing  in  bitterness  and  exas 
peration,  culminated  at  this  session  of  Congress.  Mr.  Hale — a 
senator  from  New  Hampshire — even  went  so  far  as  to  present  a 
petition  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  asked  for  its  reception  and 
consideration  by  the  Senate.  It  was  evident  enough  to  the  wise 
statesmen  of  the  land,  that  an  evil  of  portentious  magnitude  was 
suspended  over  the  country — being  no  less  than  civil  war,  with 
all  its  horrors — unless  this  discord  and  dissension  were  removed. 
Eminent  men  from  both  sections,  north  and  south,  and  from  both 
the  Democratic  and  Whig  parties,  paused  to  unite  in  devising 
some  measures  to  allay  the  irritation.  They  saw  that,  if  the  spirit 
of  compromise  was  necessary  at  the  formation  of  the  Constitution, 
it  was  now  still  more  so.  Several  measures  were  suggested,  and 
offered  in  Congress.  Mr.  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  Mr.  Bell,  of  Tenn 
essee,  and  Mr.  Foote,  of  Mississippi,  respectively  proposed  meas 
ures  to  compromise  and  adjust  all  questions  in  controversy  between 
the  free  and  slave  States,  relative  to  the  subject  of  slavery.  The 
propositions  of  Messrs.  Clay  and  Bell  were  embraced  in  a  series 
of  resolutions,  which  elicited  much  discussion.  Mr.  Foote  simply 
introduced  a  resolution  to  the  effect,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Con 
gress,  at  that  session,  to  establish  suitable  territorial  governments 
for  California,  New  Mexico,  and  Deseret.  General  Cass  supported 
this  resolution  with  his  accustomed  zeal  and  ability.  Mr.  Hale 
gave  notice  that  he  should  move  the  Wilmot  proviso  as  an  amend 
ment,  to  be  attached  to  the  resolution,  and  thus  again  brought  up 
that  vexed  and  exciting  point  for  discussion. 


666  LIFE  AXD  TIMES 

Much  had  been  said,  during  the  Presidential  canvass  of  1848, 
with  reference  to  the  principles  of  legislation  shadowed  forth  in 
the  Nicholson  letter ;  and  General  Cass  availed  himself  of  this 
opportunity  to  give  his  views  at  still  greater  length.  He  con 
tended  that  Congress  was  not  vested  with  -unlimited  power  of 
legislation  over  the  Territories.  He  insisted  that  there  was  a  wide 
difference  between  the  right  to  institute  governments  for  Territo 
ries  and  the  right  to  legislate  over  their  internal  concerns. 

"  It  was  precisely  this  claim  of  unlimited  legislation  which  led 
to  our  revolutionary  struggle,  and  to  our  separation  from  England. 
And  I  must  confess  I  have  listened  with  amazement,  in  this  hall 
of  American  legislation,  to  the  long  and  subtle  metaphysical  in 
quiries  into  the  rights  of  sovereignty,  and  the  power  it  brings  with 
it,  as  if  the  rights  of  sovereignty  were  everything,  and  the  rights 
of  man  nothing.  It  is  a  revival  almost,  in  terms,  of  the  discussions 
between  the  parent  country  and  the  colonies,  but  in  which  we 
have  changed  places,  and  now  assume  to  exercise  the  very  power 
• — the  power  of  legislation  without  representation — which  we  first 
denied  in  argument,  and  then  resisted  in  arms.  The  British 
statesmen  could  not  understand  what  practical  limits  there  could 
be  to  the  power  of  the  sovereign  Parliament  over  the  colonies, 
and,  as  they  found  none  in  their  constitution,  they  admitted  none 
in  their  legislation.  They  could  not  elevate  their  eyes  from  their 
own  narrow  system  to  those  fundamental  principles  of  human 
freedom,  '  written,'  as  Lord  Chatham  said,  '  in  the  great  volume  of 
nature,'  which  are  immutable  and  indestructible.  They  had  one 
advantage,  however,  in  the  argument,  of  which  we  are  deprived; 
they  had  an  unwritten  Constitution  to  appeal  to,  and  a  legislature 
to  act,  which,  by  the  theory  of  their  government,  was  omnipotent. 
When,  therefore,  the  exercise  of  any  power  was  brought  into  ques 
tion,  it  was  not  necessary  to  establish  its  existence,  but  it  was  for 
those  who  opposed  it  to  establish  the  limitations  by  which  it  was 
sought  to  be  controlled.  But  the  powers  of  our  government  are 
both  defined  and  limited,  and,  before  the  authority  of  Congress 
can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  any  subject,  the  constitutional  grant 
of  power  must  be  clearly  pointed  out. 

"  Now,  sir,  it  is  no  pleasant  task  to  argue  with  any  man  who 
does  not  see,  and  feel,  and  acknowledge  the  difference  between 
the  right  of  unlimited  legislation  over  distant  regions,  where  there 
is  no  representation,  and  the  right  to  organize  governments,  leaving 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  C67 

to  the  people  to  be  affected  by  them  to  regulate  their  own  concerns 
in  their  own  way.  The  one  may  be  necessary  and  defensible,  and 
is  reconcilable  with  practical  liberty.  There  are  no  circumstances 
which  require  or  justify  the  other,  or  which  can  reconcile  its  exer 
cise  with  the  great  principles  of  human  freedom.  I  am  well  aware 
that  the  Constitution  has  given  to  Congress  the  power  of  exclusive 
legislation  over  the  seat  of  the  federal  government.  That  anoma 
lous  feature  in  our  system  had  peculiar  reasons  for  its  introduction, 
and,  though  the  condition  of  the  people  in  the  District  places  them 
at  the  disposal  of  a  legislature  neither  elected  by  nor  responsible 
to  them,  still  there  is  a  community  of  interest  and  of  feeling,  result 
ing  from  residence,  personal  intercommunication,  and  political 
associations,  which  temper  the  real  despotism  of  the  measure,  and 
which  can  never  exist  between  the  members  of  Congress  find  a 
remote  colony.  And,  above  all,  this  right  of  exclusive  legislation 
is  one  of  the  terms  of  the  national  compact,  neither  doubted  nor 
susceptible  of  doubt. 

"I  have  heard  a  good  deal  said  upon  this  subject  of  uncon 
trolled  legislation  over  the  Territories,  which  is  the  very  paraphrase 
of  what  was  said  by  Lord  North,  Mr.  Dundas,  and  by  other  mem 
bers  of  the  ministerial  party  in  England,  three  quarters  of  a  cen 
tury  ago.  The  lessons  of  experience  are  indeed  too  soon  forgotten ; 
but  I  did  not  suppose  that  the  lessons  taught  us  by  our  revolu 
tionary  fathers  would  so  soon  fade  from  the  memory  of  the  present 
generation.  A  great  principle  is  involved  in  this  controversy — 
the  inseparable  connection  between  legislation  and  representation. 
And  what  paramount  necessity  calls  for  its  violation?  Are  not 
the  people  -of  the  Territories  competent  to  manage  their  own  inter 
nal  affairs?  Are  they  not  of  us  and  with  us? — bone  of  our  bone 
and  flesh  of  our  flesh? — the  same  people,  with  the  same  views, 
habits,  and  intelligence ;  all,  indeed,  which  constitutes  national 
identity?  aye,  sir;  and  exhibiting,  by  the  very  act  of  emigration, 
a  spirit  of  enterprise  which  commends  them  the  more  to  our 
respect.  Can  not  such  a  people  administer  their  own  government 
safely  and  wisely?  Experience  says  they  can.  They  have,  in 
every  instance,  proved  their  capacity  for  self-government,  and 
life,  liberty,  and  property  have  been  as  well  protected  by  their 
laws  as  by  the  laws  of  the  States. 

"  It  is  clear,  then,  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  Congress  to  leg 
islate  for  the  Territories.  They  have  never  legislated  exclusively ; 


668 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 


and  the  very  few  instances  of  the  exercise  of  sncli  a  power 
upon  the  statute  book  were  not  only  unconstitutional,  but  were 
acts  of  supererogation,  which  the  territorial  legislature  was  much 
more  competent  than  the  national  legislature  to  consider  and 
determine  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  people  of  the  Territory.  It 
may  be  said,  sir,  that  some  of  the  recent  acquisitions  contain  a 
considerable  population  foreign  to  our  political  institutions,  and 
not  as  well  qualified  to  appreciate  them  as  our  native  or  natural 
ized  citizens  who  are  familiar  with  their  operations.  But,  sir,  this 
objection  —  which,  however,  does  not  touch  the  principle  —  is  en 
titled  to  no  consideration  as  a  practical  one.  There  is  not  a  terri 
torial  government  we  shall  organize  in  which  the  majority  of  the 
active  population  will  not  be  American  citizens,  emigrants  from 
the  older  States,  and  in  which  this  class  of  persons  will  not  exer 
cise  a  preponderating  influence,  controlling  all  public  measures. 
What,  then,  have  we  to  fear?  The  great  issues  of  life  and  death 
are  left  to  the  people.  ~No  one  calls  this  in  question  ;  and  to  the 
same  trust  may  be  committed,  with  equal  safety,  all  the  other 
objects  of  internal  legislation. 

"  And  the  late  proceedings  in  California  to  organize  a  govern 
ment,  and  the  constitution  which  has  been  the  result,  are  the  best 
proofs  that  could  be  offered  of  the  capacity  of  the  people  to  lay 
the  foundations  of  their  political  institutions  wisely  and  justly. 
What  a  practical  comment  is  that  constitution  upon  the  doubts 
we  have  heard  expressed,  in  this  hall  and  out  of  it,  respecting  the 
intelligence  of  these  remote  Territories,  and  the  necessity  of  re 
straining  them  by  Congressional  legislation.  I  know  of  no  con 
stitution  in  this  broad  Union  where  the  principles  of  rational  and 
progressive  liberty  are  better  secured  than  in  this  first  great  polit 
ical  offering  from  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

"  So  much  for  the  difference,  both  in  principle  and  practice, 
between  the  power  to  institute  governments  for  the  Territories  and 
the  power  of  internal  legislation  over  them.  But  this  difference 
is  not  a  mere  speculative  one,  nor  one  which  appeals  only  to  the 
feelings  of  the  American  people  and  their  representatives.  It 
enters  deeply  into  the  question  before  us;  into  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress  to  legislate  over  the  Territories,  and  thus  pre 
sents  itself  on  the  very  threshold  of  this  inquiry. 

"  There  is  no  clause  in  the  Constitution  which  gives  to  Con 
gress  express  power  to  pass  any  law  respecting  slavery  in  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  669 

Territories.  The  authority  is  deduced  from  various  sources, 
which  I  propose  to  examine  by  and  by.  But  every  construction 
which  would  give  to  a  foreign  legislature  jurisdiction  over  this 
subject  of  slavery, — by  foreign,  I  mean  not  elected  by  the  people, 
to  be  affected  by  its  acts,  nor  responsible  to  them, — would  equally 
give  it  jurisdiction  over  every  other  department  of  life,  social  and 
political,  in  the  Territories :  over  the  relations  of  husband  and 
wife,  of  parent  and  child,  of  guardian  and  ward,  as  well  as  over 
the  relations  of  master  and  servant ;  and  embracing  within  the 
sphere  of  its  operations  the  whole  circle  of  human  rights,  personal 
and  political — life,  liberty  and  property  in  all  their  various  modes 
of  enjoyment.  I  say  '  the  power  of  Congress  over  slavery;'  for,  if 
we  have  power  to  abolish  it,  or  to  exclude  it,  we  have  power  to 
institute  it.  We  possess  complete  jurisdiction  over  the  subject; 
for  there  is  no  intellect,  however  acute,  which  can  so  limit  the 
legislative  right  of  action,  if  it  exist  at  all,  as  to  apply  it  to  the 
exclusion  of  slavery,  and  withhold  it  from  its  institution.  If  any 
one  doubts  this  proposition,  let  him  turn  to  the  Constitution  and 
show  the- limitation.  Before  I  can  believe  that  such  a  power  was 
granted,  so  remote  from  the  objects  of  the  government  which  the 
iramers  of  the  Constitution  sought  to  establish,  belonging  exclu 
sively  to  the  local  questions  affecting  the  different  communities 
into  which  we  are  divided,  I  must  abandon  many  of  the  allusions 
I  have  cherished  respecting  the  wisdom  of  the  statesmen  who 
composed  the  convention  of  1787. 

"  'We  are  all  aware  that  there  are  various  clauses  of  the  Consti 
tution,  and  various  other  sources,  foreign  and  domestic,  whence 
this  right  of  unlimited  legislation  over  the  Territories  is  sought  to 
be  deduced.  One  of  these,  at  least,  is  an  express  constitutional 
grant  of  power,  and  if  it  fairly  includes  the  authority  to  'bind  the 
Territories  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  then  there  is  an  end  of  this 
question,  and  we  may  pass  this  proviso  and  regulate  all  their 
other  concerns  at  our  pleasure.  But  there  are  other  sources, 
accepted  or  rejected,  as  minds  differently  constituted  take  part  in 
this  controversy,  whence  this  right  is  derived  indirectly,  as  neces 
sary  to  the  exercise  of  some  power  found  in  the  Constitution,  or  of 
some  other  power  found  out  of  the  Constitution.  It  will  hardly 
be  denied, — the  time  for  denial  has  not  yet  come,  though  appear 
ances  indicate  it  as  fast  approaching, — that  these  indirect  or  inci 
dental  powers  are  to  be  employed  no  further  than  is  necessary  to 


670  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

meet  the  occasion  which  calls  them  into  action.  Derivative  in 
their  nature,  they  are  limited  in  their  exercise.  They  can  not  go 
beyond  the  legitimate  object  which  is  sought  to  be  attained.  If 
the  necessity  for  social  order  in  the  Territories,  as  many,  perhaps 
as  most,  of  the  speakers  contend,  is  the  true  foundation  of  the 
right  of  Congress  to  legislate  over  them,  it  is  a  right  which 
extends  no  farther  than  may  be  necessary  and  proper  to  fulfill 
this  first  duty  of  society.  The  means  must  be  proper  for  the  end, 
and  proportioned  to  it;  and  if  this  end  can  be  obtained  by  the 
establishment  of  local  governments,  there  ceases  the  constitutional 
action  of  Congress,  and  the  internal  legislation  should  be  commit 
ted  to  the  people  to  be  affected  by  it.  It  is  essential,  therefore,  to 
ascertain  whence  this  power  comes,  that  we  may  ascertain  how 
far  it  may  go;  essential,  that  we  may  not  violate  the  Constitution; 
essential,  that  we  may  not  violate  a  fundamental  principle  of  free 
dom,  the  unalienable  connection  between  representation  and 
internal  legislation;  and  essential,  that  the  people  of  the  Territo 
ries  may  conduct  their  own  concerns  in  their  own  way — the  very 
cardinal  doctrine  of  American  freedom. 

"  Reverting  to  the  proposition  that  Congress  has  unlimited 
power  of  legislation  over  the  Territories,  the  first  reflection  which 
strikes  the  inquirer  is,  that  if  this  power  were  intended  to  be 
granted,  nothing  was  more  easy  than  for  the  convention  to  place 
the  subject  beyond  doubt,  by  a  plain  expression  of  the  object. 
Instead,  then,  of  five  or  six  clauses  of  the  Constitution,  some  with 
remote  relation  to  the  subject,  and  some  with  none  at  all,  which 
are  in  succession  relied  upon  as  the  foundation  of  this  power,  we 
should  have  had  a  clear  authority  for  the  exercise  of  one  of  the 
highest  attributes  of  government;  the  highest,  indeed — the  right 
of  unlimited  legislation.  The  clause  most  frequently  quoted  in 
support  of  this  right  is  that  which  provides  that  '  the  Congress 
shall  have  power  to  dispose  of,  and  make  all  needful  rules  and 
regulations  respecting,  the  territory  or  other  property  belonging 
to  the  United  States.'  But  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  if 
general  jurisdiction  over  life  and  liberty  was  intended  to  be 
granted  by  this  provision,  its  phraseology  is  little  creditable  to 
the  person  who  prepared  it  or  to  the  body  which  adopted  it. 
Heretofore  the  universal  judgment  of  our  country  has  pronounced 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  not  less  admirable 
for  the  force  and  perspicuity  of  its  language,  than  for  the  principles 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  671 

it  establishes  and  the  government  it  instituted.  Proper  words 
in  proper  places  have  been  till  now  the  characteristic  fea 
ture  of  its  mode  of  expression.  But  if  the  power  to  make  needful 
rules  and  regulations  for  the  property  of  the  United  States — for 
this  is  the  grant,  and  all  the  grant — conveys  full  legislative 
authority  over  this  property,  and  over  all  persons  living  in  the 
same  region  of  country,  making  man  the  mere  incident  of  prop 
erty,  certainly  never  were  words  more  unhappily  chosen,  nor  a 
reputation  for  clearness  and  certainty  more  unjustly  acquired. 
That  the  convention,  when  they  intended  to  grant  full  legislative 
power,  knew  what  terms  to  employ,  is  manifest  from  the  phrase 
ology  of  the  provision  for  the  government  of  the  Federal  District, 
and  of  places  ceded  '  for  the  erection  efforts,  magazines,  arsenals, 
dock-yards,  and  other  needful  buildings.'  Here  the  right  to  exer 
cise  exclusive  legislation  is  given  in  express  terms,  admitting  no 
doubt,  and  the  very  words  are  employed  which  are  best  adapted 
to  convey  the  power  intended  to  be  granted,  and  no  other  power. 
When,  therefore,  a  construction  is  put  upon  the  authority  to  maJce 
needful  rules  and  regulations  for  property,  which  carries  it  far 
beyond  the  obvious  import  of  the  words,  those  assuming  this 
ground  are  bound  to  explain  why  similar  language  was  not  used 
to  grant  similar  powers,  and  by  what  just  rule  of  implication  a 
phrase  so  limited  is  made  to  convey  a  power  so  unlimited.  How 
is  it  that,  in  the  same  instrument,  to  exercise  exclusive  legislation 
and  to  regulate  property  convey  equally  a  general  jurisdiction 
over  all  the  objects  of  human  concern?  No  man  has  done  this. 
No  man  has  attempted  to  do  it;  and  it  is  an  obstacle,  in  limine, 
which,  till  removed,  is  insuperable. 

"  I  have  looked  over  the  discussions  on  this  subject  with  a  view 
to  ascertain  whence  this  power  is  derived  by  the  various  speakers 
or  writers  who  have  taken  part  in  this  controversy,  and  it  is  not 
a  little  curious  to  analyze  the  different  opinions,  and  to  find  what 
diversity  of  sentiment  prevails  respecting  the  true  ground  of  Con 
gressional  interposition.  There  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  consentane 
ous  admission  that  the  power  exists,  but  then  comes  the  diversity 
of  views  when  seeking  to  justify  its  exercise  by  the  provisions  of 
the  Constitution. 

"  I  will  enumerate  the  most  prominent  of  these  suggestions,  and 
then  proceed  to  test  them  by  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  : 

"  1.  The  principal  reliance,  till  recently,  for  the  support  of  this 


672  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

general  power  of  legislation  has  been  upon  that  clause  of  the  Con 
stitution,  already  quoted,  which  authorizes  Congress  to  'dispose 
of,  and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting,  the  ter 
ritory  or  other  property  belonging  to  the  United  States.'  More 
recently,  however,  as  the  subject  has  been  investigated,  this 
clause  has  found  less  favor,  and  other  provisions  have,  in  succes 
sion,  been  brought  forward  as  justifying  Congressional  interposi 
tion.  Among  these  are — 

"  2.  The  war  and  treaty-making  powers. 
"  3.  The  right  to  admit  new  States. 
"  4.  The  right  to  sell  the  public  lands. 
"  5.  The  right  of  ownership. 
"  6.  The  right  or  duty  of  settlement. 
"  7.  The  right  of  sovereignty. 
"  8.  The  nature  of  government. 
"  9.  Nationality. 

"  10.  The  principles  of  agency  and  trust. 

"  11.  That  provision  of  the  Constitution  which  declares  that 
'all  debts  and  engagements  entered  into  before  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution  shall  be  as  valid  against  the  United  States  under 
this  Constitution  as  under  the  Confederation.'  The  ordinance  of 
1787,  it  is  contended,  is  one  of  these  engagements,  and  the  gov 
ernments  established  by  it  are  therefore  recognized  by  the  Con 
stitution. 

"  12.  "While  it  is  admitted  that  the  ordinance  of  1787  was 
'passed  by  the  old  Congress  of  the  Confederation  without  author 
ity  from  the  States,'  it  is  contended,  not  that  the  clause  respecting 
'debts  and  engagements'  confirmed  it,  but  that  it  'had  been 
tacitly  confirmed  by  the  adoption  of  the  present  Constitution  and 
the  authority  given  to  Congress  in  it  to  make  needful  rules  and 
regulations  for  the  territory.' 

"  These  various  reasons  are  not  selected  here  and  there  from 
speeches  and  essays,  first  separated  from  their  natural  connection 
and  then  arranged  in  a  formidable  column  for  the  sake  of  effect, 
but  they  are  each  and  all  of  them  urged  with  zeal,  and  I  doubt 
not  with  sincerity,  as  grounds  for  the  constitutional  action  of 
Congress  upon  the  subject  of  the  Wilmot  proviso. 

"  Much  of  the  confusion  which  accompanies  this  subject  has  ob 
viously  arisen  from  the  use  we  now  make  of  the  word  '  territory ',' 
applying  it  to  those  political  communities  which  are  organized 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  673 

under  the  name  of  Territorial  governments,  and  considering  it 
as  so  applied  in  the  Constitution.  Indeed,  so  prevalent  is  this 
notion,  that  in  an  address  of  the  Democratic  members  of  the 
legislature  of  New  York,  dated  in  April,  1848,  this  clause  is  quoted 
as  though  it  read  territories  or  '  other  property  belonging  to  the 
United  States,'  thus  fixing  upon  the  word  its  acquired  political 
signification ;  and  this  example  has  been  followed  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  where  one  of  the  most  intelligent  members 
says,  '  the  Constitution  speaks  of  territories  belonging  to  the 
United  States.'  This  use  came  by  time,  for  the  ordinance  of  1787 
obviously  employed  the  word  territory  as  descriptive  of  a  region 
of  country  belonging  to  the  United  States,  and  which  had  been 
ceded  to  them  by  the  members  of  the  Confederacy.  The  '  Western 
Territory'  was  its  popular  designation,  and  it  is  thus  called  in  an 
act  of  the  old  Congress  passed  May  20th,  1785,  entitled  'An  ordi 
nance  for  ascertaining  the  mode  of  disposing  of  lands  in  the 
Western  Territory.'  The  meaning  is  here  geographical,  and  not 
political ;  for  no  government  was  established  there  till  more  than 
two  years  after  this  period.  And  the  proceedings  of  the  old  Con 
gress  abound  with  its  use  in  that  signification,  proofs  of  which 
will  be  found  in  an  act  of  April  13th,  1785,  in  another  of  May  9th, 
1787,  and  in  yet  another  of  May  12th,  of  the  same  year,  all  before 
the  passage  of  the  ordinance  for  the  government  of  the  North- 
Western  Territory.  Then  came  that  ordinance  providing  for  the 
government  of  this  region  of  country,  this  territory,  or  land,  or 
domain,  as  it  is  indiscriminately  called  in  the  legislative  and  other 
official  acts  of  that  period.  Its  more  appropriate  political  desig 
nation  seems  to  have  been  'district?  for  the  ordinance  commences 
by  declaring  '  that  the  said  territory,  [or  region  of  country,]  for 
the  purposes  of  government,  shall  be  one  district,  subject,  how 
ever,  to  be  divided  into  two  districts,  as  future  circumstances  may, 
in  the  opinion  of  Congress,  make  it  expedient.'  And  these  dis 
tricts  were  each  to  constitute  a  government,  with  a  governor  and 
judges  to  'reside  in  the  district,'  who  are  to  'adopt  arid  publish 
laws  in  the  district,'  and  eventually,  with  a  partially  elective 
legislature,  having  authority  '  to  make  laws  in  all  cases  for  the 
good  government  of  the  district,'  &c. 

"  The  territory,  or  region  of  country,  is  thus  organized  into  a 
political  district;  and  had  these  local  communities,  which  we  now 
call  Territories,  preserved  this  term,  district,  as  descriptive  of 

4:3 


674  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

their  political  organization,  or  been  known  as  colonies,  the  English 
designation  for  remote  possessions,  we  should  probably  never  have 
heard  of  the  extended  construction  now  given  to  this  power  of 
making  needful  rules  for  territory  or  land,  and  other  property. 
As  in  the  ordinance,  so  in  the  Constitution,  both  adopted  in  the 
same  year,  the  word  territory  retains  its  geographical  signification, 
and  it  was  only  by  time  and  custom  that  it  sometimes  came  to 
mean  political  communities,  distinct  from  the  geographical  region 
where  these  are  established.  But  this  use  of  the  term,  I  repeat, 
was  unknown  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of,  the  Constitution. 

"  What,  then,  is  the  true  import  of  this  constitutional  power,  to 
make  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  the  public  property  ?  If 
this  were  a  question  of  the  first  impression,  and  a  construction 
were  now  to  be  put  upon  this  clause  unembarrassed  by  practice 
or  precedent,  it  is  so  clear  in  its  phraseology  and  objects,  that  it  is 
not  probable  there  would  be  any  diversity  of  opinion  upon  the 
subject.  It  would  be  conceded  that  it  gave  to  Congress  power 
to  dispose  of,  use,  and  preserve  the  public  property,  where- 
ever  situated,  and  to  exercise  any  power  fairly  '•needful''  to  attain 
these  objects.  The  slightest  analysis  establishes  this  construction. 
It  is  property  alone  which  is  the  subject  of  the  grant ;  and  its  dis 
position,  and  in  connection  with  that,  its  use  and  preservation,  are 
the  objects.  The  frame  of  the  sentence  places  this  beyond  doubt. 
The  phrase  '  territory  or  other  property,'  makes  territory  one  of 
the  classes  of  property,  and  was  doubtless  here  introduced  as  far 
the  most  important  of  them,  being  the  Western  Territory,  the 
great  fund  destined  to  relieve  the  finances  of  the  infant  Confede 
ration.  He  who  denies  this,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  philological 
reasoning. 

"  There  are  two  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  and  only  two, 
which  touch  the  property  of  the  United  States.  One  is  the  clause 
which  we  are  considering,  and  which  contains  this  necessary  grant 
of  power  to  the  government,  as  a  landholder  or  holder  of  other 
property,  to  use  and  dispose  of  the  same  at  its  pleasure;  and  the 
other  is  the  clause  authorizing  Congress  '  to  exercise  like  authority 
(exclusive  legislation,  like  that  exercised  over  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,)  over  all  places  purchased  by  the  consent  of  the  legislature  of 
the  State  in  which  the  same  shall  be  situated,  for  the  erection  of 
forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dock-yards  and  other  needful  buildings.' 

"  The  object  of  these  clauses  is  essentially  different.     The  one  is 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  675 

to  enable  Congress  to  manage  and  control  the  property  of  the 
United  States,  wherever  situated,  in  order  that  it  may  be  applied 
to  its  proper  uses  without  the  necessity  of  resorting  to  other  legis 
lation;  and  the  other,  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over  all  persons  living 
in  their  forts  and  other  buildings,  in  circumstances  where  such 
jurisdiction  is  necessary,  and  is  accordingly  ceded  by  the  proper 
authority.  The  one  provision  is  universal,  applying  wherever  the 
United  States  have  property.  The  other  is  applicable  only  to 
places  held  for  special  objects,  and  where  cessions  of  jurisdiction 
are  expressly  made. 

"  Now,  it  is  manifest  that  if  the  power  "to  make  needful  rules 
and  regulations  conveys  a  general  grant  of  legislative  authority, 
then  the  express  clause  for  the  exercise  of  jurisdiction  with  the 
consent  of  the  States  was  unnecessary,  and  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  wherever  it  owns  property,  possesses  by  the  act  of 
ownership  complete  legislative  jurisdiction  within  its  limits. 

"For  it  is  to  be  observed  that  this  power  'to  dispose  of  and 
make  needful  rules  and  regulations,'  attaches  to  the  public  prop 
erty  whether  found  in  the  States  or  Territories,  and  is  the  only 
authority  by  which  the  public  lands,  wherever  situated,  are  sold; 
and,  consequently,  the  people  living  thereon  are  subject  to  Con 
gressional  legislation,  and  may  be  placed  beyond  the  reach  of  State 
authorities.  Either  this  consequence  follows,  or  the  very  same 
words,  operating  upon  the  very  same  subject,  convey  powers 
altogether  different. 

"  It  is  under  this  authority  that  our  whole  system  of  land  laws 
has  been  established  ;  that  land  has  been  surveyed  and  sold, 
trespasses  prevented  or  punished,  intrusions  prohibited,  and  the 
proceeds  of  the  national  domain  realized  and  carried  to  the 
national  treasury.  The  laws  for  these  purposes  are  general  in 
their  operation,  not  applicable  to  the  Territories  alone,  but  embrac 
ing  in  their  action  those  portions  of  all  the  States  where  this  kind 
of  property  exists. 

"  And  these  laws,  passed  by  virtue  of  this  clause  relating  to  the 
public  property,  cease  to  operate  as  soon  as  the  United  States 
cease  to  own  such  property.  If  a  tract  of  land,  wherever  situated, 
whether  within  a  State  or  Territory,  is  paid  for  and  sold,  all  the 
provisions  for  the  security  of  the  United  States,  arising  out  of  this 
special  clause  of  the  Constitution,  disappear  at  once,  and  the  tract 


676  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

passes  into  the  common  mass  of  property,  subject  to  all  the  usual 
incidents,  and  governed  only  by  the  usual  local  laws. 

"  But  it  is  yet  strenuously  contended,  though  certainly  not  with 
the  same  earnestness  of  conviction  which  marked  the  earlier  dis 
cussions  of  this  subject,  that  the  natural  arid  obvious  import  of  this 
clause,  giving  Congress  power  to  make  needful  rules  and  regula 
tions  for  the  public  property,  is  not  the  true  one,  but  that  it  gives 
complete  legislative  jurisdiction  over  the  property  itself  and  over 
all  the  persons  living  within  the  Territories  of  the  United  States. 
And  why?  I  have  examined  with  some  care  the  long  debates 
upon  this  subject,  and  I  find  there  are  two  different  views  taken 
of  this  clause,  both  of  which  unite  in  the  same  conclusion,  but 
separate  in  the  process  by  which  it  is  reached.  Those  who  advo 
cate  the  one,  contend  that  the  word  '  territory'  does  not  mean  land 
alone,  but  includes  also  political  jurisdiction;  thus  making  Ameri 
can  citizens  a  part  of  the  national  property,  which  Congress  may 
'  dispose  of,'  or  otherwise  regulate  at  its  pleasure.  The  advocates 
of  the  other,  who  certainly  bring  to  this  discussion  greater  numbers, 
as  well  as  higher  talents  and  position,  while  conceding  that  the 
word  'territory'  in  this  connection  means  land,  maintain  that  the 
right  to  make  needful  rules  and  regulations  concerning  it,  neces 
sarily  conveys  unlimited  powers  of  legislation  over  such  property, 
as  well  as  over  the  political  communities,  called  Territories,  where 
it  is  to  be  found. 

"  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Hudson]  is  the  new 
Galileo  to  whom  we  owe  the  discovery  that  the  people  of  a 
Territory  are  property;  and  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution, 
with  equal  liberality  and  wisdom,  made  special  provision  for  their 
sale  whenever  it  may  please  Congress  to  put  them  into  the  market; 
and,  as  a  corollary  from  this  doctrine,  the  construction  which 
considers  territory  in  this  clause  as  land  or  other  property,  is 
denounced  as  a  'miserable  quibble,'  put  forth  possibly  topleasethe 
faithful'  and  the  honor  of  its  paternity  is  attributed  to  me  by 
name,  and  with  one  of  those  sneers  of  intelligence  with  which 
great  minds — alas  for  the  infirmities  of  human  nature  ! — are  but 
too  prone  to  consummate  their  victories  over  small  ones.  Truth, 
however,  compels  me,  wrhile  professing  my  sincere  adhesion  to  this 
position,  to  decline  the  honor  of  this  gentleman's  censure,  and  to 
limit  my  claim  to  the  humble  services  of  a  disciple  in  this  school, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  677 

while  disavowing  the  title  of  master.  Had  he  sought  his  princi 
ples  of  government  less  in  European  writers,  and  more  in  the 
Constitution  of  his  country  and  its  expositions,  it  would  not  be 
necessary  for  me  to  tell  him  that  it  is  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  which  years  ago  put  this  construction  upon  the 
Constitution,  and  pronounced  'territory'  and  'land'  in  this  article 
to  be  synonymous.  I  place  in  juxtaposition  the  dictum  of  the  gen 
tleman  from  Massachusetts  and  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
in  the  case  of  the  United  States  vs.  Gratiot  and  Others: 

"  '  Mr.  HUDSON*.  "  '  THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

"'This  new  doctrine  of  General  CASS',        "  'The  term  'territory,'  as  here  used, 
put  forth  possibly  to  please  the  faithful  in    is  merely  descriptive  of  one  kind  of  pro- 
certain  parts   of  the   country,  is  entirely    perty,   and   is    equivalent  to  the    word 
superficial,  and  will  not  bear  the  test  of   lands  ;  and  Congress  has  the  same  power 
examination  for  a  moment.     Because  terri-    over  it  as  over  any  other  property  vested 
tory  and  other  property  are  associated  toge-    in  the  United  States,'  &c. 
ther,  the  General   contends  that  territory 
must  be  synonymous  with  land,  and  that 
the  clause  simply  confers  the  power  to  buy 
and  sell  it,  as  they  would  any  other  species 
of  property,  goods,  or  chattels." — Vol.  1, 
p.  664. 

"  I  suppose  I  may  shelter  myself  under  this  authority,  faithful 
among  the  faithless  who  desert  it;  for  this  gentleman,  while  affect 
ing  -to  place  confidence  in  the  Supreme  Court,  denounces  its 
pinion;  and  I  leave  it  to  him  to  reconcile  his  assertions  with  the 
aistory  of  his  own  times.  How  the  Supreme  Court,  after  thus 
deciding  that  territory  here  means  land,  could  decide  also  that  the 
power  to  sell  and  regulate  land  includes  the  power  of  unlimited 
political  jurisdiction,  I  profess  my  inability  to  comprehend;  more 
especially  as  the  power  to  be  exercised  must  be  '  needful,'  and  this 
necessity  upon  the  face  of  it  is  incompatible  with  the  idea  that 
4  this  power  is  vested  in  Congress  without  limitation?  But  I  shall 
return  to  this  subject  in  the  further  progress  of  my  remarks. 

"  Now,  sir,  what  are  the  reasons  urged  in  favor  of  separating  this 
word  territory  from  its  natural  connection,  other  property,  or,  I 
might  rather  say,  in  favor  of  unlimited  legislation  over  it  as  a 
political  community  ?  I  will  try  to  deal  with  the  doctrine  as  fairly 
as  I  can,  and  as  gently  as  may  be,  though  I  should  consider  my 
own  time,  as  well  as  yours,  badly  spent  were  I  to  undertake  any 
serious  refutation  of  it.  He  who  considers  American  citizens  as 
property,  and  seeks  upon  this  assumption  to  establish  a  great 


678  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

constitutional  power,  should  not  come  to  promulgate  his  doctrine  in 
these  halls,  whose  foundation  was  laid  by  Washington,  and  whose 
superstructure  is  dedicated  to  the  principles  of  constitutional 
freedom. 

"  Yattel  says  '  that  possessing  the  territory  gives  us  a  perfect 
right  to  govern  and  control  it.'  Then  follows  another  quotation 
from  Vattel,  the  spirit  of  which  is  found  in  this  commentary  of 
the  speaker.  '  In  this  passage,'  he  says,  '  the  term  property  is 
used  in  a  broader  sense  than  mere  land.  It  implies  sovereignty 
or  jurisdiction.'  And  then  comes  another  quotation  and  another 
commentary.  I  omit  the  former  and  give  you  the  latter  : 

" '  Here,  Mr.  Chairman,  we  have  the  authority  of  Yattel  for 
saying  that  a  nation  has  property  in  her  sovereignty,  and  that  the 
right  of  domain  implies  the  right  of  empire ;  that  owning  the  ter 
ritory  gives  absolute  jurisdiction,  and  hence  full  legislative  power. 
What,  then,  becomes  of  the  miserable  quibble  about  territory  and 
other  property  f ' 

"  And  this  is  followed  by  much  more  of  the  same  sort,  and  all 
this  time  amid  a  profuse  display  of  learning,  collected  for  the 
purpose,  it  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  the  speaker,  that  a 
certain  instrument  called  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
had  quite  as  much  to  do  with  this  question  of  the  power  of  Con 
gress  as  transatlantic  writers,  who  died  from  a  century  to  two 
centuries  before  our  time,  and  who  were  discussing  questions  of 
national  and  natural  law  under  a  good  deal  of  bias  arising  out 
of  monarchical  institutions,  where  the  sovereign,  agreeably  to  the 
doctrine  of  Louis  XIY,  was  the  State,  and  not  the  authority  of 
the  various  departments  of  our  government. 

"  And  this  speaker  was  followed  by  another  who  fortified  the 
doctrine  by  his  own  peculiar  views,  and  peculiar  indeed  they 
are,  and  by  abundant  references  to  the  dictionaries  and  to  other 
equally  learned  authorities.  He  begins  by  declaring  that  'the 
men  of  the  Eevolution,  the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  were  mas 
ters  of  the  English  language.  They  used  just  words  enough  and 
no  more  ;  they  invoked  the  powers  of  the  language  to  confer  in 
the  briefest  and  clearest  manner  this  plenary  power  upon  Con 
gress.'  And  this  eulogium  is  pronounced  with  apparent  sincerity, 
certainly  with  all  due  gravity,  the  better  to  prepare  us  for  a 
construction  as  much  at  war  with  the  plain  words  of  the  Consti 
tution  as  with  the  fundamental  principles  of  human  freedom.  He 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  679 

asks,  with  emphasis,  ' "What  means  the  word  'territory?'  Does  it 
mean  simply  'public  lands ? ' '  Certainly  not.  When  the  govern 
ment  owns  the  soil,  the  word  territory,  as  applied  to  it,  means 
that  soil,  and  the  dominion  which  lies  like  an  atmosphere  upon 
it.  The  word  '  territory,'  then,  expresses  a  compound  idea,  viz  : 
land  and  dominion.  If  the  government  does  not  own  the  land,  it 
expresses  then  a  simple  idea,  viz:  dominion  over  the  land.  In 
neither  case  is  its  meaning  synonymous  with  '  land '  or  '  public 
lands.'  In  either  case  it  expresses  a  thing  which  is  '  the  property 
of  the  government.'  All  this  is  equally  clear  and  satisfactory, 
and  thus  is  it  proved  logically,  constitutionally  and  almost  mathe 
matically,  that  the  inhabitants  of  a  Territory  are  a  '  thing,'  '  the 
property  of  the  government.'  But  further,  because  colonial  pos 
sessions  are  spoken  of  as  belonging  or  appertaining  to  the  parent 
country — the  territories  of  the  East  Indies  to  England,  for  instance 
— the  speaker  says  it  is  so  in  the  dictionaries;  therefore  'the 
matter  can  be  made  no  plainer  by  argument,'  and  our  Territories 
are,  by  the  Constitution,  made  property  'belonging  to  the  United 
States,  and  may  be  sold  and  governed  as  such  —  land,  people 
and  all. — Mr.  Rockwell,  vol.  1,^?.  794. 

"  I  can  not  argue  such  a  point  as  this,  nor  undertake  to  refute 
the  proposition  that  unlimited  jurisdiction  over  large  bodies  of 
our  fellow-citizens,  embracing  in  its  operation  all  the  rights  which 
belong  to  man,  whether  natural  or  political,  is  '  a  thing  which  is 
the  property  of  the  government.'  Do  we  hear  aright,  when  we 
hear  an  American  legislator  contend  for  a  construction  of  the 
Constitution  which  carries  us  back  to  some  of  the  worst  doctrines 
of  the  middle  ages — to  those  feudal  times  when  the  dignity  of 
land  was  far  more  exalted  than  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  and 
when  men,  I  mean  the  many  and  not  the  few,  were  bound  to  the 
soil,  like  the  trees  growing  upon  it,  as  they  are  yet  in  some  of  the 
countries  of  the  Old  World,  and  one  of  the  principal  elements  of 
its  value?  All  this*  has  passed  away,  wherever  the  very  first 
glimmering  of  the  light  of  freedom  has  penetrated,  and  the  at 
tempt  to  revive  it  here  is  among  the  strangest  of  the  strange 
political  revulsions  which  it  has  been  my  fortune,  or  rather  my 
misfortune,  to  witness  in  a  long  and  active  life. 

"  A  few  passing  remarks  upon  the  practical  consequences  of 
this  position,  and  I  leave  it  to  exert  what  influence  it  may  upon 
the  subject  before  us. 


680  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"If  the  word  'territory'  here  includes  the  right  of  jurisdiction, 
it  follows  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitu 
tion  to  confer  upon  Congress  the  power  to  sell  this  jurisdiction 
over  all  the  western  cessions,  and  that  this  clause  accomplishes 
the  object.  For  whatever  be  the  true  meaning  of  the  word  '  ter 
ritory,'  whether  soil  or  dominion,  or  both,  the  authority  granted 
is  an  authority  to  dispose  of  or  sell  it,  equally  with  '  other  prop 
erty.'  No  process  of  analysis  can  separate  the  right  to  sell  the 
'  territory '  from  the  right  to  sell  the  '  other  property.'  Congress, 
by  this  construction,  could  sell  to  every  man  the  right  of  juris 
diction  over  his  section  or. quarter  section  as  well  as  the  right  of 
soil ;  or  it  could  sell  the  title  to  one  man  and  the  jurisdiction  to 
another,  or  both,  or  either  to  a  foreign  State,  or  to  its  subjects. 
The  bare  enunciation  of  such  a  proposition  carries  with  it  its  own 
refutation.  I  can  not  deal  with  it  as  a  subject  of  argumentation. 
The  power,  under  any  circumstances,  to  cede  a  portion  of  the 
United  States  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  a  very  doubtful  one  under 
our  Constitution.  For  myself,  I  can  find  no  such  grant  of  authority 
in  that  instrument ;  its  powers  are  preservative,  not  destructive. 
I  am  speaking  of  a  direct,  unquestioned  cession  ;  not  of  the  fair 
settlement  of  a  disputed  boundary  with  a  foreign  nation,  where 
the  question  is  uncertain  and  where  the  act  of  adjustment  estab 
lishes  the  true  line  of  demarcation.  But  that  the  Convention  of 
1787  should  make  it  a  fundamental  provision  of  the  new  govern 
ment  that  it  might  alienate  from  this  country,  at  its  pleasure,  and 
by 'the  acre,  too,  its  vast  western  domain,  the  object  of  so  much 
solicitude  and  the  cause  of  so  many  dissensions,  almost  terminating 
in  separation,  is  a  proposition  equally  at  variance  with  our  political 
history  and  with  the  spirit  of  our  political  institutions.  And  what 
still  adds  to  the  surprise  which  this  course  of  reasoning  is  so  well 
calculated  to  excite,  is  the  fact  that  gentlemen  who  seek  by  con 
struction  to  give  to  Congress  this  unlimited  power  of  cession,  are 
among  those  who  contend  most  strenuously  for  the  obligation  and 
inviolability  of  the  ordinance  of  1787,  and  for  its  virtual  recogni 
tion  by  the  Constitution,  notwithstanding  that  ordinance  places 
the  western  territory  beyond  any  other  final  disposition  than  that 
of  admission  into  the  Union,  with  all  the  rights  of  the  original 
members. 

"  The  other  construction  which  deduces  a  power  of  unlimited 
jurisdiction  from  this  constitutional  authority  '  to  dispose  of  and 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  681 

make  needful  rules  and  regulations  concerning  the  territory  or 
other  property  belonging  to  the  United  States,'  concedes  that  ter 
ritory  is  here  land  and  property,  but  maintains  that  the  needful 
regulation  of  it  includes  complete  jurisdiction  —  not  only  the 
power  to  establish  territorial  governments,  but  to  legislate  for  the 
Territories  in  all  cases  whatsoever. 

"  It  is  not  necessary  to  make  extracts  from  various  speeches  to 
show  how  prevalent  is  this  opinion  of  the  omnipotent  power  of 
Congress  over  the  Territories.  I  have  already  referred  to  the 
declaration  that  they  may  l)e  sold  into  slavery  /  and  though  this 
position  is  the  legitimate  consequence  of  the  doctrine  of  unlimited 
jurisdiction,  still  there  are  few  who  would  thus  boldly  follow  it  to 
its  just  conclusion.  There  is,  however,  so  little  diversity  of  views 
upon  the  question  itself,  that  nothing  would  be  gained  by  reference 
to  individual  speakers,  where  the  general  deductions  are  the 
same." 

General  Cass,  in  this  elaborate  speech,  examined,  in  detail,  the 
various  positions  taken  by  those  who  advocated  the  proviso,  and 
commented,  with  logical  reasoning,  upon  the  different  provisions 
of  the  Constitution  which,  in  succession,  had  been  brought  forward 
to  justify  Congressional  interposition.  He  disproved  the  right  of 
entire  legislation  over  the  territories,  on  the  part  of  the  general 
government:  he  met  and  refuted,  in  a  candid  manner,  both  by 
argument  and  precedent,  the  pretense  that  the  proposition  had  the 
sanction  of  the  Constitution,  or  even  was  contemplated  by  its  wise 
framers ;  and  reproduced  the  important  fact,  that  Congress,  from 
1787  to  that  day,  had  never  exercised,  or  attempted  to  exercise, 
any  such  power.  "With  respect  to  the  ordinance  of  1787,  so  often 
cited  both  in  and  out  of  Congress,  he  not  only  triumphantly 
showed  that  the  territorial  government,  established  by  that  ordi 
nance,  was  no  compact  within  the  accepted  definition  of  the  courts 
and  the  orthodox  writers  upon  jurisprudence,  but,  from  the  ordi 
nance  itself,  he  reminded  the  Senate,  that  the  six  sections  often 
quoted,  and  the  provisions  of  which  were  forever  to  remain  un 
alterable,  unless  by  common  consent,  did  not  contain  one  word  on 
the  subject  of  territorial  government. 

"  But,"  he  continued,  "  it  is  all  idle  to  talk  about  the  compacts  in 
the  ordinance  of  1787.  The  articles  so  designated  are  destitute  of 
the  very  first  elements  of  reciprocal  obligation.  There  was  but 
one  party  to  them.  The  other  party  had  not  yet  come  into  being, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

or,  rather,  the  other  party  was  not  heard  at  all ;  for  it  was  com 
posed  of  the  inhabitants  then  living  in  the  territory- — the  settlers 
upon  the  Wabash,  in  the  Illinois  country,  in  the  Detroit  country, 
at  Green  Bay,  and  at  Prairie  du  Chien.  These  constituted  the 
counter  party  then  in  existence,  and  this  compact  was  declared 
binding  upon  them  and  their  descendants,  and  irrevocably  so, 
without  their  consent  and  without  their  knowledge.  Why,  sir,  if 
there  had  been  but  one  man  in  that  country — and  there  were  many 
thousands,  and  among  these  not  a  few  emigrants  from  the  States — • 
he  would  not  have  been  bound  by  a  compact  he  never  heard  of, 
and  to  which  his  consent  was  never  required,  either  expressly  or 
impliedly,  and  much  less  the  people  then  there.  As  to  making  a 
contract  with  unborn  States  and  millions,  by  the  simple  act  of  a 
foreign  body,  constituting  itself  one  of  the  parties,  and  acting  for 
the  other,  and  without  any  means  being  provided  for  procuring 
their  assent  in  all  time,  either  by  the  act  of  the  then  existing  01 
of  any  future  generation,  by  an  acceptance  of  the  terms  held  out, 
or  by  any  other  mode,  had  not  our  own  ears  told  us  the  contrary, 
we  might  well  have  doubted  whether  a  man  could  be  found  to 
contend  for  so  strange  a  doctrine. 

"  Besides  the  want  of  parties,  there  was  a  total  want  of  power. 
No  man  with  any  regard  to  himself,  looking  to  the  articles  of  the 
old  Confederation,  can  deny  this,  even  if  we  had  not  the  authorita 
tive  declaration  of  Mr.  Madison,  \vhen  speaking  of  it  as  a  question 
neither  disputed  nor  disputable,  to  which  Mr.  Adams  assents. 
The  articles  are  utterly  silent  on  the  point,  and  the  exercise  of  the 
power  was  an  open  assumption  of  authority.  If  the  '  engagement,' 
supposing  there  to  have  been  one,  wanted  validity,  the  Constitu 
tion  gave  it  none,  but  left  it  as  it  found  it.  A  member  of  the 
other  House,  whose  zeal  certainly  outstripped  his  discretion  when 
he  said,  in  quoting  his  previous  opinions,  that  '  he  had  egotism 
enough  to  believe  his  as  good  as  any  other  authority,'  and  in  doing 
so  '  that  he  but  followed  the  examples  of  the  courts  in  which  it  was 
the  regular  and  every-day  practice  to  cite  their  owrn  decisions,' 
declared  also,  quite  ex  cathedra,  '  that  he  should  be  able  to  show, 
&c.,  that  these  six  articles  of  the  ordinance  were  forever  binding, 
unless  altered  by  mutual  consent,  and  that  no  one  in  Indiana  had 
ever  been  '  silly  enough'  to  doubt  the  validity  of  the  ordinance.' 
(Mr.  Pettit,  vol.  1,  p.  718.)  It  is  not  the  validity  of  the  ordinance 
we  are  now  seeking  as  an  ordinary  act  of  legislation,  but  its 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  683 

inviolability  or  perpetual  obligation.  The  speaker  confounds  two 
propositions  entirely  different  in  their  nature.  Let  me  ask  him  if 
any  one  in  Indiana  ever  doubted  the  power  of  the  people  of  that 
State  to  assemble  in  convention,  and  to  introduce  slavery  there  if 
they  please? — to  abolish  the  English  common  law,  and  substitute 
the  Code  Napoleon,  or  the  Louisiana  Code,  or  even  the  contume 
de  Paris,  which  at  one  time  was  the  law  of  a  part  of  Indiana,  or 
change  the  nature  of  bail  for  offenses,  or  find  a  better  remedy  for 
the  preservation  of  personal  liberty  than  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus? 
— all  which  are  declared  by  the  ordinance  to  be  forever  unalter 
able  but  by  common  consent,  or,  in  other  words,  they  are  questions 
of  internal  policy,  which  the  people  are  not  sovereign  enough  to 
touch  without  the  consent  of  Congress.  I  had  supposed,  till  now, 
that  the  new  States  were  admitted  into  the  Union  on  '  an  equal 
footing  with  the  original  States,  in  all  respects  whatever.'  But 
if  this  doctrine  of  the  perpetual  obligation  of  this  ordinance  be 
correct,  the  new  States  and  the  old  States  occupy  very  different 
positions  in  the  Union,  and  the  powers  of  the  latter  are  much 
greater  than  those  of  the  former.  As  a  citizen  of  the  north-west, 
I  object  toto  codo  to  this  humiliating  difference,  and  I  doubt  if 
the  gentleman  will  find  many  converts  to  his  opinion  in  his  own 
State. 

ic  In  support  of  his  views,  he  asks  where  the  United  States  got 
the  title  of  the  public  lands,  but  in  one  of  the  provisions  of  this 
1  compact,'  which  prohibits  the  new  States  from  any  interference 
in  their  disposition.  Why,  sir,  the  United  States  got  the  title  of 
the  public  lands  from  the  deeds  of  cession  of  the  States  who  owned 
them,  and  Congress  got  the  power  to  sell  and  control  them,  not 
from  the  ordinance,  which,  as  we  have  seen  by  the  opinion  of  Mr. 
Madison,  and  which  may  be  seen  at  any  time  by  a  reference  to 
the  Articles  of  Confederation,  was  valueless  for  that  purpose  ;  but 
from  the  constitutional  authority  to  make  '  all  the  needful  rules 
and  regulations '  respecting  them,  which  was  introduced  to  secure 
this  very  object. 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt,  sir,  that  this  form  of  a  compact  was 
given  to  these  important  articles  of  the  ordinance,  in  the  absence 
of  all  real  power  over  the  subject,  as  having  somewhat  the  ap 
pearance  of  a  mutual  arrangement,  and  therefore  obnoxious  to 
less  censure  than  a  direct  assumption  of  authority  would  have 
been.  The  first  ordinance,  (for  that  of  1787  is  the  second,)  the 


684:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

ordinance  of  April  23d,  1784,  which,  however,  was  repealed  by  the 
other  before  it  went  into  operation,,  contained  also  this  declared 
compact,  but  in  a  much  more  imposing  form  than  it  afterwards 
assumed.  It  provided  that  '  the  foregoing  article  shall  be  formed 
into  a  charter  of  compact,  shall  be  duly  executed  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  under  his  hand  and  the  seal  of  the  United 
States,  shall  be  promulgated,  and  shall  stand  as  fundamental 
constitutions,'  <fec.,  &c.  I  presume  this  pushing  compacts  into 
constitutions  for  the  new  States  by  the  sole  authority  of  Congress 
was  afterwards  thought  to  be  going  a  little  too  far,  and  the  more 
modest  form  was  finally  adopted. 

"  It  is  a  sin  nilar  commentary  on  the  positive  declarations  of 
the  inviolability  of  this  ordinance,  that  at  the  very  time  they  were 
made,  an  act  of  Congress  was  passed,  almost  without  opposition, 
violating  this  ordinance  in  a  fundamental  particular.  And  we 
have  been  told  by  the  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of 
the  Senate,  that  although  the  question  was  raised  before  the  com 
mittee,  four  of  the  members  out  of  five  considered  it  of  no  weight, 
and  the  bill  passed  this  body  without  even  a  discussion  upon  it. 
Among  the  articles  of  compact  was  one  which  provided  that  there 
should  not  be  less  than  three  nor  more  than  five  States  in  the  North 
west  Territory.  This  power  had  been  exhausted,  and  the-  five 
States  admitted  into  the  Union.  But  a  large  portion  of  the  Ter 
ritory  has  been  detached  from  these  States,  and  now  forms  part 
of  the  Minnesota  Territory,  to  be  organized  into  a  separate  State, 
or  to  form  part  of  another,  with  the  country  west  of  the  Missis 
sippi.  /So  much  for  the  irrepealable  articles  of  compact" 

He  referred,  in  the  course  of  his  remarks,  to  the  extraordinary 
observations  of  the  proviso  orators ;  and  particularly  to  Mr.  John 
Quincy  Adams  —  an  ex-President  of  the  United  States,  —  citing 
this  remark  of  the  ex-President,  "  the  consequence  has  been,  that 
this  slave  representation  has  governed  the  Union.  Benjamin,  por 
tioned  above  his  brethren,  has  ravened  as  a  wolf;  in  the  morning 
he  has  devoured  the  prey,  and  at  night  he  has  divided  the  spoil." 
General  Cass,  fully  conscious  of  the  manifold  interests  and  un 
told  hopes  that  clustered v  around  our  Union  and  its  institutions, 
exclaimed : 

"  He  is  unworthy  of  the  name  of  American  who  does  not  feel 
at  his  heart's  core  the  difference  between  the  lofty  patriotism  and 
noble  sentiments  of  one  of  these  documents  and ;  but  I 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  685 

will  not  say  what  the  occasion  would  justify.     I  will  only  say, 
and  that  is  enough,  the  other ,  for  it  is  another. 

"<•  Benjamin,  portioned  above  Ids  brethren,  has  ravened  as  a 
wolf;  in  the  morning  he  has  devoured  the  prey,  and  at  night  he 
has  divided  the  spoil?  So  much  for  Scripture  and  patriotism. 
When  translated  into  plain  English,  this  means  that  the  south 
has  fattened  upon  the  north,  as  the  wolf  is  gorged  with  his  prey! 
Lest  the  apologue  should  not  be  sufficiently  clear,  we  are  told  that 
almost  everything  which  has  contributed  to  the  honor  and  the  wel 
fare  of  the  nation  has  been  accomplished  by  the  north  in  despite  of 
the  south;  and  that  everything  unpropitious  and  dishonorable, 
including  the  blunders  and  follies  of  their  adversaries,  may  be 
traced  to  the  south. 

"  And  this  judgment  is  pronounced  upon  the  land  of  Patrick 
Henry,  and  Jefferson,  and  Laurens,  and  Rutledge,  and  Sumpter, 
and  Marion,  and  Madison,  and  Marshall,  and  Monroe,  and  Jack 
son,  and — above  all  and  beyond  all — of  Washington ;  and  upon 
the  land  of  a  host  of  other  statesmen  and  warriors,  as  true  and 
tried  in  field  or  cabinet  as  ever  maintained  the  honor  of  their 
country  in  times  as  perilous  as  any  country  ever  encountered  and 
survived. 

"  And  yet  almost  all  of  good  that  has  ever  been  gained  by  our 
country  has  been  gained  by  the  north  in  despite  of  the  south ; 
while  the  south  has  brought  upon  us  all  our  misfortunes,  and  upon 
their  adversaries  all  their  blunders  and  follies  ! ! !  I  suppose  this 
word  '  adversaries]  in  the  vocabulary  of  Mr.  Adams,  means  the 
other  portions  of  the  Union. 

"  Now,  sir,  I  am  not  going  to  mete  out  to  the  various  regions  of 
this  broad  land  the  share  of  each  in  the  wonderful  career  in  ail 
the  elements  of  power  and  prosperity  into  which  we  have  entered, 
and  have,  indeed,  far  advanced.  The  glory  belongs  equally  to  all, 
and  all  have  equally  contributed  to  obtain  it.  And  still  less  will 
I  undertake  seriously  to  refute  a  proposition  which,  if  the  refuta 
tion  is  not  in  the  heart  of  an  American,  he  is  faithless  to  the 
common  deeds  of  the  past,  and  to  the  common  hopes  of  the  future. 

"  I  am  no  panegyrist  of  the  south ;  it  needs  none.  I  am  a 
northern  man  by  birth,  a  western  man  by  the  habits  and  associa 
tions  of  half  a  century  ;  but  I  am  an  American  above  all.  I  love 
the  land  of  my  forefathers ;  I  revere  the  memory  of  the  pilgrims 
for  all  they  did  and  suffered  in  the  great  cause  of  human  rights. 


686  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

political  and  religious.  And  I  am  proud  of  that  monument  which 
time  and  labor  have  built  up  to  their  memory — the  institutions  of 
ISrew  England — a  memorial  of  departed  worth  as  noble  and  endur 
ing  as  the  world  has  ever  witnessed,  glorious  and  indestructible. 
But  while  I  feel  thus,  I  should  despise  myself  if  any  narrow  pre 
judices  or  intemperate  passions  should  blind  my  eyes  to  the 
intelligence  and  patriotism  of  other  sections  of  our  united  country; 
to  their  glorious  deeds,  to  their  lofty  sentiments,  to  their  high 
names,  and  to  those  sacred  aspirations,  common  to  them  and  to 
us,  for  the  perpetuity  and  prosperity  of  this  great  Confederation, 
which  belong  to  the  past,  to  the  present,  and  to  the  future ;  and 
whose  feelings  and  opinions  are  brought  here  and  reflected  here 
by  a  representation  in  this  hall  and  in  the  other,  which  now 
occupies  and  has  always  occupied  as  high  a  position  as  that  held 
by  any  other  portion  of  the  Union  —  a  representation  which  does 
honor  to  our  country  in  all  that  gives  worth  to  man  and  dignity 
to  human  nature." 

The  provisoists,  in  their  own  conceit,  having  adduced  the  power 
to  pass  their  darling  measure,  were  then  in  the  habit  of  acting  on 
the  offensive,  and  with  the  air  of  a  conqueror  demanding  the 
source  from  whence  the  people  in  the  Territories  derived  the  power 
to  legislate  for  themselves.  This  interrogatory,  often  put  at  the 
hustings,  in  the  State  legislatures  and  in  the  halls  of  the  federal 
capital,  remained  for  General  Cass  to  answer. 

"  And  we  are  asked,  where  did  the  people  of  the  Territories  get 
the  right  to  legislate  for  themselves?  Where  did  they  get  it? 
They  got  it  from  Almighty  God  ;  from  the  same  omnipotent  and 
beneficent  Being  who  gave  us  our  rights,  and  who  gave  to  our 
fathers  the  power  and  the  will  to  assert  and  maintain  them. 

"I  am  not  speaking  of  a  revolution  ;  that  is  a  just  remedy  for 
violated  rights  ;  but  I  am  speaking  of  a  right  inherent  in  every 
community — that  of  having  a  share  in  making  the  laws  which  are 
to  govern  them,  and  of  which  nothing  but  despotic  power  can  de 
prive  them.  That  power  in  Europe  is  the  sword.  Here  political 
metaphysics  come  to  take  its  place.  The  people  of  the  Territories 
get  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  this  right  of  government,  of 
bringing  it  into  practical  operation,  from  Congressional  interposi 
tion,  and  they  then  possess  it  with  no  other  limitations  than  those 
arising  out  of  the  Constitution  and  of  their  relations  to  the  United 
States.  Their  powers  of  legislation  embrace  all  the  subjects 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  687 

belonging  to  the  social  condition.  There  is  no  act  of  Congress 
respecting  any  of  the  Territories  which  undertakes  to  enumerate 
the  various  objects  of  legislation,  and  then  to  confer  jurisdiction 
over  them.  The  whole  power  is  conveyed^  with  the  very  few 
exceptions  I  have  stated,  and  these  are  expressly  withheld." 

This  effort  was  highly  extolled.  The  Democratic  members  of 
the  legislature  of  Tennessee  complimented  him  with  an  address. 
Said  they:  "This  oration  will  stand  a  perpetual  monument  in 
honor  of  your  memory,  and  will  hand  your  name  down  to  the 
latest  posterity  as  a  scholar,  learned  and  profound,  as  an  orator, 
eloquent  and  powerful,  as  a  statesman,  sagacious  and  patriotic." 

As  if  to  break  the  power  of  this  great  speech  among  the  free 
men  of  the  United  States,  the  legislature  of  Michigan  had,  in 
advance,  instructed  General  Cass  to  vote  for  the  proviso.  In  the 
mutations  of  politics  the  legislature  of  that  State,  in  1850,  was  of 
a  different  political  complexion  from  that  of  1849;  many  Demo 
crats  in  the  fall  of  1849  took  little  or  no  interest  in  the  election  of 
members  of  assembly — partly  because  there  were  no  State  ques 
tions  to  be  brought  before  the  legislature,  but  more  from  a  feeling 
of  dissatisfaction  with  the  lukewarm  support  which  their  time- 
honored  fellow-citizen  had  received  from  the  Democratic  politicians 
of  the  south  and  south-west  in  the  late  Presidential  canvass.  And 
this  inaction,  by  meagre  votes,  resulted  in  the  temporary  ascend 
ency  of  the  Whigs.  After  General  Cass'  arrival  at  the  seat  of  the 
general  government,  he  was  taunted  with  this  legislative  instruc 
tion  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  and  the  newspapers  were  rife  with 
speculation  as  to  the  influence  which  they  would  have  upon  the 
future  course  of  this  veteran  patriot  and  statesman:  Hence,  when 
he  gave  notice  that  he  purposed  to  speak  on  this  question,  the 
interest  to  see  what  he  would  say  and  do  increased.  We  believe 
all  doubt  upon  this  head  was  removed  in  the  minds  of  the  most 
skeptical  even,  when  he  resumed  his  seat.  For,  to  solve  all  mys 
tery  as  to  his  official  action  when  the  vote  of  the  Senate  should  be 
taken,  he  took  occasion  to  say  : 

"  I  will  endeavor  to  discharge  my  duty  as  an  American  senator, 
to  the  country,  and  to  the  whole  country,  agreeably  to  the  convic 
tions  of  my  own  duty  and  of  the  obligations  of  the  Constitution ; 
and  when  I  can  not  do  this,  I  shall  cease  to  have  any  duty  here 
to  perform.  My  sentiments  on  the  Wilmot  proviso  are  now  before 
the  Senate,  and  will  soon  be  before  my  constituents  and  the 


688  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

country.  I  am  precluded  from  voting  in  conformity  with  them. 
I  have  been  instructed  by  the  legislature  of  Michigan  to  vote  in 
favor  of  this  measure.  I  am  a  believer  in  the  right  of  instruction, 
when  fairly  exercised  and  under  proper  circumstances.  There  are 
limitations  upon  thTs  exercise ;  but  I  need  not  seek  to  ascertain 
their  extent  or  application,  for  they  do  not  concern  my  present 
position.  I  acknowledge  the  obligation  of  the  instructions  I  have 
received,  and  can  not  act  in  opposition  to  them.  Nor  can  I  act 
in  opposition  to  my  own  convictions  of  the  true  meaning  of  the 
Constitution.  When  the  time  comes,  and  I  am  required  to  vote 
upon  this  measure,  as  a  practical  one,  in  a  bill  providing  for  a 
territorial  government,  I  shall  know  how  to  reconcile  my  duty  to 
the  legislature  with  my  duty  to  myself,  by  surrendering  a  trust 
I  can  no  longer  fulfill." 

Whether  from  the  influence  of  this  speech,  or  their  own  sense 
of  constitutional  right,  or  both,  certain  it  is  that  a  change  came 
over  the  legislative  mind  of  Michigan  ;  and,  in  abundant  season, 
rescinded  the  mandate  to  her  senators,  leaving  them  to  act  accord 
ing  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  wisdom  and  judgment. 

This  wras  wormwood  to  fanaticism.  To  parry  the  blow,  she 
pointed  to  inconsistency,  and  insisted,  most  strenuously,  that  the 
disciple  of  Jefferson — the  confidant  of  Jackson — the  unflinching 
flag-bearer  of  the  Democratic  hosts  in  1848 — was  her  votary.  As 
usual  when  attacked,  either  by  open,  manly  foes,  or  by  sinister, 
pretended  friends,  he  faced  the  attacking  party;  and,  on  a  subse 
quent  day,  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity,  met  the  unfounded 
accusation  in  his  place  in  the  Senate.  We  give  to  the  reader 
what  he  said : 

"It  was  intimated  by  the  senator  from  Mississippi,  [Mr. Davis,] 
and  by  more  than  one  gentleman,  I  believe,  in  the  other  wing  of 
the  capitol,  that  I  had  not  been  consistent  in  my  course.  The 
feelings  of  respect  and  kindness  which  I  entertain  for  that  senator 
are,  I  am  sure,  a  guaranty  to  him  that  I  do  not  allude  to  this  sub 
ject  in  any  spirit  of  complaint.  My  course,  if  worthy  of  notice,  is 
open  to  public  examination,  and,  I  trust,  will  bear  it.  The  charge 
is,  sir,  that,  in  my  Nicholson  letter,  I  laid  down  principles  from 
which  I  departed  in  my  late  speech  upon  the  Wilmot  proviso. 
The  allusion,  as  I  understand  it,  is  more  particularly  to  the  propo 
sition,  that  the  people  of  the  Territories,  as  well  as  of  the  States, 
have  a  right  to  manage  their  own  internal  concerns  in  their  own 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  689 

way,  and  that  the  condition  of  slavery  may  be  regulated  by  them, 
as  well  as  any  other  relation  of  life.  In  that  letter,  sir,  which 
seems  to  have  become  historical  far  beyond  its  importance,  I  laid 
down  four  propositions,  which  I  then  deemed  to  be  correct,  and 
whose  truth  time  and  experience  have  but  the  more  strongly  con 
firmed.  Till  I  change  my  convictions,  I  shall  neither  seek  to  con 
ceal  nor  disavow  them.  If  any  one  has  misunderstood  me  before, 
I  conceive  the  fault  was  his  own ;  if  any  one  misunderstands  me 
hereafter,  the  fault  shall  be  mine.  I  believe  the  Wilmot  proviso  to 
be  unconstitutional;  but,  before  I  proceed  to  a  full  consideration  of 
this  branch  of  the  subject,  I  beg  leave  to  trouble  the  Senate  with 
a  brief  review  of  my  position,  and  of  the  circumstances  connected 
with  it.  I  have  desired  an  opportunity  of  doing  so  for  some  time, 
as  this  has  been  made  a  matter  of  reproach — as,  indeed,  what  is 
not,  in  times  like  these ! 

"When  the  Wilmot  proviso  was  first  proposed,  I  have  never 
concealed  or  denied  that,  had  it  been  pushed  to  a  vote,  I  should 
have  voted  for  it.  There  is  no  need  for  any  senator  to  resort  to 
and  retail  conversations  in  railroad  cars  to  prove  this.  I  had 
never  examined  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  ;  and,  when 
the  subject  was  proposed,  it  did  not  excite  that  opposition  from 
the  South  which  we  have  since  witnessed,  nor  led  reflecting  men 
to  doubt  whether  such  a  provision  could  be  enforced  without  dan 
ger  to  the  Union.  Southern  men,  I  believe,  had  previously  voted 
for  a  similar  measure,  and  it  had  not  become  a  grave  sectional 
question,  involving  the  most  fearful  consequences.  At  a  subse 
quent  session,  convinced  of  its  bearing,  I  spoke  and  voted  against 
it;  still,  however,  without  touching  the  constitutional  point.  After 
wards,  circumstances  required  me  to  examine  the  subject  more 
narrowly.  The  public  mind  in  the  South  became  highly  excited, 
and  the  indications  were  full  of  danger  and  difficulty.  I  felt  then, 
as  I  do  now,  that  the  Union  was  the  great  object  of  every  Ameri 
can,  and  that  there  are  few  sacrifices  which  ought  not  to  be  made 
to  preserve  it.  I  was  prepared  to  go  as  far  as  any  man  ought  to 
go  to  attain  that  object.  In  examining  the  Constitution,  with 
reference  to  the  whole  matter,  more  narrowly  than  I  had  ever 
before  clone,  I  was  startled  by  the  conviction,  that  no  authority 
was  granted  in  that  instrument  to  Congress  to  legislate  over  the 
Territories  ;  and  that,  consequently,  there  was  no  power  to  pass 
the  Wilmot  proviso.  Not  satisfied  with  my  own  impressions,  and 
44 


690  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

being  unwilling  to  take  such  a  ground  without  proper  consideration, 
I  determined  immediately  to  converse  with  some  person  fully 
conversant  with  the  history  of  the  legislation  and  of  the  judicial 
decisions  on  the  subject.  In  looking  about  for  that  purpose,  it 
immediately  occurred  to  me  that  an  eminent  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  [Judge  McLean,  of  Ohio,]  from  his  position  and  associa 
tions,  as  well  as  from  his  residence  in  the  west,  could  give  me 
better  information  upon  this  subject  than  any  other  person.  An 
ticipating  that  some  discussion  might  soon  arise,  that  would  render 
this  explanation  proper,  I  applied  to  that  gentleman  some  days 
since,  and  requested  his  permission  thus  publicly  to  refer  to  him, 
should  I  deem  it  necessary.  This  he  cheerfully  granted ;  and  I 
now  make  use  of  his  name  with  his  own  consent.  I  immediately 
repaired  to  him,  and  stated  my  doubts,  as  well  as  the  circumstances 
which  gave  rise  to  them.  I  need  not  repeat  the  conversation  here. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  he  confirmed  my  impressions,  and  informed 
me  that,  in  an  article  published  in  the  National  Intelligencer  a 
day  or  two  previously,  and  which  I  had  not  seen,  I  should  find 
his  views  fully  set  forth.  That  article  has  since  been  republished 
in  other  papers,  and  has  attracted  a  good  deal  of  attention,  as  it 
deserves,  for  it  is  powerfully  written.  I  speak,  sir,  solely  of  the 
views  which  it  presents  of  the  power  of  Congress  to  legislate  for 
the  Territories.  The  question  of  slavery,  which  it  discusses,  I  do 
not  refer  to.  After  reading  this  article,  my  doubts  ripened  into 
convictions,  and  I  took  the  ground,  to  which  I  shall  always  adhere, 
that  the  Wilmot  proviso  is  unconstitutional.  And  you  have  now, 
sir,  the  history  of  my  course  upon  this  subject." 

That  the  reader  may  have  the  whole,  we  may  as  well  add,  that 
it  had  been,  and  continued  to  be,  repeatedly  charged  upon  General 
Cass  that  he  designed  his  letter  to  Mr.  Nicholson  as  a  trap  to  catch 
the  unwary — a  subterranean  pitfall,  into  which  was  to  tumble  the 
unsuspecting  planters,  whenever  they  reached  the  Territories  writh 
their  slaves.  This  theme  had  been  fruitful  of  harangues  all  through 
the  south.  For  this  reason,  many  in  that  section  of  the  Union 
were  opposed  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Nicholson  letter.  At  the 
north,  many  were  opposed  to  those  doctrines,  because,  as  they 
claimed,  the  slaveholder  could  remove  to  the  Territories  and  retain 
his  immunity  over  the  slave  for  a  season,  at  least.  These  were 
extreme  opinions — dissimilar  in  fact — based  upon  antagonistical 
reasons,  diametrically  opposed  to  each  in  object,  yet  in  harmonious 
action.  Extremes  met. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  691 

The  objectors  at  the  North  desired  positive  action,  to  prevent 
the  extension  of  slavery.  They  were  unwilling  to  leave  the  matter 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Territory.  General  Cass  was  willing, 
and  he  knew  of  no  constitutional  power  to  over-ride  the  right.  The 
objectors  at  the  south  desired  negative  action  relative  to  the  ex 
tension  of  the  area  of  slavery.  They  desired  that  the  matter 
should  be  left  with  the  territorial  settlers.  So  General  Cass  desired : 
because  that  course  of  policy  alone  was  the  only  one  compatible 
with  the  terms  of  compromise  upon  which  the  Union  of  the  States 
was  formed.  But  these  southern  extremists — whether  sincerely  or 
not,  they  best  know  —  stoutly  insisted  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Nicholson  letter  did  not  recognize  the  territorial  inhabitants  as 
possessed  of  power  to  prohibit  slavery,  until  they  were  admitted 
as  a  State  into  the  Union.  In  other  words,  that  it  was  to  the  peo 
ple  of  a  State,  not  to  the  inhabitants  of  a  Territory,  that  the  power 
belonged.  That  there  might  no  longer  be  any  apology  for  mis 
construction  of  his  views  upon  this  point,  in  March,  1852,  when 
examining,  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  a  letter  of  Colonel  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  under  date  of  December  27th,  1851,  he 
remarked : 

"If  a  newly-settled  Territory  is  first  occupied  by  a  majority  of 
emigrants  from  a  slave  State,  they  will  be  very  apt  to  establish 
slavery  in  their  new  residence.  If,  on  the  contrary,  they  come 
from  a  non-slaveholding  State,  they  will  probably  be  equally 
strongly  inclined  to  establish  that  exclusion  to  which  they  have 
been  accustomed  ;  and  so  with  relation  to  all  the  objects  of  concern 
which  are  regulated  by  law.  And  where  was  there  ever  a  com 
munity  whose  political  and  social  system  was  not  more  or  less 
influenced  by  the  predominant  opinions  and  characters  which 
marked  its  early  inhabitants  ?  But  this  objection,  sir,  whatever 
weight  it  is  entitled  to  in  the  scale  of  expediency,  does  not  touch 
the  question  of  right.  That  does  not  even  depend  on  Congres 
sional  action,  but  upon  the  Constitution,  which  does  not  even  look 
to  this  subject  of  early  or  of  late  legislation,  nor  the  practical 
considerations  to  which  it  may  give  rise.  The  rightful  power, 
therefore,  is  not  affected  by  the  mode  in  which  it  may  be  exercised, 
whether  bearing  upon  one  or  another  of  the  vast  variety  of  objects 
of  civilized  life  which  fall  within  the  scope  of  legislation.  All, 
therefore,  I  claimed  for  the  territorial  governments  was  the  right 
of  legislation  in  all  cases  not  in  conflict  with  the  Constitution ;  the 


692  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

same  general  rights  of  legislation  which  enabled  the  territorial 
governments  of  Mississippi,  of  Alabama,  and  other  southern  Ter 
ritories,  to  control  the  question  of  slavery  within  their  limits,  and 
which  the  northern  Territories  might  have  controlled  at  their 
pleasure,  had  there  been  no  restriction  upon  their  power.  This 
was  no  question  of  c  sovereignty,'  but  of  right,  under  the  sovereign 
authority  of  the  Constitution.  And  if  the  first  settlers  in  the 
Territories  might  establish  their  future  policy  upon  this  subject 
by  early  legislation,  I  know  of  no  constitutional  principle  which 
refuses  the  same  powers  to  all  the  others." 

And  then  as  to  the  term  "  squatter  sovereignty,"  in  connection 
with  its  exercise,  on  the  distant  coast  of  the  Pacific,  he  further 
remarked : 

"A  few  words  more,  sir,  as  to  California,  and  what  has  been 
called  '  squatter  sovereignty.'  I  have  already  said,  that  my  Nich 
olson  letter  referred  only  to  such  territorial  governments  as  had 
been  established  by  Congress,  and  it  looked  only  to  such  govern 
ments  to  be  thereafter  established  by  the  same  authority,  over 
future  acquisitions,  should  any  such  be  confirmed  to  us  by  a  treaty 
of  peace.  As  to  the  condition  of  things  in  California,  which  fol 
lowed,  in  consequence  of  the  failure  of  Congress  to  provide  gov 
ernments  for  the  Mexican  cessions,  no  one  foresaw  it ;  certainly 
no  one  endeavored  to  provide  against  it.  My  letter,  therefore,  did 
not  touch  that  point  at  all. 

"As  to  the  term  '  squatter  sovereignty,'  or  'landlord  sovereignty,' 
and  the  reproach  it  is  intended  to  carry  with  it,  they  become  neither 
our  age  nor  country.  Men  are  entitled  to  government,  even  if 
they  are  landless  ;  and  human  life  and  human  happiness  are  worth 
protection,  notwithstanding  a  remote  authority  may  be  the  great 
landlord,  holding  vast  domains  in  a  state  of  nature,  which  it 
neither  grants  nor  governs.  Many  of  the  doctrines  upon  this 
subject  carry  us  back  to  the  middle  ages,  when  land  was  every 
thing  and  man  nothing.  We  have  arrived  at  a  period  when  better 
views  prevail ;  when  human  nature  asserts  its  rights,  and  the 
exercise  of  political  power  does  not  depend  upon  the  accident  of 
property,  but  upon  the  great  principle  of  freedom  and  just  equal 
ity.  One  of  two  things  is  inevitable :  either  the  people  of  Cali 
fornia  had  the  right  to  establish  a  government  for  themselves, 
without  reference  to  c  squatter  sovereignty,'  or  '  landlord  sove 
reignty,'  or  they  were  necessarily  condemned  to  live  without  a 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  693 

government,  or  rather  to  die  without  one ;  for  human  life,  under 
such  circumstances,  would  be  far  more  precarious  than  in  the 
bloodiest  battle  on  record.  They  choosed  to  do  what  we  refused  ; 
to  found  a  political  system,  affording  protection  to  the  great  objects 
of  human  society ;  and  I  know  nothing  of  the  character  of  my 
countrymen,  north  or  south,  if,  on  cairn  reflection,  they  do  not 
approve  the  proceeding.  Nor  do  I  believe  there  is  one  of  them, 
no  matter  where,  who,  had  he  been  in  California  in  such  a  perilous 
crisis,  would  have  hesitated  to  substitute  established  law  for  lawless 
violence  and  physical  strength." 

Whatever  may  be  the  practical  results  of  this  doctrine  of  pop 
ular  sovereignty,  General  Cass  is  not  responsible  for.  He  did  not 
make  the  Constitution  :  no  share  of  its  paternity  belongs  to  him. 
As  a  senator,  he  has,  endeavored  to  carry  out  its  provisions,  In 
good  faith.  And  when,  in  the  course  of  his  senatorial  career, 
difficulties  have  crossed  his  path,  that  at  first  glance  may  have 
appeared  almost  insurmountable,  he  has  set  himself  at  work*  in 
earnest  to  clear  away  the  rubbish.  With  a  mind  patient  in  in 
vestigation,  and  a  physical  energy  that  has  never  yet  failed  him, 
he  has  thought  for  himself,  reached  his  own  conclusions,  for  weal 
or  wo,  and  fearlessly  announced  them  to  the  world. 


694  LIFE  AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  XL. 

The  Compromise  Measures    The  Committee  of  Thirteen — The  Report — The  Debate — The  Union  Party. 

The  famous  measures — already  passed  into  history — known  as 
the  "  Compromise  Measures,"  were  initiated  and  perfected  at  the 
first  session  of  the  thirty-first  Congress.  The  session  extended  into 
September;  and  although  the  incipient  steps  were  taken  early  in 
the  session,  the  measures  were  not  consummated  till  near  its  close. 

The  first  movement  was  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  February,  when 
Mr.  Foote,  of  Mississippi,  moved  the  Senate  that  the  resolution 
which  he  had  the  honor  to  offer — and  already  given  in  the  pre 
ceding  chapter, — be  referred  to  a  committee,  to  consist  of  twelve 
members,  six  from  the  north  and  six  from  the  south,  and  an 
additional  one  to  be  by  them  chosen,  with  instructions  to  report  to 
the  Senate,  if  practicable,  a  plan  of  compromise  for  the  final 
adjustment  of  all  pending  questions  growing  out  of  the  institution 
of  slavery.  A  motion  was  then  made,  on  a  subsequent  day,  to 
refer  also  to  the  same  committee  the  resolutions  offered  by  Mr. 
Clay  and  Mr.  Bell.  General  Cass  supported  both  of  these  motions: 
and  openly  declared  that  he  would  vote  for  any  constitutional 
measure  that  had  the  appearance  of  harmonizing  the  different 
sections  of  the  country,  and  amicably  terminating  the  slavery 
controversy. 

On  the  nineteenth  of  April,  the  question  of  reference  was  put  to 
the  vote,  and  carried  on  a  division  of  thirty  to  twenty-two.  The 
committee  was  chosen  by  the  Senate,  by  ballot,  and  consisted  of 
Messrs.  Clay,  Cass,  Dickinson,  Bright,  Webster,  Phelps,  Cooper, 
King,  Mason,  Downs,  Mangum,  Bell,  and  Berrien.  On  the  eighth 
of  May  the  committee  made  their  report  to  the  Senate,  accompa 
nying  it  with  bills,  in  accordance  with  its  views  and  recommend 
ations,  in  the  following  order. 

First. — Admission  of  any  new  State  or  States,  formed  out  of 
Texas,  should  be  postponed  until  they  presented  themselves  for 
admission. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  695 

Second. — California  should  be  admitted  forthwith,  with  the 
proposed  boundaries. 

Third. — Territorial  governments,  without  the  Wilmot  proviso, 
should  be  provided  for  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  embracing  all  the 
territory  acquired  from  Mexico,  except  that  embraced  within  the 
boundaries  of  California. 

Fourth. — The  establishment  of  the  northern  and  western  boun 
dary  of  Texas,  and  the  exclusion  from  her  jurisdiction  of  all  New 
Mexico,  for  which  a  pecuniary  equivalent  was  to  be  paid. 

Fifth. — More  effectual  enactments  of  law  to  secure  the  prompt 
recapture  of  fugitives  from  labor,  bound  to  service  in  one  State, 
who  may  have  escaped  into  another  State. 

Sixth. — Congress  to  abstain  from  abolishing  slavery  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia;  but  to  prohibit  the  slave  trade  within  the 
District. 

Seventh. — The  second,  third,  and  fourth  measures  to  be  con 
tained  in  the  same  bill. 

General  Cass  was  requested  by  several  Democratic  senators  to 
bring  forward  the  measure  of  compromise,  for  it  had  been  freely 
discussed  in  private  conversation  before  it  was  introduced,  and  to 
accept  the  chairmanship  of  the  committee.  But  he  peremptorily 
declined,  and  urged  the  selection  of  Mr.  Clay,  believing  that  he 
would  do  more  good  than  any  other  person.  The  circumstances 
of  the  times  outweighed  all  other  considerations,  and  General  Cass 
believed  there  would  be  less  personal  feeling  towards  Mr.  Clay 
than  towards  a  prominent  Democrat.  It  was  exceedingly  import 
ant  to  carry  as  much  of  the  Whig  interest  in  the  Senate  as  pos 
sible.  And  besides,  that  eminent  patriot  possessed  the  high  qual 
ifications  and  experience  essential  to  such  a  duty.  The  result 
proved  the  wisdom  of  the  selection.  He  bore  himself  like  a  hero 
during  the  whole  controversy. 

With  reference  to  the  constitution  of  this  committee,  Mr.  Foote 
— then  U.  S.  senator  from  Mississippi — remarked  at  the  Gover 
nor's  room  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  December,  1850: 

"The  gentlemen  who  composed  that  committee  did  rise  above 
influence;  they  did  forget  their  party,  absorbed  as  they  were  in 
patriotic  solicitude  for  their  country's  welfare  and  honor.  Yes; 
and  I  will  give  you  an  anecdote  illustrative  of  the  spirit  in  which 
these  men  acted.  It  was  said,  on  a  certain  occasion,  to  my  old 
friend  General  Cass,  by  some  gentleman  who  was  consulting  party 


696  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

policy  a  little  more  than  the  interests  of  the  country,  that  if  the 
plan  of  adjustment  were  carried  out,  Henry  Clay  might  become 
President.  Now,  General  Cass  had  nominated  Mr.  Clay  as  chair 
man  of  that  committee;  and  what  was  the  reply  of  the  old  patriot  ? 
I  will  state  the  reply,  because,  perhaps,  you  will  hear  it  from  no 
one  else.  When  he  replied,  that  honest  face  of  his  became  reful 
gent  with  the  true  spirit  of  a  patriot.  He  remarked,  '  Then  so  be 
it.  If  Clay's  noble  conduct  at  the  head  of  our  committee,  in 
rescuing  his  country  from  present  danger,  should  conduct  him  to 
the  Presidency,  no  man  in  the  nation  will  more  cordially  ratify 
his  election  than  myself.'  I  challenge  you  to  point  out  to  me  such 
another  instance  of  patriotic  devotion  and  self-sacrifice.  And  that 
was  the  feeling  predominant  among  the  friends  of  the  adjustment 
in  both  houses  of  Congress.  I  will  not  speak  of  those  who  held  a 
subordinate  position  like  myself;  but  I  will  say  that  Clay,  Cass, 
and  "Webster,  on  the  altar  of  their  country's  happiness,  sacrificed 
everything  like  personal  rivalry,  disregarded  everything  like  party 
ascendency  and  the  success  of  faction,  uniting  themselves  as 
a  band  of  brothers,  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  support  of 
their  common  country,  and  immortalizing  themselves  as  the 
unequaled  of  triad  American  patriots." 

The  admission  of  California — the  establishment  of  territorial 
governments  for  Utah  and  New  Mexico — and  the  boundaries  of 
Texas,  elicited  much  debate,  and  many  amendments  were  offered 
by  various  senators.  The  union  of  so  many  subjects  in  the  same 
bill  was  regarded  as  objectionable  by  some  members:  its  provi 
sions  were  not  entirely  satisfactory  to  others  who  would  have  given 
the  bill  a  cordial  support,  whilst  the  ultraists  of  both  north  and 
south  were  irreconcilable  in  their  opposition.  Propositions  in 
creasing  the  conditions  upon  which  California  might  be  admit 
ted,  and  restriction  of  the  powers  of  the  territorial  governments, 
were  offered.  To  all  these  General  Cass  was  opposed.  He 
insisted  that  there  was  no  express  authority  conferred  upon  Con 
gress  by  the  Constitution,  to  establish  and  regulate  territorial 
governments.  The  absence  of  such  grant  was  because  no  con 
tingency  was  foreseen  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  for  the 
use  of  such  power,  and  that  the  right  to  act  at  all  arose  from  the 
necessity  of  the  case.  Upon  the  acquisition  of  new  territory,  it  is 
the  moral  duty  of  a  country  to  take  care  that  it  is  provided  with 
a  government  suitable  to  its  own  institutions.  He  further  insisted 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  697 

that  the  power  claimed  for  Congress  was  a  tremendous  power. 
"It  is  claimed  and  exercised  at  St.  Petersburg, -at  Vienna,  and  at 
Constantinople,  as  well  as  at  "Washington:  and  no  matter  by  whom 
claimed,  or  where  exercised — whether  by  Sultan,  Emperor,  King, 
Parliament,  or  Congress — it  is  equally  despotism,  unsupported  by 
the  laws  of  God,  or  by  the  laws  of  man." 

On  the  thirty-first  of*  July,  Mr.  Pearce,  of  Maryland,  moved  to 
strike  from  the  bill  all  that  related  to  New  Mexico.  The  Senate 
agreed  to  this.  Mr.  Walker,  of  Wisconsin,  had  previously  moved 
to  strike  from  the  bill  all  except  that  part  relating  to  California, 
but  the  Senate  did  not  agree  to  this.  Mr.  Atchinson  moved  to 
strike  from  the  bill  the  provisions  relating  to  California,  and  the 
Senate,  by  a  vote  of  thirty -four  to  twenty-five,  agreed  to  the  mo 
tion.  The  bill  was  thus  left  containing  simply  the  provision  of  a 
territorial  government  for  Utah,  and  in  that  shape  passed  the 
Senate  on  the  second  of  August  ensuing.  The  admission  of  Cali 
fornia — the  establishment  of  a  government  for  New  Mexico,  and 
the  proposals  for  the  establishment  of  the  boundaries  of  Texas, 
were  subsequently  passed  by  the  Senate  in  separate  bills.  And 
thus  was  fulfilled  the  prediction  made  by  General  Cass  at  Fort 
Wayne,  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1843,  when  he  said  "  the  great  tide 
of  civilization  has  passed  the  Alleghany  mountains  and  has  spread 
and  is  spreading  over  the  prairies  and  forests  of  our  own  beautiful 
west,  and  will  not  stop  till  it  reaches  the  boundary  of  the  conti 
nent  upon  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  The  decree  has  gone  forth, 
and  will  be  fulfilled.  The  prospects  of  the  future  may  be  seen  in 
the  progress  of  the  past.  He  who  runs  may  read.  Neither  politi 
cal  jealousy  nor  mercantile  cupidity  can  stop  our  onward  march." 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  some  of  the  most  eminent  senators  from 
the  southern  States  opposed  the  admission  of  California.  They 
assumed  that  the  action  of  the  people  in  forming  a  Constitution 
was  unconstitutional;  and,  therefore,  that  the  assent  of  Congress 
to  their  proceedings,  by  admitting  California  into  the  Union,  would 
also  be  unconstitutional.  Mr.  Berrien,  of  Georgia,  even  went  so 
far  as  to  argue  that  the  people  of  that  region  had  no  right  to  or 
ganize  themselves  into  a  State  government,  and  that  the  proceeding 
was  altogether  without  precedent  or  authority.  General  Cass 
exposed  the  fallacy  of  this  argument  in  an  impromptu  speech  of 
unusual  power. 


698  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

The  bill  "  to  provide  for  the  more  effectual  execution  of  the 
third  clause  of  the  second  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,"  generally  known  as  the  "  fugitive 
slave  bill,"  was  taken  up  for  consideration  in  the  Senate  on  the 
nineteenth  of  August.  General  Cass  supported  it,  as  one  of  the 
measures  agreed  upon  as  a  compromise.  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia, 
introduced  it  in  January  preceding.  Amendments  to  it  had  been 
recommended  by  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  and  by  the  se 
lect  committee  of  thirteen.  He  now  offered  a  substitute  for  the 
original  bill.  After  various  amendments  had  been  offered  and 
debated,  the  bill  was  finally  perfected,  and  had  its  third  reading, 
and  passed  the  Senate  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  August. 

In  supporting  this  bill  General  Cass  desired  it  to  conform  to  the 
act  of  1793,  upon  the  same  subject,  and  that  the  changes  which 
experience  had  shown  to  be  necessary,  should  be  introduced  by 
way  of  amendment  to  the  law  of  1793.  He  took  the  following 
positions : 

First. — The  master's  right  to  arrest  his  fugitive  slave  wherever 
he  may  find  him. 

Second. — His  duty  to  carry  him  before  a  magistrate  in  the  State 
where  he  is  arrested,  there  to  adjust  the  claim. 

Third. — The  magistrate's  duty  to  examine  the  claim,  and  to  de 
cide  upon  it  like  other  examining  magistrates,  without  a  jury,  and 
then  to  commit  him  to  the  custody  of  the  master. 

Fourth. — The  right  of  the  master  then  to  remove  the  slave  to 
his  residence. 

The  last  of  the  compromise  measures  passed  the  Senate  on  the 
sixteenth  of  September.  It  was  the  bill  abolishing  the  slave-trade 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  all  these  bills  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  concurred,  and  they  received  the  Executive  approval. 

The  debates  upon  these  bills  were,  at  times,  very  stormy,  and 
their  fate  doubtful.  General  Cass  wns  often  referred  to  by  both 
parties.  The  ultras  endeavored  to  upset  his  arguments  and  de 
molish  his  doctrines.  Anxious  to  allay  the  exciting  elements  that 
appeared  in  all  directions,  and  avert  the  danger  of  dissolution, 
toward  which  he  believed  the  country  rapidly  progressing,  he  was 
constantly  at  his  post  in  the  Senate  throughout  the  entire  time.  His 
policy  was  to  soften,  if  possible,  the  asperities  of  exciting  topics 
and  manfully  battle  for  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  leaving 
it  for  time  and  truth  to  vindicate  the  correctness  of  his  doctrines, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  699 

and  the  integrity  of  his  purposes.  If  his  course  did  not  meet 
with  the  approval  of  all,  it  at  least  entitled  him  to  their  respect. 
He  gave  his  views  in  full,  and  unhesitatingly,  upon  the  fugitive 
slave  bill ;  and,  that  there  might  not  thereafter  be  any  misappre 
hension  of  his  sentiments  upon  slavery,  in  the  abstract,  he  ad 
dressed  the  Senate  upon  that  point  also.  Neither  did  he  withhold 
comment  upon  the  danger  of  disimion,  and  its  inevitable  calami 
ties.  And  as  some  of  the  members  from  the  south  had  intimated 
that,  in  case  of  dissolution,  their  fellow-citizens  would  thereafter 
no  longer  be  "hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water''  to  the 
north,  he  showed  the  futility  of  such  insane  hopes.  That  he  may 
be  rightly  understood  by  our  readers  on  these  points,  we  extract 
a  portion  of  his  remarks  : 

"  The  provision  in  the  Constitution  respecting  the  recapture  of 
slaves  has  been  too  often  and  grossly  violated  and  neglected. 
Every  dictate  of  justice  requires  a  law  more  efficient  on  that  sub 
ject,  and  more  efficiently  executed.  Such  a  law,  with  proper 
provisions,  shall  not  want  my  vote.  And  this  "Wilmot  proviso, 
unnecessary  and  unconstitutional  as  it  isr  has  justly  given  great 
offense  to  the  south.  I  trust  and  believe  its  days  are  numbered. 
But  allow  me  to  say,  sir,  that  when  southern  gentlemen  attribute 
the  interference  of  the  north  with  the  subject  of  slavery  to  any 
serious  calculation  about  the  balance  of  political  power  or  of  ma 
terial  interest,  they  are  in  a  great  error.  It  originates  in  other 
feelings.  The  spirit  of  inquiry  is  one  of  the  marked  characteris 
tics  of  the  age  in  which  we  live.  It  penetrates  everywhere  ;  there 
is  nothing  concealed  from  its  research.  Even  the  highest  and 
holiest  things  are  assailed.  Why,  sir,  the  rights  of  property  in 
the  south  are  attacked  ;  and  so  they  are  in  the  north.  There  are 
men  who  contend  that  slaves  should  not  be  held  in  bondage,  and 
there  are  men  who  contend,  with  equal  pertinacity,  that  no  one 
should  hold  land,  but  that  all  things  should  be  in  common.  The 
marriage  condition  is  assailed  ;  the  domestic  relations  are  assailed; 
the  being  and  the  attributes  of  God  are  assailed ;  and  strenuous 
efforts  are  making  to  overrun  the  whole  constitution  of  society. 
c  Error  of  opinion,'  said  Mr.  Jefferson,  <  may  be  tolerated  where 
reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it.'  Memorable  words,  and  as  true 
as  they  are  wise.  If  the  schoolmaster  is  abroad,  he  takes  with  him 
a  great  many  unsound  opinions,  which,  however,  can  only  become 
dangerous  by  being  met  with  resistance  instead  of  argument. 


700  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

I  have  said,  sir,  that  the  southern  gentlemen  have  an  easy  task 
before  them.  They  feel  their  wrongs  and  express  their  feeling 
in  no  measured  terms,  and  they  are  supported  and  applauded 
by  a  constituency  which  feels  as  they  do.  But  moderate  men  in 
the  north  and  west  are  placed  in  very  different  circumstances. 
They  are  endeavoring  to  check  the  excitement ;  they  are  throwing 
themselves  into  the  breach ;  and  yet  their  condition  is  not  at  all 
appreciated  here,  nor  are  they  spared  in  the  general  denunciations 
that  are  used.  "We  hear  this  every  day,  sir,  and  we  are  becoming 
very  impatient.  Why,  sir,  the  honorable  senator  from  Virginia, 
[Mr.  Mason,]  whom  this  whole  Senate  holds  in  the  highest  respect, 
and  deservedly  so,  upon  the  introduction  of  a  bill  providing  a 
more  efficient  mode  of  recapturing  fugitive  slaves,  said,  and  re 
peated,  I  believe,  many  times,  that  it  would  do  no  good  ;  that  he 
knew  it  would  do  no  good.  What  he  said  I  thought  might  be 
translated  into  this:  You  are  all  a  set  of  knaves  at  the  north  and 
west,  and,  legislate  as  we  may,  the  law  will  be  disregarded,  and 
the  slaves  retained.  This  was  not  his  language,  and  I  am  sure  it 
was  not  his  idea,  and  it  is  perhaps  an  extreme  conclusion  from 
what  he  said ;  but  there  is  still  too  much  foundation  for  complaint 
at  such  intimations.  They  do  no  good." 

Mr.  Mason,  (interposing.)  Certainly  nothing  was  further  from 
me  than  intimating  the  idea  that  they  were  a  parcel  of  knaves  at 
the  north ;  but  they  were  disloyal  to  that  provision  in  the  Consti 
tution.  Their  legislation  shows  it;  and  because  of  that  disloyalty 
I  was  afraid  that  no  such  law  could  be  executed  there. 

Mr.  Cass  resumed.  "  I  said  that  my  words  wTere  too  strong. 
Still,  sir,  I  will  add  that  these  continued  reproaches,  denunciations, 
I  may  say,  will  necessarily  provoke  recrimination,  and  may  go  far 
toward  converting  a  just  cause  into  an  unjust  one.  Why,  sir,  it  is 
only  a  day  or  two  since  one  of  the  most  accomplished  members  of 
this  body  told  us,  in  substance,  that  if  a  dissolution  of  the  Union 
should  take  place,  the  northern  portion,  containing  twelve  millions 
of  people  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  embracing  regions  among 
the  most  fertile  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  would  be  utterly  destroyed; 
that  their  cities  would  become  like  Tadmor,  their  hills  like  Gilboa, 
their  fields  like  the  Campagna,  and  themselves  without  prosperity, 
without  hope ;  that  grass  would  grow  in  their  high  places,  and 
that  they  would  become  like  modern  Tyre,  while  the  southern  cities 
would  become  like  ancient  Tyre,  the  entrepots  of  the  commerce 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  701 

of  the  world.  All  this  grates  harshly  upon  my  ear.  I  do  not 
want  any  man  to  tell  me  what  this  Union  would  lose,  north  or 
south,  by  a  dissolution.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  know  that,  if  not 
fatal  to  both,  it  would  check  the  prosperity  of  both,  and  lead  to 
consequences  which  no  wise  man  can  contemplate  without  dismay. 
I  am  an  American,  with  the  most  kindly  feelings  to  every  portion 
of  our  beloved  country.  Its  strength  is  in  its  union  ;  its  prosper 
ity  in  its  union  ;  its  hopes  in  its  union.  I  do  not  want  any  one  to 
come  here  to  tell  me  the  evils  the  north  would  suffer  from  a  disso 
lution,  or  the  south  would  suffer  from  a  dissolution.  I  need  no 
lesson  upon  that  subject.  If  any  one  can  explain  to  me  what  ad 
vantage  either  section  would  gain  by  a  separation,  I  might  survey 
such  a  prospect  with  less  apprehension  than  I  now  do.  Southern 
gentlemen  will  allow  me  to  say,  and  I  know  they  will  appreciate 
the  feelings  with  which  I  say  it,  for  I  have  given  proof  of  my  desire 
to  do  them  justice  by  the  sacrifice  of  my  political  position,  that  they 
place  the  defense  of  slavery  upon  considerations  which  do  not  suit 
the  spirit  of  the  age.  There  is  no  use  in  going  back  to  the  days 
of  the  patriarchs,  and  tracing  the  history  and  condition  of  slavery 
from  that  time  to  our  own  day,  and  proving  its  compatibility  with 
the  word  of 'God  and  the  wants  of  man.  They  have  a  much  bet 
ter  foundation  for  their  rights  to  rest  upon  than  any  such  process. 
Slavery  is  an  existing  institution  in  the  south,  for  which  no  living 
man  is  responsible;  it  is  interwoven  into  the  very  texture  of 
society.  Between  three  and  four  millions  of  people,  differing  in 
race  and  color  from  the  predominant  caste,  are  held  in  bondage. 
I  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  slavery,  and  I  believe  its  evils  are 
much  magnified,  and  that  the  slaves  generally  in  our  southern 
States  are  treated  with  as  much  kindness  and  consideration  as  are 
compatible  with  this  relative  condition  of  bond  and  free,  and  cer 
tainly  as  well  as  they  would  be  treated  in  the  north,  if  we  had 
slaves  there.  I  do  not  see,  myself,  how  such  a  mass  of  human 
beings  can  be  set  free.  Emancipation,  unless  the  work,  I  may 
say,  of  ages,  would  equally  destroy  the  whites  and  the  blacks. 
God,  in  his  providence,  may  bring  it  about.  I  do  not  see  that  men 
can.  It  is  a  question  which  concerns  the  southern  States  alone. 
They  have  every  motive  to  deal  with  it  justly  and  wisely,  and 
every  interference  from  abroad  but  adds  to  the  difficulty  of  the 
position,  and  creates  a  natural  reaction  in  every  southei^n  mind. 
Unfortunately,  sir,  every  man  who  does  not  believe  that  slavery 


702  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

is  the  best  condition  of  human  society,  and  that  a  community 
never  prospered  as  it  might  do  without  it,  is  too  apt  to  be 
considered  in  the  south  as  a  northern  fanatic,  regardless  alike  of 
their  rights  and  of  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution. 

"  Now,  sir,  I  do  not  believe  this,  and  no  consideration  on  earth 
can  induce  me  to  say  so.  I  believe  that  slavery  is  a  great  misfor 
tune  for  any  country  ;  but  the  existing  institution  I  have  neither 
the  power  nor  the  will  to  touch.  On  the  other  hand,  every  man 
in  the  north  who  does  not  believe  it  to  be  his  duty  to  enter  into  a 
crusade  against  the  south,  and  to  cover  the  country  with  blood 
and  conflagration  to  abolish  slavery,  is  considered  by  a  large  por 
tion  of  his  fellow-citizens  as  a  dough-face — that  is  the  cant  term — 
sold  by  his  hopes  or  fears  to  the  south.  Dough-faces,  indeed ! 
Which  requires  greater  moral  courage,  to  keep  foremost  among 
the  foremost  in  times  of  excitement,  and  to  minister  to  the  popular 
feeling  where  we  live,  or  to  endeavor  to  moderate  it,  to  hold  back, 
to  survey  the  whole  subject  coolly  and  impartially,  and  to  restore 
harmony  to  a  distracted  country?  The  former  swim  with  the 
current,  the  latter  against  it ;  and  it  needs  little  knowledge  of 
man  to  know  which  is  the  dough-face,  if  I  may  use  that  opprobri 
ous  term.  Mirabeau  told  the  French  Convention,  long  since,  that 
names  were  things.  They  are  so,  and  many  a  good  cause  has 
been  lost  because  it  had  a  bad  name.  And  the  condition  I  have 
depicted,  is  that  which  is  occupied  by  every  man  who  avoids  ex 
tremes  in  periods  of  great  excitement,  whether  that  excitement  is 
moral,  social,  political,  or  religious.  History  is  full  of  the  most 
impressive  lessons  on  this  subject.  While  the  excitemeut  con 
tinues,  you  may  as  well  say  to  the  whirlwind,  stop,  and  expect  to 
be  obeyed,  as  to  endeavor  to  check  its  progress  till  time  and  reason 
come  to  your  aid. 

Where  all  this  is  to  end,  I  am  not  presumptuous  enough  to  try 
to  foretell.  Hard  thoughts  are  followed  by  hard  words,  and  if 
these  are  not  followed  by  hard  blows,  it  will  be  owing  more  to  the 
mercy  of  God  than  to  the  wisdom  or  moderation  of  man.  I  will 
merely  remark,  in  conclusion,  that  the  senator  from  Alabama, 
[Mr.  Clemens,]  has  alluded  to  a  peaceable  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
He  will  pardon  me  for  saying,  that  I  hope  no  one  will  delude  him 
self  with  any  such  expectation.  If  it  does  not  bring  disappoint 
ment,  the  history  of  the  world  has  been  written  to  no  purpose.  In 
political  convulsions,  like  that  which  would  attend  the  breaking  up 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  703 

of  this  Confederacy,  the  appeal  from  reason  to  force  is  as  sure  to 
follow,  as  the  night  succeeds  the  day.  May  He  who  guided  our 
fathers  in  times  of  peril,  direct  us  in  the  paths  of  peace  and 
safety !  " 

Mr.  Clay. — I  thank  the  honorable  senator  from  Michigan  for  the 
few  remarks  which  he- has  just  addressed  to  the  Senate;  and  I  beg 
leave  to  say,  sir,  that  I  have  not  a  particle  of  doubt  that  the 
speech,  the  short,  and  to  me,  grateful  speech,  that  he  made  the 
other  day,  was  perfectly  spontaneous  and  unpremeditated.  I  do 
not  know  when  I  have  heard  from  any  senator  the  utterance  of 
sentiments  with  more  pleasure,  than  I  did  those  from  the  honora 
ble  senator  from  Michigan  on  the  occasion  to  which  I  allude. 
And,  sir,  allow  me  to  say,  that  the  language  in  which  the  gentle 
man  has  just  closed  his  short  address  to  the  Senate,  that  it  is 
"  ultraism  "  of  which  this  country,  at  this  moment,  stands  in  so 
much  danger,  is  founded,  I  lament  to  say,  too  much  in  truth. 

General  Cass  conscientiously  discharged  his  duty  throughout 
this  entire  session :  he  was  then  content  with  his  labor,  and  at 
no  moment  since  has  he  regretted  his  votes  or  his  public  conduct. 

The  compromise  measures  having  been  consummated  by  Con 
gress,  a  disposition  was  manifested,  by  several  of  the  prominent 
members,  to  build  thereupon  a  new  party  organization,  under  the 
cognomen  of  the  UNION  PARTY.  During  this  stormy  period, 
statesmen  and  party  leaders  who  had  for  years  been  at  the  anti 
podes  of  each  other,  in  political  movements,  had  co-operated  in 
legislation.  Senators  and  members  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  both  of  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  united  in  a 
moment  of  peril  to  carry  out  measures,  just  in  themselves,  and, 
as  they  believed,  essential  to  the  salvation  of  the  country.  Gen 
eral  Cass  was  one  of  the  number  to  add  his  gigantic  efforts  in 
behalf  of  the  integrity  and  perpetuity  of  the  Constitution.  This 
common  object  accomplished,  it  was  evident  to  him  that  each  of 
these  parties  should  be  left  free  to  pursue  its  future  course  unem 
barrassed  by  any  new  scheme  of  mutual  co-operation.  He  had 
lived  a  Democrat  during  his  days  that  were  passed,  and  he 
meant  to  live  a  Democrat  during  his  days,  however  few,  that 
were  to  come,  believing  that  the  duration  of  this  government 
is  closely  interwoven  with  the  duration  of  that  party.  He,  there 
fore,  declined  the  overture,  and  discountenanced  the  project. 

General  Cass,  for  his  course  in  the  Senate  during  this  period, 


704:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

was  honored  with,  many  flattering  testimonials  of  respect  by  his 
fellow-citizens  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Among  others, 
the  Democracy  of  Baltimore,  by  the  hand  of  Francis  Gallagher, 
presented  him  with  a  cane  cut  from  a  hickory  tree  at  the  Hermit 
age,  as  a  testimonial  of  their  high  appreciation  of  his  military  and 
civil  services,  through  a  long  life  of  devotion  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  country.  The  presentation  took  place  at  the  Exchange 
Hotel  in  Baltimore,  September  thirteenth,  1850,  in  the  presence 
of  the  immense  assemblage  which  had  gathered  together  to  wel 
come  him  to  the  Monumental  City. 

During  the  interval  of  the  Senate  in  1851,  General  Cass  was 
waited  upon  at  his  residence  in  Detroit,  by  Mr.  G.  B.  Post,  of 
California,  on  the  fifth  of  September,  who,  on  behalf  of  the  citizens 
of  that  young  and  chivalrous  State,  made  to  the  General  a  very 
appropriate  address,  and  delivered  to  him  a  magnificent  ring  of 
California  gold  and  manufacture.  It  was  designed  by  the  admirers 
of  General  Cass  in  that  State,  as  a  token  of  their  personal  regard 
for  him,  and  an  acknowledgment  of  him  as  one  of  their  earliest, 
most  devoted,  and  ablest  friends.  In  accepting  this  signet  of 
esteem,  General  Cass  made  a  suitable  response,  and  in  the 
course  of  it,  commenting  upon  the  thirty-one  communities,  "while 
independent,  are  yet  dependent  upon  one  another,"  exclaimed  in 
all  the  fervor  of  a  patriot: 

"  God  grant  that  no  effort,  whenever  or  wherever  made,  may 
put  asunder  what,  by  the  blessing  of  Providence,  the  Constitution, 
formed  by  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of  our  fathers,  has  joined 
together!  That  day,  if  it  ever  comes,  will  come  in  the  wrath  of 
God ;  and  I  trust  I  shall  not  live  to  see  it." 

It  has  often  been  reproached  to  General  Cass  that  on  the  final 
passage  of  the  fugitive  slave  act,  he  did  not  vote  for  it,  and  in  the 
cant  language  of  the  day,  he  is  said  to  "  have  dodged  it."  If  by 
this  be  meant  that  General  Cass  kept  out  of  the  way,  it  is  untrue, 
for  he  was  in  his  seat  when  the  act  passed,  and  would  not  vote 
against  it,  on  account  of  some  action  in  the  committee  room,  and 
would  not  vote  for  it,  for  reasons  he  has  more  than  once  explained 
in  the  Senate,  and  particularly  in  his  speech  on  the  Nebraska  bill, 
February  20, 1854.  The  circumstances  of  his  position  clearly  and 
satisfactorily  explain  his  course  and  redeem  him  from  all  censure. 

When  a  fugitive  slave  bill  was  under  consideration  in  the  com 
promise  committee.  General  Cass  proposed  a  clause,  providing, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  705 

that  when  a  fugitive  should  have  been  arrested  and  brought  before 
the  committing  magistrate,  if  on  the  examination  of  the  case  it 
should  be  decided  that  he  is  a  slave,  it  should  then  be  the  duty  of 
such  magistrate  to  ask  of  such  fugitive  if  he  still  persisted  in  his 
denial  that  he  was  a  slave,  to  require  the  claimant  or  his  agent  to 
give  bond,  without  security,  (for  to  require  security  of  strangers 
would  in  most  cases  have  defeated  the  recovery,)  in  the  sum  of 
one  thousand  dollars,  conditioned,  that  on  the  arrival  of  such 
fugitive  in  the  alledged  county  of  his  escape,  he  should  have  a 
trial  by  jury  under  the  laws  of  the  State,  to  ascertain  if  he  were 
a  free  man  or  slave.  The  bond  was  to  be  transmitted  to  the 
United  States  District  Attorney,  who  was  required  to  take  the 
necessary  measures  in  the  matter.  It  was  urged  by  some  of  the 
southern  gentlemen,  in  opposition  to  the  proposition,  that  it  was 
unnecessary,  because  the  laws  of  all  the  slave  States  contained 
ample  provision  for  a  trial  by  jury  for  every  alledged  slave, 
claiming  to  be  free,  and  that  such  was  the  state  of  public  opinion, 
that  the  bar  was  always  ready  gratuitously  to  take  up  the  cause 
of  such  a  claimant  having  any  reasonable  show  of  right  on  his 
side.  To  this  it  was  answered  that  in  that  case  the  arrangement 
could  do  no  injury  in  the  south,  and  that  in  the  existing  state  of 
things  in  the  north  it  would  do  great  good,  and  would  remove 
much  objection  to  the  law;  that  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  was 
dear  to  the  American  people,  and  more  especially  in  cases  of 
personal  liberty;  that  in  the  excited  condition  of  the  free  States 
it  was  the  dictate  of  wisdom  to  render  the  law  as  little  obnoxious 
as  possible,  consistently  with  the  preservation  in  their  integrity  of 
the  constitutional  rights  of  the  south,  —  and  that  this  would  be 
effected  by  the  measure  proposed,  because  no  one  could  justly 
deny  that  the  validity  of  a  jury  trial,  in  the  county  where  the 
events  occur,  was  just  the  security  provided  for  fugitives  of  justice, 
whether  black  or  white.  General  Cass  stated  to  the  committee, 
what  indeed  they  already  knew  from  his  previous  course,  that  he 
was  ready  to  make  the  most  stringent  provisions  necessary,  and 
he  voted  against  a  trial  by  jury  proposed  to  be  given  in  the  free 
State  where  the  arrest  might  be  made,  and  also  against  a  proposi 
tion  for  allowing  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  believing  that  these 
provisions  would  in  practice  altogether  defeat  the  recovery  of  this 
class  of  persons.  And  he  was  the  earliest  in  the  session  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  Senate  to  this  matter,  and  he  uniformly 
45 


706  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

advocated  the  justice  and  necessity  of  more  efficient  provisions  in 
relation  to  it. 

He  also  stated  distinctly  that  with  this  provision  of  a  trial  by 
jury,  he  should  support  the  bill,  but  that  without  it  he  would  not. 
A  considerable  majority  of  the  committee,  nearly  all  of  them,  in 
deed,  coincided  in  these  views,  and  accepted  the  proposition,  and 
among  them  were  Mr.  Clay  and  General  Foote,  and  other  southern 
senators,  and  the  bill  was  reported  to  the  Senate  with  this  provi 
sion  in  it.  It  will  be  in  the  recollection  of  members  of  the 
committee,  and  especially  of  General  Foote,  for  it  had  been  stated 
on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  that  General  Cass  made  this  declaration 
to  the  committee  of  the  necessity  of  this  jury  trial  clause,  and  that 
without  it  the  bill  would  not  receive  his  support. 

"When  the  bill  reported  by  the  compromise  committee,  with  this 
clause  in  it,  was  taken  up,  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  moved  a  sub 
stitute  omitting  this  clause,  which  was  adopted,  and  thus  the 
provision  deemed  so  important  by  General  Cass,  was  lost.  That 
it  would  have  removed  much  of  the  dissatisfaction  in  the  free 
States,  is  now  certain,  and  would  greatly  have  facilitated  the 
execution  of  the  law,  and  that  while  it  rendered  this  act  of  justice 
to  the  feelings  of  one  portion  of  the  Union,  it  would  not  have 
worked  the  least  injury  to  the  rights  of  the  other. 

August  19th,  1850,  the  fugitive  slave  bill  being  under  consid 
eration  in  the  Senate,  General  Cass  said : 

""When  this  subject  was  before  the  Compromise  Committee, 
there  was  a  general  wish,  and  in  that  I  fully  concurred,  that  the 
main  features  of  the  act  of  1T93,  upon  this  subject,  so  far  as  they 
were  applicable,  should  be  preserved,  and  that  such  changes  as 
experience  has  shown  to  be  necessary  to  a  fair  and  just  enforce 
ment  of  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  for  the  surrender  of 
fugitive  slaves,  should  be  introduced  by  way  of  amendment.  The 
law  was  approved  by  Washington,  and  has  now  been  in  force  for 
sixty  years,  and  lays  down,  among  others,  four  general  principles, 
to  which  I  am  prepared  to  adhere  : 

"1.  The  right  of  the  master  to  arrest  his  fugitive  slave  where- 
ever  he  may  find  him. 

"2.  His  duty  to  carry  him  before  a  magistrate  in  the  State 
where  he  is  arrested,  that  the  claim  may  be  adjudged  by  him. 

"  3.  The  duty  of  the  magistrate  to  examine  the  claim,  and  to 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  707 

decide  it,  like  other  examining  magistrates,  without  a  jury,  and 
then  to  commit  him  to  the  custody  of  the  master. 

"  4.  The  right  of  the  master  then  to  remove  the  slave  to  his 
residence. 

"At  the  time  this  law  was  passed,  every  justice  of  the  peace 
throughout  the  Union  was  required  to  execute  the  duties  under  it. 
Since  then,  as  we  all  know,  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  that 
justices  of  the  peace  can  not  be  called  upon  to  execute  the  law, 
and  the  consequence  is,  that  they  have  almost  everywhere  refused 
to  do  so.  The  master,  seeking  his  slave,  found  his  remedy  a  good 
one  at  the  time,  but  now  very  ineffectual ;  and  this  effort  is  one 
that  imperiously  requires  a  remedy;  and  this  remedy  I  am  willing 
to  provide,  fairly  and  honestly,  and  to  make  such  other  provisions 
as  may  be  proper  and  necessary;  but  I  desire  for  myself  that  the 
original  act  shall  remain  upon  the  statute  book,  and  that  the 
changes  shown  to  be  necessary,  should  be  made  by  way  of  amend 
ment." 

On  the  same  day,  Mr.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey,  proposed  to  annul 
the  bill  by  an  amendment,  which  contained  the  following  proviso: 

"  Provided,  That,  if  the  fugitive  slave  deny  that  he  owes  ser 
vices  to  the  claimant  under  the  laws  of  the  State  where  he  was 
held,  and  after  being  duly  cautioned  as  to  the  solemnity  and  con 
sequence  of  an  oath,  shall  swear  to  the  same,  the  commissioner  or 
judge  shall  forthwith  summon  a  jury  of  twelve  men  to  try  the 
right  of  the  claimant,  who  shall  be  sworn  to  try  the  cause  accord 
ing  to  the  evidence,  and  the  commissioner  or  judge  shall  preside 
at  the  trial,  and  determine  the  competency  of  the  proof." 

This  proviso,  if  incorporated  into  the  bill,  would  have  been  as 
effectual  a  denial  of  justice  to  the  owners  of  fugitive  slaves  as  a 
direct  repeal  of  all  laws  upon  the  subject,  and  a  refusal  to  pass 
others.  The  amendment  was  rejected — yeas  eleven,  nays  twenty- 
seven.  General  Cass  voted  in  the  negative. 

On  the  same  day,  Mr.  Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  proposed  to 
amend  the  bill  by  adding  thereto  the  following  proviso : 

"  Provided,  however,  that  no  certificate  of  any  commissioner,  as 
herein  provided  for,  shall  be  an  answer  to  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
issued  by  any  judge  of  any  State  or  United  States  court  who  may 
be  authorized  by  law  to  issue  the  said  writ  in  other  cases ;  but  it 
shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioner,  or  other  officer  who  may 
give  any  certificate  in  the  summary  manner  provided  for  in  this 


708  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

bill,  to  inform  the  party  claimed  as  a  fugitive  of  his  right  to 
said  writ  of  habeas  corpus;  and  in  case  said  supposed  fugitive 
shall  demand  said  writ,  the  forms,  proceedings,  and  evidence  shall 
be  according  to  the  law  of  the  place,  as  in  other  cases  where  said 
writ  is  issued." 

This  proviso,  securing  to  the  fugitive  slave  the  right  of  the 
habeas  corpus,  if  made  a  part  of  the  bill,  would  as  effectually  have 
destroyed  the  bill  and  defeated  the  objects  designed  to  be  attained 
by  its  passage,  as  would  the  incorporation  of  the  right  of  trial  by 
jury  to  the  fugitive  in  the  State  where  arrested.  This  amendment, 
also,  was  rejected,  General  Cass  voting  in  the  negative. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  709 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

Opposition   to   the  Compromise  Measures— California— Public  Meeting  in  [Xew  York— General  [Cass 
Present — What  he  said  to  the  People — How  they  Received  it — lie-elected  Senator  for  Six  Years. 

The  compromise  measures  were  intended  as  a  finality;  and  it 
was  hoped  that  the  disturbing  elements  growing  out  of  the  subject 
of  slavery  were*put  to  rest.  In  looking  forward  into  the  future, 
statesmen  beheld  abolitionists  trying  to  fan  the  embers  of  discord 
— and,  if  need  be — disunion;  but  they  did  not  anticipate  opposi 
tion  in  any  other  quarter.  They  knew  that  the  people  of  the  north 
were  prone  to  regard  this  domestic  institution  of  the  south  with 
disfavor;  and  that,  if  they  were  called  upon  to  vote  directly  upon 
the  question  in  the  abstract,  they  would  negative  its  existence  with 
extraordinary  unanimity. 

California  was  a  free  State — the  inhabitants  of  the  new  Terri 
tories  of  New  Mexico  and  Deseret  would,  at  the  proper  time, 
decide  the  question  for  themselves — no  more  slave  States  were  to 
be  carved  out  of  Texas — slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was 
tolerated,  and  the  law  of  1793,  with  reference  to  the  recapture  of 
runaway  slaves,  made  effectual.  These,  together,  constituted  the 
equilibrium  of  the  Union :  upon  this  altar  were  offered  all  opinions 
to  appease  dissension  among  individuals  and  independent  sove 
reignties  of  this  widely-extended  confederacy. 

With  all  the  happy  expectations  which  such  a  posture  of 
public  affairs  justified,  the  thirty-first  Congress  adjourned  its  first 
session.  The  members  went  their  several  ways,  from  the  proud 
capital  of  a  magnificent  nation,  and  traversed  the  highways  of  the 
country  homeward  to  their  constituencies.  They  who  had  given 
their  voice  and  heart  to  the  holy  work  of  preserving  intact  the 
integrity  of  the  republic,  were  prouder  than  ever  of  their  country. 
With  rapture,  and  buoyant  anticipations  of  a  long  career  of  pros 
perity  and  glory — unequaled  in  all  the  memories  and  traditions 
of  the  past — did  they  descant  upon  whatever  of  commerce — of 
agriculture — of  manufactures — came  within  the  range  of  their 


710  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

observation.  On  the  contrary,  they  who  had  fought  against  peace 
— who  had  early  and  late  proclaimed  uncompromising  opposition 
to  the  patriotic  recommendations  of  the  Senate  committee  of  thir 
teen — still  nursed  in  their  bosoms  the  feelings  of  disappointment 
and  hate;  and  as  they  passed  metropolis  after  metropolis — happy 
in  the  avocations  of  business — endeavored  to  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
fact,  that  this  was  the  legitimate  fruit  of  a  Union  that  compromise 
ushered  into  existence,  and  whose  guardian  this  goddess  ever 
since  had  been.  And  when  they  reached  their  homes,  delighted 
were  they  to  learn  that  their  speeches,  transmitted  in  advance  by 
the  post,  had  produced  the  desired  effect.  Excitement,  instead  of 
being  allayed,  was  on  the  increase ;  and  discussion,  instead  of 
being  more  subdued  and  conciliatory,  was  more  earnest  and  bitter 
among  the  people  and  the  public  presses.  The  compromise  mea 
sures,  especially  the  fugitive  slave  law — as  it  was  called — were 
the  constant  themes  of  angry  dispute;  and  what  was  still  more 
remarkable  to  the  philosopher  in  his  closet,  whilst  the  work  of 
Congress  was  denounced  by  northern  ultraists  as  conceding  too 
much  to  the  claims  of  their  southern  brethren,  it  was  at  the  same 
time  rejected  by  the  southern  secessionists  as  worthless.  Extremes 
again  met.  This  state  of  the  public  feeling  was  called  by  some, 
fanaticism;  by  others,  revenge;  and  by  all,  as  indicative  of  a 
determination  to  sunder,  if  practicable,  the  bond  of  union. 

Citizens  in  many  of  the  larger  marts  of  trade  viewed  this  atti 
tude  of  the  abolitionists  and  secessionists  with  alarm.  The 
emporium  of  the  empire  State  could  ill  afford  to  lose  the  advan 
tages  derived  from  all  parts  of  the  confederacy,  and  which  its 
inhabitants  expected  to  lose,  in  great  part,  if  civil  dissension  and 
dismemberment  ensued.  To  those  men  who  had  been  foremost 
in  the  compromise  legislation  of  Congress,  they  felt  grateful,  and 
as  the  northern  members  of  both  Houses  were  on  their  way  home 
ward,  tendered  them  a  public  reception. 

General  Cass  was  among  this  number.  He  had  labored,  in  un 
wavering  obedience  to  the  Constitution,  in  and  out  of  Congress; 
and  in  November,  1850,  at  his  public  reception  by  the  citizens 
of  the  city  of  New  York,  he  addressed  them  upon  the  exciting 
topics  that  now  rocked  the  Union  of  these  States  from  center 
to  circumference. 

Adverting  to  the  progress  of  the  compromise  measures  through 
Congress,  the  sacrifices  made  by  all  to  ensure  their  adoption,  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  711 

setting  aside  political  differences  to  accomplish  one  great  object, 
he  remarked: 

"  And  where,  in  the  long  annals  of  mankind,  do  we  find  a  people 
so  highly  favored  as  we  are  at  this  moment,  when  we  seem  to  be 
struck  with  judicial  blindness — almost  ready,  I  may  say,  in  the 
language  of  scripture,  to  rush  upon  the  thick  bosses  of  Jehovah's 
buckler  ?  The  sun  never  shone  upon  a  country  as  free  and  so 
prosperous  as  this,  where  human  freedom  finds  less  of  oppression, 
the  human  intellect  less  restraint,  or  human  industry  less  oppo 
sition.  And  what  overpowering  object  is  before  us  which  would 
justify  the  sacrifice  of  all  these  blessings  ?  Why  is  one  section 
of  the  country  arrayed  against  another,  and  why  are  men  found 
in  it  who  are  both  ready  to  sever  our  constitutional  ties  by  the 
sword,  and  to  commit  the  future  of  this  great  republic  to  those 
dissensions  whose  consequences  no  man  can  foresee  ?  Is  there  any 
advantage  which  disunion  would  make  greater?  Any  security 
for  the  present,  or  hope  for  the  future,  which  would  be  increased 
by  separation  ?  None,  none.  I  repeat,  then,  whence  this  agita 
tion,  this  alarm,  these  excited  feelings,  these  hard  thoughts,  which 
are  spoken  in  hard  words,  and  are  fast  leading  to  hard  deeds  ? 
Why  is  it  that  the  series  of  measures  adopted  in  the  last  session 
of  Congress,  reasonable  and  equitable  under  the  circumstances, 
and  approved  by  a  large  majority  of  the  community,  why  is  it 
that  these  have  failed  to  calm  the  excitement,  and  restore  har 
mony  and  tranquillity  to  the  country  ?  These  various  acts 
formed  part  of  one  plan  of  compromise,  and  should  be  regarded 
as  pledging  the  faith  of  every  portion  of  the  country  to  their  faith 
ful  observance,  and  if  they  are  so  in  spirit  and  truth,  we  may 
speedily  look  forward  to  that  good  old  fraternal  feeling  which 
brought  us  together,  and  which  alone  can  keep  us  together.  But, 
unfortunately,  the  public  mind  in  the  north  has  been  much 
exeited  by  the  passage  of  one  of  those  laws:  that  for  carrying  into 
effect  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  on  the  subject  of  fugitive 
slaves,  and  it  has  been  misquoted  and  misrepresented  with  such  a 
boldness  of  perversion,  unknown  before  in  our  political  controver 
sies,  that  its  repeal  is  loudly  called  for  in  one  portion  of  the 
country,  and  feared,  if  not  anticipated,  in  another.  For  myself,  I 
believe  the  repeal  of  that  law  would  dissolve  this  confederation, 
as  certainly  as  the  morrow's  sun  will  rise  upon  it.  I  believe  the 
south  would  consider  it  a  dereliction  of  constitutional  duty,  which 


712  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

would  leave  inoperative  a  great  constitutional  obligation,  and  a 
gross  violation  of  political  faith,  which  would  destroy  all  confi 
dence  for  the  future,  and  that  they  would  seek  their  remedy  by 
assuming  an  independent  station  among  the  nations  of  the  earth; 
and  believing  this,  I,  for  one,  shall  oppose  its  repeal. 

"  I  am  among  those  who  acknowledge  the  stability  of  the  con 
stitutional  obligation  to  surrender  fugitives  from  justice,  and 
fugitives  from  labor.  I  am  among  those  who  believe  that  the 
Constitution  is  a  law  high  enough  for  American  citizens,  in  the 
regulation  of  their  civil  rights  and  duties,  subject  to  the  exposition 
of  the  proper  tribunals.  And  I  am  satisfied  that  the  act  of  1793, 
on  the  subject  of  fugitive  slaves,  as  I  have  already  taken  occasion 
to  say  in  the  Senate,  had  become  inefficient,  and  almost  useless, 
and  principally  from  the  adverse  action  of  the  State  legislatures. 
And  nothing  could  more  strikingly  demonstrate  the  truth  of  this 
proposition,  than  the  fact  stated  by  Mr.  Webster,  and  confirmed 
by  Mr.  Quincy,  that  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  where  the 
opposition  to  the  present  law  has  been  most  general  and  violent, 
no  fugitive  slave  has  ever  been  surrendered  since  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution.  It  is  difficult  to  deal  with  such  a  state  of  things, 

CT5     " 

and  at  the  same  time  preserve  our  respect  for  those  who  seek  to 
make  political  capital  out  of  this  agitation,  so  utterly  unstated  to  the 
occasion.  And  what  renders  this  course  the  more  extraordinary,  is 
the  fact  that  it  has  never  been  shown,  so  far  as  I  know,  that  one 
single  person,  not  a  slave,  has  ever  been  surrendered  anywhere 
under  the  Constitution.  And  yet,  to  read  the  violent  speeches 
and  essays  upon  this  subject,  one  might  suppose  that  the  sending 
of  free  persons  into  bondage  was  an  every-day  occurrence,  which 
called  for  universal  indignation.  The  recent  disclosures  which 
have  been  made  since  the  new  law  went  into  effect,  and  which 
show  a  fugitive  slave  population  in  the  non-slaveholding  States, 
far  beyond  what  any  one  had  anticipated,  is  the  best  commentary 
upon  the  inefficiency  of  the  former  statutory  provisions,  and  the 
best  justification  for  the  complaints  of  the  south.  What,  then,  my 
fellow-citizens,  do  we  want  ?  We  want  the  restoration  of  harmony 
and  tranquillity  to  every  portion,  however  scattered,  of  this  great 
republic,  stretching  from  the  shores  that  look  upon  Europe  to  those 
which  look  upon  the  islands  and  continent  of  Asia.  All  want  the 
peaceful  enjoyment  of  our  priceless  institutions,  and  especially  so 
do  we  who  are  approaching  our  three  score  years  and  ten,  who 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  713 

have  passed  our  lives  happily  under  this  government,  and  who 
desire  to  cast  off  the  fearful  apprehension  that,  long  as  we  have 
lived,  we  maj  yet  outlive  the  Constitution  of  our  country.  Am 
erican  citizens  from  the  cradle,  in  God's  good  time,  we  hope  to 
descend  as  American  citizens  to  the  grave,  with  the  conviction 
that  after  the  religion  of  His  Son,  we  leave  to  our  children  the 
richest  heritage  that  ever  descended  to  a  people.  We  want  no 
more  discord,  excitement,  agitation,  but  that  the  legislation,  the 
business,  the  intercourse  of  the  country,  should  go  on  as  in  our 
former  days  of  true  union,  with  all  the  prosperity  which  belongs 
to  such  a  state  of  things.  No  more  crusades  against  the  south, 
no  more  public  assemblies  to  denounce  and  vilify  its  people  and 
its  institutions,  no  more  traveling  missionaries  to  excite  us  against 
one  another,  arid  especially  no  more  foreign  traveling  missionaries 
who  have  at  home  objects  of  misery  quite  enough  to  engage  all 
their  philanthropy,  and  exhaust  all  their  charity,  without  coming 
here  to  instruct  us  how  to  deal  with  a  great  question  of  consti 
tutional  duty. 

"  We  want  the  ministers  of  religion  to  preach  the  gospel  of  the 
meek  and  lowly  Jesus,  and  not  to  convert  their  pulpits  into  polit 
ical  tribunes,  to  inculcate  the  doctrine  utterly  inconsistent  with 
the  existence  of  social  order,  that  every  man  has  the  right  to 
resist  the  laws  of  his  country,  when  they  differ  from  a  standard 
he  chooses  to  establish  for  himself,  and  of  whose  extent  and  obli 
gations  he  must  be  the  judge.  This  is  not  the  example  which  was 
left  us  by  our  Divine  Master  and  his  apostles.  And  who  can 
point  to  a  single  advantage  which  has  resulted  from  all  this  vio 
lence,  much,  indeed,  of  it,  virulence  ?  Has  the  prospect  of  eman 
cipation  in  a  single  State  been  advanced  by  it  ?  No,  no.  By  a 
natural  spirit  of  re-action — a  spirit  which  prompts  all  of  us  to 
resist  foreign  interference,  the  institution  of  slavery  is  more  firmly 
established  in  all  the  slaveholding  States  than  it  was  thirty  years 
ago.  In  the  operations  of  an  excited  zeal,  the  fearful  consequences 
involved  in  the  question  of  emancipating  three  and  a  half  millions 
of  human  beings,  of  a  different  race,  habits,  color, — in  everything, 
indeed,  that  constitutes  human  identity,  living  in  the  midst  of  an 
other  and  superior  caste,  are  utterly  disregarded,  and  men  rashly 
deal  with  such  a  subject  as  they  would  deal  with  a  question  of 
common  domestic  economy.  Well  it  is  for  the  south  that  this 
whole  matter  belongs  to  themselves.  There  it  can  only  be  left, 


LIFE  AND   TIMES 

and  there  the  Constitution  has  left  it.  If  there  are  any  of  us  in 
the  non-slaveholding  States  so  afflicted  with  a  superabundant 
philanthropy  that  we  can  not  be  easy  without  philanthropic  action, 
if  we  will  but  stand  in  our  own  doors,  we  can  look  around  and 
see  objects  enough  for  our  charitable  exertion,  without  expanding 
and  expending  this  sympathetic  feeling  where  the  cost  to  us  is  as 
little  as  the  advantage  to  others.  It  is  a  cheap  way  to  be  chari 
table,  looking  at  its  results  upon  the  peace  of  the  country.  We 
have  just  been  told,  in  a  public  meeting  at  "Worcester,  by  a 
modest  English  missionary,  who  has  come  over  here  to  enlighten 
our  ignorance,  and  stimulate  our  virtuous  indignation,  that  the 
'idea  of  abolition  had  taken  root,  and  could  no  more  be  put 
down  than  the  waves  of  the  broad  Atlantic  could  be  rolled  back, 
&c.'  And  this  is  precisely  what  the  south  fears,  and  what  a 
large  portion  of  the  south  believes,  and  what  increases  the  fearful 
difficulty  of  their  position,  and  of  ours.  They  see  in  all  these 
movements  an  eternal  attack  upon  the  institutions  of  independent 
States,  and  they  foresee  the  time  when  the  barriers  of  the  Consti 
tution  will  be  broken  down,  and  this  object  pursued  till  accom 
plished  or  defeated  by  some  terrible  crisis.  The  south  is  commit 
ting  no  aggression  upon  the  north.  They  do  not  claim  the  right 
to  interfere  in  our  domestic  relations,  and  to  mould  them  to  their 
own  pleasure  instead  of  ours.  I  firmly  believe  that  a  great  major 
ity  of  the  southern  people  would  be  fully  satisfied  with  the  com 
promise  measures  of  the  last  session  of  Congress,  if  these  are 
faithfully  adhered  to,  and  this  perpetual  warfare  upon  them  and 
their  institutions  terminated.  They  acknowledge  the  institutions 
of  the  Constitution,  and  are  willing  to  abide  by  them.  Are  we 
willing  to  meet  them  in  this  patriotic  duty  ?  I  trust  we  are,  fellow- 
citizens  ;  I  feel  sure  we  are.  But  we  have  passed  the  season  of 
empty  professions,  and  need  action,  vigorous,  united,  constitutional 
action.  We  have  approached  the  brink  of  destruction,  and  if  we 
do  not  speedily  retrace  our  steps  wre  shall  be  precipitated  into  the 
abyss.  These  times  and  this  question  are  above  party.  It  is  not 
a  difference  of  opinion  respecting  modes  of  administration  which 
divides  us,  but  it  involves  the  very  existence  of  the  confederation. 
Wherever,  or  whenever,  or  however  this  question  comes  up,  let  us 
forget  that  we  are  party  politicians,  and  remember  only  that  we 
are  Americans.  Let  us  follow  the  example  of  the  venerable 
Kentucky  statesman,  doing  battle  for  his  country  towards  the 


OF  LEWIS  OASS.  715 

close  of  a  long  and  illustrious  life,  with  all  the  intellect  and  energy 
of  his  youth,  and  forgetting  his  party  associations  in  the  higher 
party  of  the  Constitution.  Let  us  discountenance  all  further 
agitation  of  this  whole  subject.  Let  us  rest  upon  the  compromise, 
firmly  and  honestly.  Let  us  satisfy  the  people  of  the  south,  that 
the  Constitution  is  a  law  which  is  high  enough  for  patriotic  Am 
ericans,  and  that  for  us  and  our  households,  we  will  hold  by  our 
obligations.  If  we  do  this,  all  will  be  well.  If  we  do  not,  we 
shall  add  another  to  the  long  list  of  nations,  unworthy  of  the 
blessings  acquired  for  them  by  preceding  generations,  and  inca 
pable  of  maintaining  them,  but  none  as  signally  as  we." 

This  speech  was  received  with  the  highest  marks  of  approbation 
by  a  thronged  and  intelligent  auditory;  and  the  words  of  admo 
nition  which  he  thus  feelingly  uttered  should  be  borne  in  mind  by 
every  peace-loving  and  law-abiding  man,  no  matter  what  may  be, 
or  what  may  have  been,  his  political  faith. 

On  the  third  of  March,  1851,  his  senatorial  term  again  expired. 
The  people  of  Michigan,  in  anticipation  of  this  event,  elected 
members  to  their  legislature,  in  the  fall  of  1850,  who  were  favor 
able  to  his  re-election.  They  wrere  proud  of  their  representative 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  Their  sentiments,  on  all  the 
prominent  measures  that  occupied  the  public  mind,  had  been  truly 
represented,  and  they  wished  General  Cass  to  continue  in  his  lofty 
position.  He,  in  truth,  was  quite  indifferent  about  it.  If  he  con 
sulted  his  own  personal  inclination,  he  much  preferred  the  quie 
tude  of  retirement.  He  was  urged,  however,  by  distinguished 
politicians,  at  home  and  abroad,  to  prolong  his  senatorial  career. 
Yielding  to  their  solicitations,  he  consented  to  do  so;  and  the 
result  was,  that  the  legislature  of  Michigan,  on  the  first  day  of  its 
session  in  the  winter  of  1851,  re-elected  him  senator  for  the  term 
of  six  years  from  the  fourth  of  March  following.  This  high  trust 
of  his  fellow-citizens,  again  thus  renewed,  he  cheerfully  accepted, 
and  is  now  discharging  its  duties  with  his  accustomed  ability,  and 
to  the  satisfaction  of  intelligent  constituents. 

During  the  time  General  Cass  has  been  in  the  Senate,  he  has 
often  been  invited  to  deliver  addresses  before  literary  societies, 
agricultural  associations,  and  other  public  bodies,  in  different  parts 
of  the  country;  and  frequently  he  has  gratified  the  request  of  his 
admirers.  Always  attentive  to  his  public  duties,  yet  he  has  so 
economized  his  time  as  to  find  an  opportunity  for  these  literary 


716  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

labors.  A  perusal  of  these  efforts  of  an  active  mind  would  show 
the  reader  how  much  of  vigor  and  freshness  it  continues  to  impart 
to  them.  Well  versed  in  the  literature  and  history  of  the  present 
and  past  ages,  he  adds  to  this,  in  all  his  writings,  the  observations 
of  a  long  experience  in  the  affairs  of  mankind,  and  a  more  inti 
mate  knowledge  than  a  stranger  to  him  would  suppose,  of  all  the 
practical  arts  and  sciences  in  daily  use  among  the  avocations  of 
his  fellow-citizens.  These  attainments  he  has*  acquired  by  con 
stantly  employing  his  time  and  thoughts,  either  in  study,  reading, 
or  observation.  He  has  not  listlessly  passed  away  his  time. 


0?  LEWIS  CASS.  717 


CHAPTEE  XLIL 

General  Cass  again  at  his  Post — Preparations  for  another  Presidential  Contest — General  Cass  a  Candi 
date — His  Friends — The  Nominating  Canvass — Baltimore  Convention — The  Result — The  Cuban 
Question — The  Views  of  General  Cass. 

General  Cass  resumed  his  seat  in  the  Senate  on  the  first  Mon 
day  of  December,  3  851,  under  his  renewed  appointment.  He  was 
promptly  at  his  post  at  the  commencement  of  the  session.  Such 
may  be  said  of  him  at  every  session.  He  answers  at  the  first  roll- 
call,  and  remains  uniformly,  without  reference  to  weather  or  cli 
mate,  till  the  session  is  closed.  It  has  been  his  remarkable  good 
fortune  rarely  to  be  detained  at  his  rooms  by  illness.  This  unin 
terrupted  health  is  not,  however,  the  work  of  chance.  He  takes 
care  of  it.  He  is  a  man  of  correct  deportment  and  regular  habits. 
The  sensation  of  drunkenness  he  never  experienced;  and  as  for 
gluttony  or  debauchery,  no  person  has  publicly  laid  these  vices 
at  his  door,  or  had  cause  for  so  doing.  He  is  a  plain  man — unos 
tentatious  in  appearance  and  habits,  but  an  adherent  to  the  ordi 
nary  rules  of  well-bred  society. 

When  this  session  of  Congress  opened,  it  was  apparent  that  no 
very  important  measures  would  engage  its  attention.  The  admin 
istration  had  none  to  bring  forward  that  would  excite  the  public 
mind.  The  attention  of  the  country  was  less  upon  Congress  than 
upon  the  politicians  outside  of  the  capital.  Another  Presidential 
canvass  was  fast  approaching,  and  the  two  leading  political  parties 
were  initiating  movements  preparatory  to  it.  As  usual  among 
the  Democracy,  the  names  of  several  eminent  statesmen  were 
mentioned  for  the  Presidential  candidate  in  1852. 

District  and  State  conventions  were  held  in  various  localities, 
and  delegates  appointed.  The  name  of  General  Cass  was  on  the 
tongues  of  his  old  admirers,  and  district  after  district,  State  after 
State  declared  for  him,  insomuch,  that  it  became  evident  to  the 
unprejudiced  that  his  friends  would  have  a  controlling  influence 
in  the  deliberations  of  the  convention. 

The  public  presses,  of  all  preferences,  conducted  the  canvass  for 


718  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  election  of  delegates  with  fairness.  As  the  day  for  the  assem 
bling  of  the  convention  drew  near,  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  distin 
guished  men  who  were  spoken  of  for  the  first  office  in  the  world, 
were  interrogated  by  Mr.  Scott,  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  relative 
to  the  slavery  question.  General  Cass  gave  a  candid  and  prompt 
reply — precisely  such  a  reply,  we  presume,  as  was  expected  by  his 
interrogator.  It  was  a  mere  rehearsal,  of  course,  of  what  he  had 
said  a  hundred  times  before,  both  publicly  and  privately.  Having 
had  no  motive  for  a  concealment  of  bis  views,  at  any  time  since 
he  came  before  the  public,  it  is  not  extravagant  to  insist  that 
everybody  who  had  taken  interest  enough  to  inquire  was  fully 
acquainted  with  them. 

It  has  been  customary,  for  many  years,  for  leading  men  in  the 
several  State  delegations  to  compare  notes  in  Washington,  just 
prior  to  the  holding  of  the  national  nominating1  conventions.  This 

i  O  c5 

rery  proper  custom  was  observed  in  1852,  with  this  difference — 
that  they  came  there  in  larger  numbers.  The  federal  capital  was 
unprecedentedly  full  of  active  and  scheming  delegates  the  last 
week  in  May.  They  were  there  without  respect  to  seniority,  oppo 
sition, -or  age,  from  all  parts.  That  was  not  ail.  An  immense 
lobby  came  also.  The  city  of  Washington,  for  four  days,  at  least, 
was  one  vast  caucus.  As  General  Cass  was  evidently  ahead  in 
this  race  for  the  nomination,  the  friends  of  the  weaker  candidates 
naturally  were  inclined  to  form  combinations  against  him.  His 
friends,  however,  gallantly  contested  the  point  with  good  humor, 
and  the  caucus  adjourned  to  the  neighboring  city  of  Baltimore — 
the  friends  of  the  several  candidates  vicing  with  each  other  in  this 
untiring  and  energetic  contest. 

The  convention  assembled  at  Market  Hall  on  the  first  day  of 
June,  and  organized  by  the  appointment  of  John  W.  Davis,  of 
Indiana,  as  president.  Mr.  Davis  having  previously  served  one 
term  as  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  was  possessed  of 
all  the  parliamentary  experience  that  was  necessary  for  the  orderly 
conduct  of  the  convention.  Among  the  members  of  the  conven 
tion  were  several  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  the  Democratic 
party.  The  primary  conventions  had  been,  in  this  regard,  pecu 
liarly  fortunate. 

Several  days  were  consumed  in  deciding  upon  contested  seats. 
A  variety  of  resolutions  were  offered  for  the  consideration  of  the 
convention,  and  all  of  which,  so  far  as  the  slavery  question  was 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  719 

concerned,  invoked  the  delegates  to  regard  the  compromise  meas 
ures  of  1850  as  a  finality.  In  the  meantime,  an  intense  excitement 
prevailed  on  the  question  of  nominees.  In  many  States,  several 
delegates  were  appointed  to  represent  the  same  district.  There 
were  in  attendance  about  five  hundred  persons  to  cast  the  two 
hundred  and  ninety  votes — the  legitimate  number  of  votes  entitled 
to  be  cast  in  the  convention. 

The  balloting  for  a  candidate  for  President  commenced  on  the 
third  day  of  the  session,  and  ran  into  the  fifth  day  ere  a  result  was 
reached.  Forty-nine  times  each  State  was  called  for  its  vote  ; 
each  ballot  of  this  unparalleled  series,  and  the  vote  of  each  State, 
was  watched  with  the  most  eager  curiosity,  it  is  within  the  limits  of 
truth  to  say,  by  an  audience  of  five  thousand  persons.  General 
Cass  and  one  of  his  competitors  in  the  convention  of  1848,  Mr. 
Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  for  a  great  number  of  ballots  were 
the  highest,  General  Cass  leading  all.  Then,  for  a  series  of  bal 
lots,  Mr.  Douglass,  of  Illinois,  crowded  hard  upon  General  Cass, 
but  did  not  come  up  even,  and  soon  fell  back,  the  General  still 
holding  the  lead  with  an  excellent  spirit.  When  the  break  oc 
curred  in  Mr.  Douglass'  forces  and  his  vote  fell,  General  Cass  rose 
suddenly  to  over  one  hundred  votes,  having  fallen  a  few  moments 
before  to  the  low  number — low  for  Mm — of  twenty -five.  This 
sudden  change  of  front  disconcerted  the  opposition;  and  as  it  was 
toward  the  close  of  the  day  on  Friday,  a  motion  to  adjourn  until 
the  next  morning,  after  one  unsuccessful  attempt,  was  carried. 

Upon  the  assembling  of  the  delegates  the  next  morning,  the 
convention  again  proceeded  with  the  ballotings.  The  friends  of 
General  Cass  still  clung  with  unyielding  tenacity  to  their  favorite, 
and  his  vote  reached  a  higher  number  than  at  any  time  before. 
His  leading  competitor  this  morning — the  fifth  and  last  day  of  the 
session — was  Governor  Marcy,  of  New  York.  This  distinguished 
statesman  outstripped  all  the  other  competitors  of  the  General,  he 
having  received,  on  one  ballot,  ninety-eight  votes. 

Thirty -four  ballots  had  been  now  taken,  and  the  delegates  in  all 
parts  of  the  hall  began  to  suggest  an  adjournment  sine  die,  with 
out  making  a  nomination.  They  grew  weary  of  their  labors.  It 
was  sufficiently  manifest  to  every  observer,  that  no  name  had  yet 
been  brought  forward  strong  enough  to  overthrow  General  Cass. 
There  was  only  one  way  to  beat  him,  and  that  was  to  rescind  the 
two-third  rule,  and  by  a  combination  upon  one  of  his  distinguished 


720  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

competitors,  produce  a  result  by  a  majority  vote.  This  plan,  if 
seriously  meditated,  was  discovered  to  be  impracticable,  because 
of  the  impossibility  of  union.  As  it  was,  without  reference  to 
the  question  whether  a  union  could  be  formed,  the  friends  of  Gen 
eral  Cass  comprised  more  than  one  third  of  the  convention.  It 
was  evident,  therefore,  to  all,  that  no  person  could  get  the  requi 
site  two  third  number,  unless  they  gave  way. 

Virginia  had  uniformly  voted  for  Mr.  Buchanan,  until  the 
morning  of  the  fifth  day,  when  she  cast  her  vote  for  Daniel  S. 
Dickinson,  of  New  York.  Mr.  Dickinson  immediately  declined 
this  honorable  manifestation  of  regard,  and  the  delegation  from 
this  State  retired  from  the  hall  of  the  convention  for  consultation. 
Upon  their  return,  upon  the  call  of  the  thirty -fifth  ballot,  they  cast 
the  vote  of  the  State  for  Franklin  Pierce,  of  New  Hampshire.  It 
created  a  profound  sensation.  It  was  a  new  name  in  that  body; 
he  was  favorably  known  to  the  members ;  he  was  of  the  pure 
Democratic  stock,  and  foremost  among  the  first  in  his  own  State. 
He  had  filled  several  important  official  positions  in  the  councils  of 
his  own  State  and  of  the  nation  ;  he  had  served  with  gallantry  on 
the  bloody  fields  of  Mexico,  at  the  head  of  his  brigade,  in  the 
prime  of  life,  and  was  competent  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the 
Presidency. 

The  convention  proceeded  more  rapidly  with  several  successive 
ballots,  and  on  the  forty-ninth  he  was  declared  the  nominee,  amid 
the  most  tumultuous  acclamation.  The  roar  of  the  cannon  pro 
claimed  the  result  to  the  people,  and  the  lightning  disseminated 
the  intelligence  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  Union. 

General  Cass,  throughout  this  severe  and  protracted  trial,  re 
mained  at  his  quarters  in  the  city  of  Washington.  He  was 
grateful  for  the  constancy  of  his  friends,  and  was  aware  of  what 
would  be  the  result  of  the  labors  of  the  convention  ere  they  reached 
it ;  he  was  content,  and  upon  the  adjournment  of  Congress  advo 
cated  the  Democratic  ticket.  He  called  upon  his  fellow- citizens  to 
give  it  an  enthusiastic  support ;  and  Michigan  stood  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  the  Democracy  of  the  nation ;  her  electoral  vote 
was  given  to  Pierce  and  King. 

The  Cuba  question  had  been  prominent  in  the  canvass,  and  it 
had  more  or  less  to  do  in  the  election  of  the  members  of  the  nomi 
nating  convention.  General  Cass  had  been  pronounced  an  "  old 
fogy,"  in  certain  quarters,  because  of  his  disinclination  to  embark 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  721 

in  the  wild  projects  of  a  class  of  his  fellow- citizens, -called  Filli- 
lusters.  They  did  not  consider  him  fast  enough  for  their  purposes. 
He  was  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  the  queen  island  of  the  West 
Indies  to  the  United  States,  but  not  m  et  armis ;  he  was  against 
the  violation  of  the  law  or  courtesy  of  nations ;  he  viewed  with 
disfavor  any  violation  of  treaties,  solemnly  made  between  his  own 
government  and  Spain ;  he  believed,  and  still  believes,  that  this 
lovely  isle  should  not  be  torn,  by  American  hands,  from  its  parent 
government.  Spain  must  either  part  with  it  for  a  consideration, 
or  it  will,  in  due  course  of  time,  of  its  own  accord,  drop  into  the 
lap  of  the  American  Union. 

The  subject  came  before  the  Senate  at  the  ensuing  session  of 
Congress.  There  evidently  wras  a  growing  restlessness  among 
some  portions  of  the  people.  Kumors  of  expeditions  to  take  pos 
session  of  the  island,  and  establish  a  new  government,  succeeded 
each  other  day  after  day  ;  the  attention  of  our  national  legislature 
was  called  to  it,  and  it  became  necessary  for  them  to  speak  out, 
and  take  their  position  before  the  world. 

General  Cass  would  have  been  strangely  inconsistent  if  he  had 
declined  the  call.  With  his  sentiments  matured  upon  this  subject, 
he  was  ready  to  do  so.  On  the  eighteenth  of  January,  1853,  the 
Senate  proceeded  to  consider  the  joint  resolutions  declaratory  of 
the  views  of  the  United  States  respecting  colonization  on  the 
North  American  continent  by  European  powers,  and  respecting 
the  Island  of  Cuba.  The  resolutions  were  worded  as  follows  : 

"Be  it  resolved^  <&c.,  That  the  United  States  do  hereby  declare 
that  '  the  American  continents,  by  the  free  and  independent  con_ 
dition  which  they  have  assumed  and  maintain,  are  henceforth  not 
to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  future  colonization  by  any  Euro 
pean  power.'  And  while  'existing  rights  should  be  respected,' 
and  will  be  by  the  United  States,  they  owe  it  to  their  own  'safety 
and  interests'  to  announce,  as  they  now  do,  'that  no  future  Euro 
pean  colony  or  dominion  shall,  with  their  consent,  be  planted  or 
established  on  any  part  of  the  North  American  continent.'  And 
should  the  attempt  be  made,  they  thus  deliberately  declare  that  it 
will  be  viewed  as  an  act  originating  in  motives  regardless  of  their 
interests  and  their  safety,  and  which  will  leave  them  free  to  adopt 
such  measures  as  an  independent  nation  may  justly  adopt  in 
defense  of  its  rights  and  its  honor. 
46 


722  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"And  l)e  it  further  resolved,  That  while  the  United  States  dis 
claim  any  designs  upon  the  Island  of  Cuba  inconsistent  with  the 
laws  of  nations  and  their  duties  to  Spain,  they  consider  it  due  to 
the  vast  importance  of  the  subject,  to  make  known,  in  this  solemn 
manner,  that  they  should  view  all  efforts  on  the  part  of  any  other 
power  to  procure  possession,  whether  peaceably  or  forcibly,  of  that 
island,  which,  as  a  naval  or  military  position,  must,  under  circum 
stances  easy  to  be  foreseen,  become  dangerous  to  their  southern 
coast,  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
as  unfriendly  acts,  directed  against  them,  to  be  resisted  by  all  the 
means  in  their  power." 

The  question  pending  was  on  the  following  amendment  offered 
by  Mr.  Hale : 

"And  be  it  further  resolved,  That  while  the  United  States,  in 
like  manner,  disclaim  any  designs  upon  Canada,  inconsistent  with 
the  laws  of  nations,  and  with  their  duties  to  Great  Britain,  they 
consider  it  due  to  the  vast  importance  of  the  subject  to  make 
known,  in  this  most  solemn  manner,  that  they  should  view  all 
efforts  on  the  part  of  any  other  power  to  procure  possession,  either 
peaceably  or  forcibly,  of  that  province,  (which,  as  a  naval  or  mil 
itary  position  must,  under  circumstances  easy  to  be  foreseen, 
become  dangerous  to  their  northern  boundary,  and  to  the  lakes,) 
as  unfriendly  acts  directed  against  them,  to  be  resisted  by  all  the 
means  in  their  power." 

General  Cass,  without  reserve,  expressed  his  views  relative  to 
the  project  of  reconverting  the  American  continent  into  Euro 
pean  colonies,  and  likewise  respecting  the  position  it  was  our  duty 
to  assume  and  maintain.  With  reference  to  the  second  resolution, 
looking  to  the  present  and  future  of  the  Island  of  Cuba,  he  said  : 

"  I  desire  the  possession  of  Cuba,  earnestly  desire  it,  whenever 
we  can  justly  obtain  it,  and  the  sooner  that  time  comes  the  better; 
for  then  will  be  finally  settled  one  of  the  most  delicate  questions 
—the  most  delicate,  perhaps,  in  our  foreign  policy,  always  liable 
to  embarrass  us  by  grave  conjectures,  more  easily  to  be  foreseen 
than  to  be  guarded  against.  As  to  the  means,  though  as  I  have 
already  said,  I  am  prepared  to  advocate  its  purchase,  even  at  the 
most  liberal  price,  still  I  should  prefer  its  acquisition  by  the  action 
of  the  people  of  Cuba — and  a  noble  tribute  it  would  be  to  our 
institutions — in  the  exercise  of  their  power  as  an  independent 
nation,  could  they  succeed,  by  any  arrangement  with  Spain,  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  723 

procuring  her  recognition  of  that  condition,  or  should  they  be  able 
and  prepared  to  establish  their  right  to  a  place  in  the  family 
of  nations." 

He  examined  the  questions  of  right  and  expediency;  and  then 
proceeded  to  develop  his  views  on  the  most  interesting  topic  of  all, 
connected  with  the  subject  matter  of  the  resolutions.  Said  he: 

"  The  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  the  reservoir  of  that  great  river  of  the 
North  American  continent,  whose  importance  it  is  as  difficult  to 
realize,  as  it  is  the  value  of  the  country,  which  must  seek  an  outlet 
to  the  ocean  through  its  waters.  That  country  is  nearly  equal  to 
all  Europe  in  extent,  embracing  twenty-five  degrees  of  latitude, 
and  thirty -five  of  longitude  upon  the  great  circles  of  the  globe. 
This  vast  basin  extends  from  the  summit  of  the  Alleghany  to  the 
summit  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  its  population  now  equals 
eight  millions.  The  man  yet  lives  who  was  living  when  almost 
the  first  tree  fell  before  the  woodman's  stroke  in  this  great  domain; 
and  the  man  is  now  living  who  will  live  to  see  it  contain  one 
hundred  millions  of  people.  Already  the  hardy  western  pioneer 
has  crossed  the  barrier  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  forest  is 
giving  way  before  human  industry  upon  the  very  shores  that  look 
out  upon  China  and  Japan.  The  Mississippi  is  the  great  artery 
of  this  region,  which,  drawing  its  supplies  from  the  fountains  at 
the  north,  pours  them  into  the  ocean  under  a  tropical  sun,  and 
drains,  in  its  own  course,  and  in  the  course  of  its  mighty  tributa 
ries — tributaries  in  name,  but  equals  and  rivals  in  fact — the  most 
magnificent  empire  which  God,  in  his  providence,  has  ever  given 
to  man  to  reclaim  and  enjoy.  I  have  myself  descended  that  great 
stream  two  thousand  miles  in  a  birch  canoe,  admiring  the  country 
through  which  it  passes  in  a  state  of  nature,  and  lost  in  the  con 
templation  of  what  that  country  is  to  be  when  subdued  by  human 
industry.  The  statistics  of  such  a  region,  in  years  to  come,  is  a 
subject  too  vast  for  calculation.  Its  extent,  fertility,  salubrity, 
means  of  internal  navigation,  and  the  character  of  the  people 
who  will  inhabit  it,  baffle  all  efforts  to  estimate  its  productiveness, 
the  tribute  which  its  industry  will  pay  to  the  wants  of  the  world, 
and  the  supplies  which  the  comfort  and  habits  of  its  people  may 
require. 

"  During  the  palmy  days  of  Napoleon,  it  is  said  that  one  of  his 
projects  was  to  convert  the  Mediterranean  into  a  French  lake. 
England  has  nearly  done  what  defied  the  power  and  ambition  of 


724:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  great  conqueror.  She  has  almost  converted  it  into  an  Eng 
lish  lake,  in  time  of  war.  Gibraltar  commands  its  entrance, 
Malta  the  channel  between  Sicily  and  Africa,  and  the  Ionian 
Islands  the  waters  of  the  Levant.  There  were  good  reasons  for 
believing,  a  short  time  since,  that  England  was  seeking  to  obtain 
a  cession  of  the  Island  of  Crete,  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Minos, 
which  would  give  her  the  port  of  Canea,  that  I  found  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  harbors  in  the  world,  equally  capacious  and 
secure.  If  England,  in  the  pursuit  of  the  same  system,  should 
acquire  similar  commanding  positions  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
that  great  reservoir  would  become  a  mare  clausum,  and  no  keel 
would  plow  it,  nor  canvass  whiten  it,  in  time  of  war,  but  by  her 
permission.  Now,  sir,  looking  to  the  extent  of  our  coast  in  that 
direction;  to  the  productions  which  must  pass  there  to  seek  a 
market;  to  the  nature  of  our  population,  and  to  the  effect  upon 
all  these  which  a  permanent  naval  superiority  would  produce — 
where  is  the  American  who  is  not  prepared  to  adopt  any  measures 
to  avert  such  a  calamitous  state  of  things  ?  Who  can  fail  to  see 
the  nature  of  the  predatory  warfare  which  England  would  carry 
on,  in  all  times  of  hostilities,  from  her  various  positions  which 
would  encircle  the  Gulf,  from  the  Bahamas  to  Cuba  and  to  Yuca 
tan  ?  And  who,  also,  can  fail  to  see,  that  even  in  time  of  peace, 
her  many  harbors  would  become  places  of  refuge  for  a  certain 
class  of  our  population,  and  that  perpetual  collisions  would  occur, 
involving  the  peace  of  the  two  countries  ? 

"  The  Gulf  of  Mexico,  sir,  must  be  practically  an  American 
lake,  for  the  great  purpose  of  security;  not  to  exclude  other  nations 
from  its  enjoyment,  but  to  prevent  any  dominant  power,  with 
foreign  or  remote  interests,  from  controlling  its  navigation.  It 
becomes  us  to  look  our  difficulties  in  the  face.  Nothing  is  gained 
by  blinking  a  great  question.  Prudent  statesmen  should  survey 
it,  and,  as  far  as  may  be,  provide  for  it.  We  have,  indeed,  no 
Mount  Carmel,  like  that  of  Judea,  nor  prophet  to  ascend  it,  and 
to  warn  us  against  a  coming  storm.  But  the  home  of  every  citizen 
is  a  Mount  Carmel  for  us,  whence  we  can  survey  the  approaching 
cloud,  even  when  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  which  threatens 
to  overspread  the  political  atmosphere,  and  to  burst  in  danger 
upon  his  country. 

"So  long  as  Cuba  is  held  by  its  present  possessors,  neither  we 
nor  the  commercial  world  have  anything  to  fear  from  the  projects 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  725 

of  England  or  of  France  ;  for  the  latter  country  also  has  its 
schemes  of  territorial  and  mercantile  aggrandizement,  as  is  appa 
rent  from  the  considerations  I  have  already  presented  to  the 
Senate.  Spain  is  not  now  in  a  condition,  and  in  all  human  prob 
ability  never  can  be,  seriously  to  annoy  us,  even  if  she  had  the 
disposition,  and  we  may  well  rely  upon  her  want  of  power  and 
her  want  of  will,  and  rest  satisfied  that  her  most  precious  depen 
dency,  the  Queen  of  the  Antilles,  will  not  be  hazarded  by  convert 
ing  it  into  a  military  and  naval  arsenal  for  interrupting  and 
seizing  our  commerce,  and  devastating  our  coasts.  But  let  the 
dominion  be  transferred  to  England  or  France,  and  where  are  we? 
The  mouth  of  our  great  river  might  be  hermetically  closed,  and 
the  most  disastrous  injuries  inflicted  upon  us.  I  need  not  pursue 
these  considerations  farther,  for  he  who  is  incredulous  to  their 
force  would  not  be  driven  from  his  incredulity  by  any  effort  of 
mine. 

"  We  have  evidently  reached  one  of  those  epochs  in  the  career 
of  nations  to  which  the  historian  of  their  decline  and  fall  looks 
back,  in  his  searching  investigation,  into  the  causes  of  their  fate. 
Our  duties  are  plain,  noble,  indeed,  and  our  position  invites  us  to 
fulfill  them,  firmly  and  fearlessly.  The  progress  and  improvement 
in  all  the  great  branches  of  human  industry,  and  especially  in 
those  which  relate  to  the  intercommunication  of  nations,  and  to 
the  benefit  which  each  may  derive  from  all  by  the  interchange,  as 
well  of  knowledge  as  of  material  products,  have  brought  the 
human  family  more  closely  into  contact  than  at  any  former  period, 
and  have  opened  interests,  which,  if  not  new,  have  become  much 
more  powerful  in  their  extent  and  operation,  and  which  give  some 
degree  of  unity  to  the  public  feeling  of  the  world.  We  can  not 
withdraw  from  this  great  association.  We  can  not  isolate  our 
selves  from  the  common  sentiment  of  the  age,  nor  ought  we  to  d> 
so  if  we  could.  Our  place  is  assigned  to  us  by  events  almost  be 
yond  our  control,  and  as  we  fill  it,  worthily  or  unworthily,  the 
judgment  of  the  future  will  pronounce  us  the  inheritors  of  the  spirit, 
as  we  have  been  of  the  labors  and  sacrifices,  of  the  men  of  the 
Ee volution,  or  craven  descendants,  false  to  their  principles  as  to 
our  own  honor.  I  am  well  aware,  Mr.  President,  that  such  views 
expose  a  man  to  a  great  deal  of  obloquy  in  th's  country.  I  have 
experienced  all  that,  in  common  with  many  others.  But  neither 
the  advent,  nor  the  apprehension  of  it,  has  deterred  me,  at  much 


726  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

earlier  periods  of  life,  and  certainly  will  not  deter  me  now,  when 
that  life  is  fast  drawing  to  a  close,  from  the  expression  of  an  ear 
nest  hope,  that  the  American  name  and  fame  will  be  maintained 
by  the  American  people,  with  the  brightness  of  true  glory,  undi- 
ininished  by  the  neglect  of  a  single  deed  which  national  honor 
may  require  we  should  do,  or  leave  undone." 

Since  the  delivery  of  this  speech,  from  which  these  extracts  are 
taken,  we  believe  no  person  has  been  puzzled  to  know  what  Gene 
ral  Cass'  views  are  on  the  Cuba  question.  It  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  its  future  history  reflects  the  truth  of  his  position. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  727 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

President  Pierce  — His  Inaugural  —  The  Nebraska-Kansas  Bill  —  General  Cass' Position,  Tie ws,  and 
Votes— The  Attack  of  Colonel  Beaton— General  Cass  repels  it— His  Speech— Extracts. 

"With  the  Presidential  compaign  of  1852,  the  bubbling  elements 
of  the  sensitive  subject  of  slavery  subsided,  for  the  Baltimore 
Convention  having  treated  the  compromise  measures  of  1850  as 
a  finality,  the  subject  was  ignored.  The  steadfast  friends  of  the 
Union,  through  good  and  through  evil  report,  breathed  freer  and 
deeper.  They  reposed  in  the  happy  consciousness,  that  the  most 
mighty  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe  could  now  go  forward  in 
her  glorious  mission  of  republicanism,  unembarrassed  by  domestic 
feuds  and  intestine  broils,  and  untrammeled  by  the  interference 
of  distant  governments. 

President  Pierce,  in  his  celebrated  inaugural  address,  on  the 
fourth  of  March,  1853,  distinctly  and  emphatically  avowed  his  pol 
icy  to  be,  to  carry  out,  in  good  faith,  the  publicly  announced  senti 
ments  of  the  convention  that  brought  him  before  the  people.  So  far 
as  eye  could  penetrate,  this  annunciation  found  a  lodgement  in  the 
hearts  of  a  large  and  influential  majority  of  his  countrymen.  Nor 
was  this  approval  confined  to  any  particular  States  or  division  of 
States.  It  permeated  the  whole  —  the  north  and  the  south,  the 
east  and  the  west. 

The  angry  and  agitating  discussions  which  resounded  in  the 
federal  halls  of  legislation,  and  echoed  from  crowded  cities  and 
lonely  cabins  —  from  the  hills  of  New  England,  the  prairies  of 
the  west,  and  the  savannahs  of  the  south — from  ocean  and  lake — 
all  had  died  away,  furnishing  another  beautiful  tribute  to  the 
priceless  value  of  free  institutions.  Prosperity  and  good  feeling 
— quiet  and  fraternity  among  the  States — were  restored  ;  and  the 
honest-minded  patriot  looked  forward  to  many  long  years  of 
tranquillity.  Anxiety  and  alarm  had  passed  away,  and  peace 
reigned  within  the  walls  of  the  American  republic. 


728  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

But  old,  and,  in  too  many  instances,  true,  is  the  maxim  that  a 
certain  stillness  always  precedes  the  tempest.  The  thirty-third 
Congress  came  together  in  December,  1853.  The  usual  standing 
committees  had  hardly  been  announced  in  the  Senate,  ere  bills  for 
the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas  were  no 
ticed  by  Mr.  Douglass,  of  Illinois — looking  to  the  repeal  of  the  Mis 
souri  compromise  bill  of  1820 — and  thereby  again  opening  all  the 
disputed  points  connected  with  the  subject  of  congressional  action 
upon  slavery  in  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  This  was  the  toc 
sin  of  alarm,  and  quick  did  its  ominous  sounds  reverberate  all  over 
the  country.  For  thirty  years  had  it  reposed  under  the  aegis  of 
the  parallel  latitude  of  36°  30':  above  that,  human  bondage  was 
never  to  go.  The  proposition  now,  was  to  demolish  this  barrier 
to  the  swelling  torrent  of  slavery,  and  let  it  have  free  scope. 
Good  men  and  true  paused  in  wonder:  the  quiet  were  aroused 
from  their  lethargy:  the  sentinels  who'  always  stood  guard  on  the 
battlements  of  human  freedom,  frantic  with  rage,  gave  the  alarm; 
and  the  anti-slavery  cohorts  of  all  the  northern  United  States 
again  took  the  field,  clad  in  the  panoply  of  eternal  opposition  to 
the  further  extension  of  the  peculiar  institution  of  their  southern 
brethren.  But  yesterday,  the  whole  hemisphere  was  without  a 
cloud  for  the  most  far-sighted  vision  to  rest  upon :  to-day,  the 
horizon  betokened  a  terrific  tempest.  Alas  for  the  vanity  of  all 
human  expectations!  and  here  was  a  most  apposite  and  unlooked- 
for  demonstration. 

Since  the  violent  storm  of  1850,  General  Cass  had  ventured  to 
indulge  the  belief,  that  this  everlasting  topic  of  internal  contro 
versy  had  been  put  to  rest,  and  that,  in  his  day,  at  least,  it  would 
not  again  disturb  the  repose  of  his  country.  Many  days,  how 
ever,  had  not  elapsed  after  these  new  propositions  had  been  brought 
forward,  before  the  scales  dropped  from  his  eyes,  and  he  beheld, 
at  one  glance,  the  length  and  breadth  of  what  was  to  come.  He 
was  in  favor  of  the  organization  of  governments  for  the  Territories 
under  consideration,  but  he  deprecated  the  repeal  of  the  time- 
honored  line  drawn  between  slavery  and  freedom,  under  the 
solemn  compact  by  which  Missouri  took  her  position,  as  a  sove 
reign  member  of  the  confederacy,  in  1820:  and  so  he  told  the 
Senate  on  the  twentieth  of  February,  1854. 

"  With  the  honorable  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Everett] 
I  frankly  avow  that  I  was  filled  with  doubt  and  alarm  during  the 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  729 

troubles  and  contests  which  were  terminated  by  the  compromise 
measures  of  1850,  and  he  who  was  "unmoved,  had  more  apathy  or 
apprehension  than  I  had.  But  though  the  ominous  cry  of  '  Woe, 
woe  to  Jerusalem!'  is  once  more  heard,  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
country  is  in  any  danger,  not  the  least;  but  still  I  do  not  deny  that 
these  frequent,  almost  periodical,  renewals  and  revivals  of  this 
threatening  subject,  must  necessarily  produce  irritation  and  ex 
citement,  tending  to  array  one  section  of  the  country  against  an 
other,  and  thus  we  weaken  those  ties  of  confidence  and  affection 
so  essential  to  the  permanence  and  tranquillity  of  this  mighty 
confederacy.  Events,  connected  with  our  territorial  aggrandize 
ment,  seemed,  as  their  necessary  consequence,  to  lead  to  the  former 
agitation  ;  but  the  present  one  has  burst  upon  us  without  warning, 
and,  as  I  think,  from  causes  which  might  have  been  avoided. 

"  Mr.  President,  I  have  not  withheld  the  expression  of  my  regret 
elsewhere,  nor  shall  I  withhold  it  here,  that  this  question  of  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  which  opens  all  the  disputed 
points  connected  with  the  subject  of  congressional  action  upon 
slavery  in  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  has  been  brought 
before  us.  I  do  not  think  the  practical  advantages  to  result  from 
the  measure  will  outweigh  the  injury  which  the  ill-feeling,  fated 
to  accompany  the  discussion  of  this  subject  through  the  country, 
is  sure  to  produce.  And  I  was  confirmed  in  this  impression 
by  what  was  said  by  the  senator  from  Tennessee,  [Mr.  Jones,]  by 
the  senator  fron  Kentucky,  [Mr.  Dixon,]  and  by  the  senator  from 
North  Carolina,  [Mr.  Badger,]  and  also  by  the  remarks  which  fell 
from  the  senator  from  Virginia,  [Mr.  Hunter,]  and  in  which  I 
fully  concur,  that  the  south  will  never  derive  any  benefit  from 
this  measure,  so  far  as  respects  the  extension  of  slavery;  for,  legis 
late  as  we  may,  no  human  power  can  ever  establish  it  in  the 
regions  defined  by  these  bills. 

"And  such  were  the  sentiments  of  two  eminent  patriots,  to 
whose  exertions  we  are  greatly  indebted  for  the  satisfactory  ter 
mination  of  the  difficulties  of  1850,  and  who  have  since  passed  from 
their  labors  —  we  may  humbly  hope,  to  their  rewards.  It  is  ex 
cluded  ~by  a  law,  to  borrow  the  words  of  one  of  them,  in  which 
the  other  fully  acquiesced,  superior  to  that  which  admits  it  else 
where, — tli&  law  of  nature,  of  physical  geography,  the  law  of  the 
formation  of  the  earth.  That  law  settles  for  ever ^  with  a  strength 


730  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

beyond  all  terms  of  human  enactment^  that  slavery  can  not  exist 
there. 

"Thus  believing,  I  should  have  been  better  content  had  the 
whole  subject  been  left  as  it  was  in  the  bills  when  first  introduced 
by  the  senator  from  Illinois,  without  any  provision  regarding  the 
Missouri  compromise.  I  am  aware  it  was  reported  that  I  intended 
to  propose  the  repeal  of  that  measure ;  but  it  was  an  error.  My 
intentions  were  wholly  misunderstood.  I  had  no  design  whatever 
to  take  such  a  step,  and  thus  resuscitate  from  its  quietude  a  deed 
of  conciliation  which  had  done  its  work,  and  had  done  it  well, 
and  which  was  hallowed  by  patriotism,  by  success,  and  by  its 
association  with  great  names  now  transferred  to  history.  It  be- 

O  */ 

longed  to  a  past  generation ;  and  in  the  midst  of  a  political  tem 
pest,  which  appalled  the  wisest  and  the  firmest  in  the  land,  it  had 
said  to  the  waves  of  agitation,  Peace,  be  still/  and  they  became 
still.  It  would  have  been  better,  in  my  opinion,  not  to  disturb 
its  slumber,  as  all  useful  and  practical  objects  could  have  been 
attained  without  it.  But  the  question  is  here  without  my  agency, 
and  I  am  called  upon  to  take  my  part  in  its  adjustment.  I  shall 
do  so  frankly  and  fearlessly." 

The  bills,  after  debate,  were  referred  back  to  the  appropriate 
committee,  and  again  reported  with  an  amendment  to  meet  the 
views  of  General  Cass.  That  amendment  declared  that  the  people, 
whether  in  the  Territories  or  in  the  States  to  be  formed  from 
them,  were  free  to  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own 
way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  "With 
this  arrangement  of  the  details  of  the  bill,  as  now  proposed,  he 
announced,  that  if  called  upon,  he  should  vote  for  it.  He  was 
aware  that  the  bill,  in  its  final  shape,  would  be  unpalatable  alike 
to  many  northern  and  southern  men,  but  for  different  reasons, — 
the  southerner,  because  of  his  fear  that  in  the  settlement  of  the 
Territories  free  men  would  obtain  the  ascendency;  and  the  north- 
ener,  because  of  his  repugnance  to  a  squabble  for  the  control. 
But  General  Cass,  without  fear  or  favor,  had  years  before  settled 
for  himself  the  principles  that  must  govern  his  official  conduct, 
whenever  this  subject  came  up  for  action.  And  those  principles, 
so  far  as  the  Territories  were  concerned,  was  the  application  of 
the  doctrines  of  popular  sovereignty.  He  never  had  intruded  the 
subject  of  slavery  upon^  the  attention  of  Congress.  He,  in  no 
instance,  has  brought  it  forward.  His  action  and  votes  have, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  731 

invariably,  been  consequent  upon  the  acts  of  others.  If  he  could 
have  his  own  way,  he  would  not  disturb  the  compromises  of 
1787,  of  1820,  or  of  1850;  but,  adhering  to  them  in  good  faith, 
let  freedom  and  slavery  work  out  their  own  destiny  on  this 
continent. 

On  this  occasion  he  endeavored  to  show  the  Senate  that  neither 
extreme  had  occasion  to  complain.  With  reference  to  southern 
complaint,  he  remarked: 

"  It  is  not  a  little  extraordinary  that,  after  all  the  complaints 
we  have  heard  upon  this  subject,  Congress  has  not  passed  a  single 
law  excluding  any  man  or  property  from  the  Mexican  acquisitions; 
not  one.  New  Mexico  and  Utah  remain  just  as  open  to  the  ad 
mission  of  slavery  at  this  hour  as  they  were  the  hour  they  passed 
into  the  possession  of  the  United  States;  and  its  exclusion 
from  California  is  the  act  of  the  people,  assembled  in  convention 
to  form  their  own  constitution,  and  not  the  act  of  the  general 
government. 

"Mr.  Rhett,  indeed,  in  a  remarkable  speech  in  this  body,  re 
markable  for  an  American  citizen  in  an  American  legislature, 
undertook,  by  a  peculiar  process,  to  hold  this  government  respon 
sible  for  the  measure — making  it  one  sin  the  more  in  his  long 
catalogue  of  offenses. 

"  SyllogisticaJly  his  argument  runs  thus: 

"  You  have  no  right  to  pass  the  Wilmot  proviso. 

"  You  admitted  California  into  the  Union. 

41  California  inserted  the  Wilmot  proviso  into  her  constitution. 

"  Therefore  you  passed  the  Wilmot  proviso. 

"Such  are  the  premises  and  the  conclusions  charged  by  Mr. 
Rhett  upon  another  senator,  as  the  doctrine  of  the  latter,  but  as 
sumed  by  the  former  as  his  own,  when  he  said:  '  Sir,  the  senator 
was  right.' 

"  Sir,  the  senators  were  wrong,  both  of  them  wrong,  if  Mr.  Rhett 
understood,  as  I  doubt,  the  proposition  intended  to  be  advanced  by 
the  member  referred  to.  I  have  put  the  argument  in  the  syllogis 
tic  form,  omitting  its  details,  that  the  process  may  be  the  more 
apparent,  and  the  conclusion  the  more  satisfactory,  or  unsatisfac 
tory,  as  it  is  approved  or  disapproved;  a  compound  syllogism,  I 
think,  they  called  this  form  in  the  schools.  But  all  the  subtleties 
of  verbal  metaphysics,  from  the  days  of  Aristotle  downwards, 
with  their  major  and  minor  terms,  their  copulas  and  predicates. 


732  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  all  the  other  machinery  by  which  words  usurp  the  place  of 
ideas,  could  not  establish  the  truth  of  such  a  conclusion,  nor  per 
suade  the  American  people,  that  because  a  State  excludes  or 
admits  slavery  by  its  constitution,  Congress  is  responsible  for  that 
act  when  it  provides  for  the  admission  of  such  State  into  the 
Union.  I  repeat,  not  an  act  of  the  general  government  has 
touched  this  claim  of  right  in  the  slightest  degree;  and  if  ever 
an  American  might  by  law  take  slaves  to  any  of  the  region  ac 
quired  from  Mexico,  he  may  do  it  yet,  so  far  as  regards  the 
operation  of  congressional  legislation.  It  is  a  judicial  question, 
which  may  at  any  time  be  brought  before  the  judicial  department 
of  our  government. 

"  And  this  brings  me  to  the  consideration  of  the  true  ground  of 
these  complaints,  and  how  far  they  have  any  real  foundation. 

"The  south  is  excluded  from  the  Territories^  robbed  of  tliem,  plun 
dered  of  them,  and  tliey  are  appropriated  to  the  north  ! 

"  Now,  is  this  so,  Mr.  President  ?  What  prevents  a  southern  man 
from  going  to  any  of  those  regions  under  the  same  circumstances 
as  a  northern  man,  if  he  chooses  ?  I  know  of  nothing.  Physically 
one  can  go  as  well  as  the  other,  for,  in  the  language  of  a  great 
dramatic  poet,  both  have  '  eyes,  hands,  organs,  dimensions,  sor 
rows,  affections,  passions,  fed  with  the  same  food,  hurt  with  the 
same  weapons,  subject  to  the  same  diseases,  healed  by  the  same 
means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the  same  winter  and  summer.' 

"  If  there  is  no  physical  incapacity,  neither  is  there  a  legal  one 
in  the  way  of  emigrants  from  the  north  or  from  the  south.  All 
are  equally  free  to  go  at  their  pleasure.  The  statute  book  is 
without  a  single  prohibition  upon  the  subject. 

""Where,  then,  is  this  unjust  exclusion,  this  act  of  atrocious  rob 
bery  on  the  part  of  the  general  government?  It  certainly  is  not 
an  act  of  commission,  for  Congress  has  not  legislated  on  the  sub 
ject  at  all.  It  must  be  robbery  by  omission,  a  new  sin  in  the 
decalogue.  The  existing  laws  of  the  country  render  the  condi 
tion  of  slavery  an  illegal  one,  and  it  was  contended  that  the  act 
of  annexation,  and  the  constitutional  equality  which  is  its  imme 
diate  and  necessary  consequence,  abrogated  this  provision,  and 
that  a  slaveholder  was  as  free  to  hold  his  peculiar  property  there 
as  are  the  inhabitants  themselves  to  hold  any  other  species  of 
property.  Well,  this  is  obviously  a  right  which^  if  it  exist,  can 
not  be  taken  away,  and  which  may,  at  any  time,  be  enforced 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  733 

before  the  judicial  tribunals.  It  has  not  even  been  touched  by 
congressional  action,  and  it  is  a  mere  perversion  of  terms  to  talk 
of  robbery,  where  the  right  and  the  remedy,  whatever  these  may 
be,  are  in  just  as  much  force  as  ever,  so  far  as  regards  congres 
sional  legislation.  It  is  a  robbery  without  a  robber,  an  aggression 
without  an  aggressor,  an  injury  with  none  to  commit  it,  and  none 
to  benefit  by  it. 

"  I  repeat,  then,  what  prevents  a  southern  man  from  going  to 
any  of  these  Mexican  acquisitions  ?  The  only  incapacity  alledged, 
is  the  inability  to  hold  slaves  there.  And  this  inability,  if  it 
exist,  results  from  the  law  of  the  place,  and,  in  point  of  fact,  is 
inconsistent  with  the  assumption  of  a  constitutional  right,  and 
would  fall  before  it,  could  it  be  established.  But,  leaving  to  others 
to  reconcile  this  contradiction,  I  have  to  remark  that  this  difficulty 
may  resolve  itself  into  two  objections ;  first,  that  slavery  is  so 
necessary  to  human  comfort,  to  comfortable  existence,  indeed, 
that  our  southern  brethren  can  not  live  where  it  is  not  estab 
lished,  and  that  to  exclude  it,  is  to  exclude  them  from  any  portion 
of  the  earth,  however  otherwise  desirable.  Now,  sir,  I  can  admit 
no  such  position.  I  have  too  high  an  opinion  of  the  people  of  the 
south  to  believe  that  they  can  not  accommodate  themselves  to  any 
social  system  of  which  slavery  does  not  form  an  essential  part. 
This  is  a  very  different  question  from  its  established  existence  in 
a  community  of  which  we  are  members.  There  we  may  uphold 
it  from  the  conviction  that  immediate  ruin  would  follow  its  ex 
tinction  in  any  manner  yet  offered  to  public  consideration.  Upon 
this  subject  I  should  feel  just  as  the  south  feels,  were  I  a  resident 
there,  and  should  hold  in  abhorrence  every  external  effort  to  inter 
fere  with  this  momentous  question.  But  far  otherwise  is  the 
proposition,  that  to  live  in  a  non-slaveholding  community  is  a 
sacrifice  which  amounts  to  an  interdiction  against  entering  into  it, 

o  a 

an  utter  exclusion  from  its  advantages.  Why,  sir,  people  from 
slaveholding  States  practically  contradict  such  an  assumption 
every  day,  by  migrating  to  other  States  where  slavery  does  not 
exist,  as  they  are  continually  doing  ;  and  I  presume  no  one  will 
deny  that  human  comfort  and  the  blessings  of  civilized  life  are 
to  be  found  in  many  communities,  at  home  and  abroad,  from 
which  slavery  has  been  excluded,  or  where  it  never  existed.  It 
is  worse  than  idle  to  advance  such  a  proposition.  It  is  rebuked 
by  the  experience  of  the  world. 


734:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  The  second  objection  which  I  propose  to  consider,  connected 
with  this  alledged  seizure  of  the  public  domain,  is,  that  a  southern 
man  can  not  go  there  because  he  can  not  take  his  property  with 
him,  and  is  thus  excluded  by  peculiar  considerations  from  his 
share  of  the  common  territory. 

"  So  far  as  this  branch  of  the  subject  connects  itself  with  slaves, 
regarded  merely  as  property,  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  necessity 
of  leaving  and  of  disposing  of  them  may  put  the  owners  to  in 
convenience — to  loss,  indeed — a  state  of  things  incident  to  all 
emigration  to  distant  regions  ;  for  there  are  many  species  of  that 
property,  which  constitues  the  common  stock  of  society,  that  can 
not  be  taken  there.  Some,  because  they  are  prohibited  by  the 
laws  of  nature,  as  houses  and  farms;  others  because  they  are  pro 
hibited  by  the  laws  of  man,  as  slaves,  incorporated  companies, 
monopolies,  and  many  interdicted  articles  ;  and  others,  again,  be 
cause  they  are  prohibited  by  statistical  laws,  which  regulate  the 
transportation  of  property,  and  virtually  confine  much  of  it  within 
certain  limits  which  it  can  not  overcome,  in  consequence  of  the 
expense  attending  distant  removal;  and  among  these  latter  arti 
cles  are  cattle,  and  much  of  the  property  which  is  everywhere 
to  be  found.  The  remedy  in  all  these  cases  is  the  same,  and  is 
equally  applicable  to  all  classes  of  proprietors,  whether  living  in 
Massachusetts,  or  New  York,  or  South  Carolina,  and  that  is  to 
convert  all  these  various  kinds  of  property  into  the  universal  rep 
resentative  of  value,  money,  and  to  take  that  to  these  new  regions, 
where  it  will  command  whatever  may  be  necessary  to  comfort  or 
to  prosperous  enterprise.  In  all  these  instances  the  practical 
result  is  the  same,  and  the  same  is  the  condition  of  equality. 

"I  listened  with  great  interest  to  the  eloquent  remarks  of  the 
senator  from  North  Carolina,  [Mr.  Badger,]  upon  this  whole  sub 
ject,  and  especially  to  those  in  which  he  depicted,  with  equal  force 
and  feeling,  the  painful  circumstances  connected  with  the  disrup 
tion  of  those  ties  of  habit  and  affection  which  bind  every  just 
master  to  his  slaves,  and  particularly  to  those  domestic  slaves 
most  intimately  associated  with  his  family.  This  is  so,  sir,  be~- 
yond  doubt,  and  it  is  among  the  harsh  trials  which  make  part  of 
the  shitting  scenes  of  life  in  which  we  are  all  engaged.  The  north 
ern  emigrant  has  his  full  share  of  these  sacrifices;  for  rarely, 
indeed,  does  he  fail  to  leave  behind  him  some  of  the  dearest  ob 
jects  of  his  affections,  too  often  with  little  hope  of  rejoining  them 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  735 

on  this  side  of  the  grave.  These  scenes  of  sorrow  belong  to  that 
life  of  change  which  almost  makes  part  of  the  American  charac 
ter;  but,  painful  as  they  are,  they  can  not  enter  into  the  deter 
mination  of  legal  or  constitutional  rights  which  appeal  to  right 
principles,  and  not  to  the  kindlier  emotions  of  the  heart. 

"It  follows  that  all  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  have  equal 
claims  to  go  to  the  national  domain,  under  equal  circumstances, 
each  responsible  to  the  laws,  and  each  entitled  to  take  whatever 
the  laws  permit.  Otherwise,  as  strange  a  confusion  would  exist 
in  the  legal  systems  of  the  '  Territories '  as  existed  in  the  language 
of  the  world  when  the  primitive  race  was  scattered  upon  the 
plains  of  Shinar,  and  when  one  man  could  not  understand  another's 
speech.  The  tenure  and  the  incidents  of  property  would  not  be 
regulated  by  the  laws  of  the  country  where  it  would  be  enjoyed, 
but  by  the  laws  of  the  country  whence  it  came. 

"  Such  a  principle  would  strike  at  independent  and  necessary 
legislation,  at  many  police  laws,  at  sanitary  laws,  and  at  laws  for 
the  protection  of  public  and  private  morals.  Ardent  spirits, 
deadly  poisons,  implements  of  gaming,  as  well  as  various  articles, 
doubtful  foreign  bank  bills,  among  others,  injurious  to  a  prosper 
ous  condition  of  a  new  society,  would  be  placed  beyond  the  reach 
of  legislative  interdiction,  whatever  might  be  the  wants  or  the 
wishes  of  the  country  upon  the  subject.  For  the  constitutional 
right  by  which  it  is  claimed  that  these  species  of  property  may  be 
taken  by  the  owners  to  the  'Territories'  of  the  United  States,  can 
not  be  controlled,  if  it  exist  by  the  local  legislatures ;  for  that 
might  lead,  and  in  many  cases  would  lead,  to  the  destruction  of 
its  value.  If  apprentices  were  made  property,  and  their  term  of 
service  should  be  extended  by  any  member  of  the  confederation 
to  the  age  of  sixty  years,  or  to  the  full  term  of  life,  or  if  peonage 
shall  be  introduced,  or  white  slavery  be  established  by  indenture, 
or  in  any  other  form,  these  new  kinds  of  servitude  would  be 
placed  beyond  the  reach  of  the  territorial  laws,  and  would  intro 
duce  themselves  wherever  the  public  domain  exists.  And  can 
the  peonage  of  New  Mexico  be  carried  by  right  to  Minnesota  ? 
or,  had  California  retained  it,  would  the  laws  regulating  it  have 
extended  themselves  immediately  over  all  the  Territories  ?  And 
certainly  the  case  put  by  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  tests  and 
illustrates  this  claim ;  for  if  polygamy  should  be  established  by 
law,  as  it  is  by  usage  in  Utah,  and  should  make  part  of  its  consti- 


736  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

tution,  tliese  contemn ers  of  the  word  of  God  and  of  the  feelings 
of  man,  might  transfer  themselves  with  their  harems  to  any  of  the 
Territories,  and  there  live  in  open  contempt  of  law  and  religion." 

With  reference  to  the  northerner,  and  the  moral  sentiment  of 
the  people  upon  the  relations  of  master  and  slave  in  the  northern 
States,  he  remarked: 

"  The  status  of  slavery  has  existed  from  the  earliest  ages  of  the 
world;  and  regretted,  as  it  is  and  must  be  by  the  moralist,  it  is  a 
great  practical  political  question  which  every  established  commu 
nity  where  it  is  recognized  must  adjust  for  itself.  The  Ee volution 
found  it  in  most  of  the  States,  and  there  it  was  at  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  and  in  many  of  them  it  yet  remains,  making  part 
of  the  rights  and  guarantees  of  the  confederation.  To  touch  it  by 
the  general  government,  would  be  to  shake  to  its  corner-stone  our 
whole  political  edifice.  Like  other  human  institutions,  it  has 
neither  all  the  advantages  its  friends  claim  for  it,  nor  all  the  evils 
its  enemies  deplore.  Believing  it  a  misfortune  for  any  country, 
I  regret  its  establishment;  but  looking  upon  it  as  an  existing  con 
dition,  I  am  free  to  confess,  that  though  it  may  come  to  an  end, 
and  I  hope  it  may  peacefully  and  justly,  I  see  no  way  in  which 
this  can  be  effected  but  by  leaving  it  to  those  most  interested  in 
it,  and  to  the  process  they  may  find  it  best  to  adopt.  Any  exter 
nal  interference  would  only  aggravate  the  evils  and  the  dangers, 
and  this  our  experience  has  already  shown.  As  to  the  frightful 
pictures  which  have  been  drawn  of  cruelty  on  one  side,  and  suffer 
ing  and  wretchedness  on  the  other,  they  are  gross  exaggerations, 
by  whatever  modern  Gulliver  fabricated,  whether  men  or  strong- 
minded  women,  originating  in  ignorance  or  malevolence,  and 
ministering  to  the  worst  of  passions,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  I 
know  something  of  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  and  I  believe,  in 
general,  they  are  treated  with  all  the  humanity  which  can  reason 
ably  be  expected  in  their  situation;  with  a  humanity  honorable  to 
the  proprietors  as  a  class,  and,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  quite  as  well 
as  they  would  be  in  the  northern  States,  had  this  institution  not 
been  abolished  there,  and  far  better  than  by  many  whose  philan 
thropy  is  shown  by  the  railing  and  reproachful  words  they  utter, 
and  not  by  the  relief  they  contribute  to  objects  of  misery.  And  I 
know  something  of  the  condition  of  the  poverty-stricken  population 
of  Europe,  and  of  a  large  portion  of  the  inhabitants,  who  lie  down 
in  sorrow  and  get  up  in  care,  and  who  pass  their  lives  in  want, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  737 

many  of  them  in  a  state  of  destitution  utterly  unknown  in  this 
country;  and  I  have  seen  far  more  misery  in  the  proudest  capitals 
of  Europe  than  I  ever  saw  in  our  own  favored  land  among  white 
or  black,  bond  or  free.  A  recent  remark  in  the  London  Times 
better  illustrates  this  frightful  condition  of  human  want  than  the 
most  labored  description: 

"  'In  London,  the  center  and  core  of  British  wrealth  and  phara- 
saical  exclusiveness,  one  hundred  thousand  human  beings  get  up 
every  morning  without  knowing  where  they  are  to  find  a  meal, 
except  from  a  passing  job  or  crime.' 

u  One  would  think  that  here  was  field  enough  for  the  exertion 
of  any  reasonable  quantity  of  philanthropy,  and  that,  until  these 
awful  scenes  of  human  suffering  were  removed,  it  would  exhibit  a 
much  more  commendable  spirit  to  labor  there  for  life  first,  and 
then  for  reformation,  rather  than  to  be  sending  political  mission 
aries,  under  the  guise  of  a  universal  love  of  mankind,  to  this 
country,  kindly  to  excite  one  portion  of  the  Union  against  another, 
and  thus  lead  to  the  dissolution  of  the  confederacy,  and  to  the 
destruction  of  our  power  and  prosperity.  What  a  deplorable  con 
summation  that  would  be  to  these  philanthropic  Englishmen  ! 
Certainly,  objects  of  commisseration  are  everywhere  to  be  found, 
even  in  the  most  prosperous  communities.  Misfortunes,  whether 
produced  by  ourselves  or  by  the  chances  of  life,  are  inseparable 
from  human  society.  And  there  is  no  man  who  can  not  look 
around  him  and  find  objects  enough  upon  which  to  exhaust  his 
benevolence,  whether  its  contributions  are  confined  to  puling  sen 
timentality  or  extended  to  substantial  offerings  for  the  relief  of 
distress.  I  have  no  patience  with  that  costive  charity  which  neg 
lects  the  misery  of  its  neighborhood  because  that  demands  the 
aid  of  the  purse,  and  seeks  subjects  for  noisy  philanthropy  far 
beyond  its  reach,  because  words  are  not  wealth,  and  professions 
are  cheaper  than  cash. 

"If  I  might  presume  to  give  an  opinion  upon  the  subject,  I  will 
say,  that  our  southern  brethren  sometimes  manifest  too  much  sen 
sitiveness  at  these  ebullitions  of  ill-directed  feelings,  frequently 
sincere,  but  too  often  assumed  for  personal  or  political  objects. 
A  factitious  importance  is  thus  given  to  them  which  they  would 
never  attain,  if  left  to  their  natural  fate.  And  another  and  yet 
greater  error  connected  with  this  whole  subject  consists  in  the 
demands,  altogether  too  exacting,  made  upon  the  public  men  of 
47 


738  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

the  non-slaveholding  States,  many  of  which  I  have  seen,  and  some 
of  which  I  have  felt.  No  stronger  proof  of  this  predisposition  can 
be  given  than  the  refusal,  on  the  part  of  southern  members  of  this 
body,  to  permit  the  insertion  in  the  fugitive  slave  law  of  a  pro 
vision  allowing  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  to  the  person  claimed  in 
the  county  whence  it  might  be  alledged  he  had  escaped,  on  his 
restoration  there,  should  he  then  demand  it. 

"  I  never  could  comprehend  the  motives  for  the  rejection  of  this 
proposition,  so  just  in  itself,  and  which  would  have  given  great 
satisfaction  to  the  north,  and  have  prevented  much  of  the  hostility 
to  the  law.  It  would  have  been  entirely  compatible  with  the  Con 
stitution,  for  the  delivery  to  the  master  would  have  been  but  a 
commitment,  to  be  consummated  and  become  final  by  the  verdict 
of  the  jury  when  demanded.  I  was  in  favor  of  the  general  princi 
ples  of  the  law,  and  was  among  the  earliest  to  urge  the  justice  of 
its  passage,  and  the  injury  done  to  the  south  by  the  delay.  The 
refusal  to  accept  this  proposition  seemed  to  interpose  unnecessary 
barriers  in  the  way  of  the  investigation  of  questions  of  human 
liberty;  for  certainly  the  objections  wrhich  might  reasonably  have 
been  urged  against  the  submission  of  these  cases  to  a  northern 
jury,  and  which  induced  me  to  oppose  the  provision,  had  no  ap 
plication  to  a  southern  jury,  which  can  have  no  prejudices  to 
overcome  in  the  examination  of  the  rights  of  the  parties.  But  not 
an  inch  of  ground  was  yielded;  and  I  determined  not  to  give  my 
assent  to  the  law.  It  was  a  bed  of  Procrustes,  and  as  I  had  no 
wish  to  be  shortened  or  lengthened  by  a  rigid  adaptation  to  it,  I 
found  it  no  place  for  me.  Had  the  northern  senators  been  firm 
upon  the  point,  this  tribute  to  a  great  principle,  interwoven  with 
the  American  heart  and  institutions,  would  have  been  secured." 

He  further  told  the  Senate,  for  the  benefit  of  statesmen  repre 
senting  the  slaveholders: 

"  It  requires  but  little  exertion  to  swim  with  the  current,  while 
he  who  opposes  it  must  put  forth  all  his  strength,  and  even  then 
may  become  its  victim.  Popular  feeling  is  a  power  hard  to  resist, 
and  the  reproach  of  being  a  dough-face  belongs  to  him  who  pan 
ders  to  it,  and  not  to  him  who  strives  to  maintain  the  constitu 
tional  rights  of  all,  even  in  opposition  to  his  own  community, 
which  holds  in  its  hands  his  political  life  and  death.  This  is  pre 
cisely  the  condition  which  no  southern  man  has  ever  had  to 
encounter  in  connection  with  this  grave  subject,  and  it  is  precisely 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  739 

the  condition  which  he  can  not  comprehend,  or  will  not  do  justice 
to,  when  the  course  of  a  northern  man  is  in  question.  It  is  not 
enough,  with  too  many  of  the  southern  politicians,  that  public 
men  from  the  free  States  maintain,  firmly  and  unflinchingly,  the 
rights  of  the  slaveholding  portion  of  the  Union,  and  stand  ready 
to  meet  the  consequences,  however  disastrous  to  themselves,  rather 
than  participate  in  their  violation ;  this,  I  say,  is  not  enough : 
sometimes,  indeed,  it  is  nothing,  unless  every  opinion  of  the  south 
upon  the  general  question  is  adopted,  and  unreserved  allegiance 
professed  to  the  declaration,  that  SLAVERY  is  THE  BEST  CONDITION 

OF   HUMAN   SOCIETY." 

And  then,  that  the  people  of  the  free  States  may  know  that  he 
has  no  views  upon  this  subject  to  be  concealed  from  the  whole 
public,  he  further  said  to  the  Senate  —  separating  the  defense  of 
constitutional  rights  from  the  defense  of  slavery: 

"  Slavery  is,  in  my  opinion,  as  I  have  said  more  than  once  be 
fore  in  the  Senate,  and,  I  have  no  doubt,  unacceptably  to  many,  a 
great  evil,  social  and  political,  but  it  is  an  existing  one,  from  which 
I  see  no  escape,  and  for  which  the  south  is  not  responsible  to  the 
north,  nor  to  any  other  tribunal  but  to  His,  who  made  both  bond  and 
free;  and  while,  either  in  public  or  private  life,  I  have  strength 
to  express  my  views,  not  out  of  peculiar  regard  to  any  section  of 
the  country,  but  in  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  my  own  conscience, 
1  shall  never  cease  to  uphold  the  right  of  the  south  to  determine 
every  question  in  relation  to  this  species  of  property  for  themselves, 
and  the  duty  of  the  whole  Union  to  carry  into  effect  the  constitu 
tional  provision  in  good  faith,  and  with  kind  feelings.  I  do  not 
know  any  northern  man  who  is  disposed  to  go  beyond  this;  nor  is 
there  any  southern  man  who  should  desire  it." 

An  effort  was  evidently  being  made  to  produce  an  impression 
that  all  those  who  supported  the  Nebraska-Kansas  bill  were,  in 
the  cant  phrase  of  the  day,  pro-slavery  men;  and  that  their  advo 
cacy  of  it  was  conclusive  evidence  of  their  alienation  from  the 
principles  of  freedom,  and  of  their  devotion  to  those  of  slavery. 
General  Cass  chose  to  put  himself  right  upon  this  point,  and, 
while  maintaining  the  just  power  of  other  portions  of  the  Union, 
to  deal  with  this  question  for  themselves  and  as  they  pleased,  to 
express  his  belief  that  slavery  was  a  misfortune  for  any  country. 
He  chose  to  have  it  distinctly  understood  that  it  was  not  the  insti 
tution  itself  he  was  defending,  but  the  political  rights  of  other 


740  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

sections  of  the  country,  under  the  Constitution.  It  has  been  alledged 
that  he  added,  in  the  speech  above  quoted,  that  slavery  was  a 
moral  evil.  He  did  not  say  so.  Under  the  circumstances  in  which 
it  exists  in  the  southern  States,  he  did  not  think  so.  Such  an 
assertion  would  have  been  inconsistent  with  his  main  position — 
that  the  present  inhabitants  of  those  States  were  not  responsible 
for  the  introduction  of  slavery. 

Indeed,  regarding  slavery  as  a  social  and  political  evil,  and  a 
misfortune  for  any  country,  was  no  new  view  with  him.  In  1842, 
at  Paris,  when  exposing  the  consequences  and  injustice  of  the 
quintuple  treaty,  he  said:  "We  are  no  slaveholder;  we  never  have 
been;  we  never  shall  be.  We  deprecate  its  existence  in  principle, 
and  pray  for  its  abolition  everywhere,  wrhere  that  can  be  effected 
justly,  peaceably,  and  wisely."  In  the  Nicholson  letter,  in  1847, 
he  repeats:  "We  may  well  regret  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the 
southern  States,  and  wish  they  had  been  free  from  its  introduction." 

But  he  was  not  alone  in  these  views.  The  Fathers  of  the  Re 
public  were  his  company.  General  Washington  said  that  "  it  was 
among  his  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery 
may  be  abolished  by  law."  Mr.  Jefferson  remarks:  "  I  can  say, 
with  truth,  that  there  is  not  a  man  on  earth  who  would  sacrifice 
more  than  I  would  to  relieve  us  from  this  heavy  reproach  (of 
slavery)  in  any  practicable  way.  The  cession  of  that  kind  of 
property  (for  it  is  misnamed,)  is  a  bagatelle,  which  would  not  cost 
me  a  single  thought,  if,  in  that  way,  a  general  emancipation  and 
expatriation  could  be  effected  gradually;  and,  with  due  sacrifice, 
I  think  it  might  be.  But  as  it  is,  we  have  the  wolf  by  the  ears, 
and  we  can  neither  hold  him  nor  safely  let  him  go.  Justice  in 
one  case,  and  self-preservation  in  the  other!" 

General  Cass  heard  Mr.  Madison  observe  in  conversation,  that 
slavery  was  a  great  misfortune  for  Virginia ;  and  such  was  the 
well-known  opinion  of  Mr.  Monroe,  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  Pat 
rick  Henry,  and  George  Mason. 

The  bill  for  the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  Nebraska  and 
Kansas  finally  passed  the  Senate;  and  on  the  night  of  its  passage, 
General  Cass  embraced  the  occasion  to  congratulate  that  body 
upon  the  triumph  of  squatter  sovereignty;  meaning  by  that  term, 
not  political  independence,  but  inalienable  rights,  in  constitutional 
subordination  to  the  general  government — the  right  of  the  people 
to  regulate  their  local  and  domestic  affairs  in  their  own  way.  He 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  741 

had  just  cause  for  this  congratulation.  The  adverse  doctrine  of 
total  submission  had  been  previously  received  with  great  favor  in 
large  portions  of  the  Union.  He  had  labored  long  and  zealously 
for  the  recognition  of  political  freedom,  and  had  been  exposed  to 
misrepresentation  and  denunciation.  "When,  therefore,  a  bill  had 
received  the  sanction  of  the  Senate  which  conferred  a  greater  meas 
ure  of  freedom  upon  these  Territories  than  had  ever  before  been 
granted  to  such  local  communities;  reducing  the  absolute  veto  of 
the  government  to  a  qualified  one,  and  thus  enabling  them  to  pass 
any  law  they  might  require;  yielding  up  all  the  supervisory  au 
thority  by  Congress  over  their  legislation,  which  is  expressly 
extended  to  all  subjects  not  prohibited  by  the  Constitution  or  the 
organic  law,  and  the  prohibitions  of  the  latter  are  but  few,  and  are 
principally  confined  to  the  measure  of  organization;  allowing  them 
to  elect  almost  all  their  officers,  with  many  other  provisions  favor 
able  to  liberty,  he  felt  that  a  great  advance  had  been  made  in  the 
progress  of  free  principles;  and,  especially,  by  the  abandonment 
of  the  pretension,  that  the  right  of  legislation  rested  upon  the  ten 
ure  of  the  land;  for,  in  all  the  vast  regions  comprehended  in  those 
bills,  there  was  not  a  single  acre  of  land  owned  by  a  white  man. 
All  this  was  a  source  of  gratification,  and  he  declared  it,  as  he  had 
a  right  to  do ;  but,  in  so  doing,  it  seems  he  encountered  bitter 
reproaches,  bitterly  expressed.  Why,  it  is,  indeed,  hard  to  con 
jecture,  unless  it  is  a  mortal  offense  to  speak  with  pleasure  of  a 
general  acquiescence  in  a  great  measure,  founded  in  the  very 
nature  of  our  institutions. 

The  doctrine  of  non-intervention,  or,  in  other  words,  the  right 
of  self-government,  so  far  as  it  is  not  controlled  by  the  Constitu 
tion,  met  with  severe  animadversion  in  the  other  wing  of  the  capitol, 
and,  especially,  from  Colonel  Benton,  of  Missouri,  who  then  occu 
pied  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  after  having  served 
thirty  years  in  the  Senate.  General  Cass  was  not  willing  to  pass 
this  attack  unnoticed,  inasmuch  as  he  considered  it  harsh,  and,  in 
truth,  wanton.  He  availed  himself  of  the  first  favorable  opportu 
nity  to  notice  it  from  his  place  in  the  Senate.  It  was  on  the 
twenty-fifth  of  May,  following  the  passage  of  the  bill.  His  remarks 
were  replete  with  irony  and  sarcasm.  We  quote  a  part: 

"  ]STow,  sir,  I  know  no  one  who  claims  sovereignty  for  the  Terri 
tories.  It  would  be  a  condition  utterly  inconsistent,  as  this  honor 
able  member  said,  with  their  relation  to  the  United  States.  Lest, 


T42  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

in  our  ignorance,  we  might  not  understand  the  meaning  of  this 
rare  and  recondite  word,  and  not  with  the  unworthy  view  of  mak 
ing  a  display  of  learning,  we  are  kindly  told  that  inconsistent 
signifies  inability  to  stand  together.  Etymologically,  he  says,  it 
is  derived  from  con  and  sisto,  and  thus  the  sovereignty  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  Territories,  can  not  stand 
together.  These  words,  con  and  sisto,  are  Latin,  and  the  Latins 
were  Romans.  I  communicate  this  for  the  benefit  of  the  Senate. 
It  is  a  very  curious  and  important  fact,  which  escaped  the  pene 
tration  of  Niebuhr  and  of  all  his  co-laborers  in  the  field  of  historical 
research.  But  the  country  will  see  there  is  one  whose  penetration 
it  could  not  escape,  meaning  myself.  It  takes  a  Columbus  to  dis 
cover  a  world.  And  the  Romans  were  the  Americans  of  Italy. 
They  had  a  Senate  as  we  have,  and  he  who  served  thirty  years  in 
it,  served  six  lustrums,  and  he  who  serves  thirty  years  in  our 
Senate,  serves  five  terms,  and  this  wonderful  identity  of  institu 
tions  accounts  for  the  strong  resemblance  between  these  two  great 
people,  and,  especially,  for  their  equal  love  of  annexation. 

" The  same  authority  tells  us  that  this  is  all  hotch-potch;  'for 
the  Territories  are  the  children  of  the  States — they  are  minors 
under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  it  is  the  business  of  the  States, 
through  their  delegations  in  Congress,  to  take  care  of  these  minors 
until  they  are  of  age — until  they  are  ripe  for  State  government — 
then  to  give  them  that  government,  and  admit  them  to  an  equality 
with  their  fathers.'  'That  is  the  law  and  the  sense  of  the  case,' 
&c.  Had  I  been  told  this  by  any  other  than  an  infallible  author 
ity,  I  should  have  said  it  was  the  nonsense  of  the  case.  Even  as 
it  is,  I  can  not  help  having  some  misgivings.  A  critic,  with  less 
respect  than  I  profess  to  feel  for  such  a  guide,  might  say  all  this 
is  idle  and  false  analogy.  It  is  made  the  foundation  of  despotic 
rule  under  a  written  Constitution,  and  a  government  of  granted 
and  limited  powers.  Instead  of  resorting  to  that  Constitution  to 
test  the  validity  of  acts  of  Congress,  we  are  to  seek  the  authority 
in  some  fancied  resemblance  in  physical  objects;  and,  because  a 
mare  lays  an  egg,  therefore  a  government  may  hatch  what  power 
it  pleases  out  of  it.  American  citizens  in  the  Territories — many 
of  them  in  the  highest  position  and  estimation  before  their  emi 
gration — as  soon  as  they  reach  these  districts,  lose  all  their  intelli 
gence  and  experience,  and  become  minors,  utterly  unfit  to  exercise 
any  of  the  powers  of  self-government.  All  their  political  interests 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  743 

are  committed  to  a  legislature  thousands  of  miles  off,  whose  mem 
bers  are  ignorant  of  their  condition,  and  irresponsible  to  them. 
My  highly  respected  friend  from  Wisconsin,  [Mr.  Dodge,]  who 
has  passed  a  life  of  honor  and  of  usefulness  upon  the  frontier, 
knows — no  one  knows  better — the  value  of  the  population  which 
presses  forward  to  settle  a  new  country.  He  knows  it  is  no  weak 
nor  wicked  class  from  the  older  regions,  but  vigorous,  enterpris 
ing,  intelligent  men,  (I  know  it,  for  I  have  seen  it  during  a  half  a 
century,)  to  whose  spirit  and  wonderful  energy  our  country  is 
indebted  for  the  proudest  triumph  of  human  industry  over  the 
obstacles  of  nature  which  is  recorded  in  the  long  annals  of  our 
race,  since  the  first  pioneer  of  settlement  went  forth  from  the 
garden  he  had  forfeited.  He  who  thinks  disparagingly  of  the 
advance  guard  of  civilization,  knows  nothing  of  the  Daniel  Boones 
and  their  compeers,  who  have  left  their  monuments  in  the  great 
work  they  accomplished,  and  in  the  deeds  that  achieved  it.  And 
such  men  are  to  be  deprived  of  the  first  rights  of  freedom,  because 
Territories  are  political  minors! 

"  I  perceive,  sir,  that  I  have  been  in  error  all  my  life  upon  this 
subject.  I  had  thought  that  territorial  governments  were  institu 
ted  for  a  very  different  purpose  from  that  of  teaching  the  inhabi 
tants  knowledge  enough  to  manage  their  own  concerns.  Why  I 
thought  so,  I  will  now  explain. 

"  When  this  form  of  temporary  government  was  first  introduced, 
it  was  under  the  confederation,  and  at  that  time  each  State  had 
one  vote  in  Congress,  and  it  would  have  been  signal  political 
inequality  and  injustice  to  admit  a  Territory  into  the  Union,  what 
ever  population  it  possessed,  however  small,  and  thus  enable  it  to 
exercise  one  fourteenth  part  of  the  power  of  the  republic.  To  pre 
vent  this,  it  was  provided  that  sixty  thousand  inhabitants  should 
be  necessary  to  admission  ;  and  that  whenever  one  of  these  com 
munities  might  have  that  number,  it  should  make  part  of  the 
confederation.  And  the  same  principle  was  continued  under  the 
Constitution.  I  thought  this  was  a  mere  question  of  numbers,  not 
of  ripeness,  of  minority,  of  age,  or  of  wisdom.  Some  of  these 
children  have  been  much  more  precocious  than  others.  The  non 
age  of  Alabama  was  two  years  only,  the  duration  of  her  temporary 
government,  and  then  she  was  ripe  for  admission,  and  was  admit 
ted  into  the  Union  ;  while  her  sisters,  Arkansas  and  Michigan, 
less  gifted,  according  to  this  theory  of  political  power,  remained 


744:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

in  a  state  of  pupilage,  the  former  thirty-three,  and  the  latter 
thirty-two  years.  So  much  for  analogy  in  the  investigation  of 
great  constitutional  questions. 

"  It  seems  that  Mark  Antony  well  remembered  the  very  day 
when  Caesar  put  on  his  new  coat — that  very  coat  which  he  wore 
when  twenty-three  holes  were  made  in  it,  or  in  him.  Well,  an 
other  memory  is  as  powerful  as  that  of  the  Triumvir.  That  other 
memory  knows  the  day  when  this  monstrosity  was  first  presented. 
It  must  be  a  truly  patriarchal  one,  for  the  monster  made  his  ap 
pearance  in  the  English  colonies  a  century  ago,  and  was  well 
described  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  claimed  among 
the  most  valuable  possessions  of  man. 

"  A  very  happy  illustration  of  our  duty  is  furnished  by  a  clas 
sical  reference  to  Edmund  Burke,  who,  we  are  told,  was  the  author 
of  a  treatise  called  the  Sublime  and  Beautiful,  another  of  the  dis 
coveries  which  have  marked  the  progress  of  this  investigation. 
Well,  it  is  said  that  Mr.  Burke,  in  the  exuberance  of  his  imagina 
tion,  and,  no  doubt,  in  a  moment,  as  well  of  excited  feeling  as  of 
desperate  resolution,  actually  exclaimed  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
c  I  do  not  care  three  jumps  of  a  louse  for  Lord  North.'  Louse,  sir, 
is  PEDICULUS,  in  Latin.  Therefore,  in  the  future  variorum  editions 
of  this  speech,  for  there  will  be  many  of  them,  this  memorable 
ejaculation  will  probably  read,  I  DO  NOT  CARE  THREE  JUMPS  OF  A 
PEDICULUS  FOR  LORD  NORTH. 

"So  we  are  called  upon,  with  patriotic  indignation,  not  to  care 
three  jumps  of  the  same  interesting  little  animal  for  the  Secreta 
ries  of  the  Departments — the  President's  clerks,  as  we  are  reminded 
John  Randolph  said  they  were — and,  I  suppose,  to  care  for  nothing 
else,  but  to  go  right  onward  in  the  exercise  of  despotic  power. 

"  By-the-by,  sir,  is  this  quotation  marked  with  the  usual  scru 
pulous  accuracy  of  the  speaker?  Should  not  the  word  jump  be 
changed  to  skip,  which  latter  seems  more  appropriate  to  the  sal 
tation  of  the  parasitical  squatter  on  the  human  occiput  than  the 
heavier  cognomen  ?  I  venture  to  predict  that  this  question  will 
take  its  place  among  the  most  interesting  critical  researches  of 
after  times. 

"  I  am  certain  that  John  Randolph  and  Nathaniel  Macon, 
frequently  referred  to  by  him,  whose  reference  is  honor,  as 
bright  lights  in  the  palmy  days  —  palmy  nights,  I  suppose  —  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS. 

republicanism,  would  denounce  a  sentiment  that  casts  ridicule  on 
rights  dear  to  every  man,  savage  or  civilized. 

"  We  are  told,  that,  when  this  doctrine  was  first  introduced  into 
the  Senate,  it  was  received  as  '  nonsense,  as  the  essence  of  nonsense, 
as  the  quintessence  rf  nonsense,  as  the  five  times  distilled  essence  of 
political  nonsensi cality. ' 

"  Well,  sir,  this  is  very  probable;  and  those  of  us  who  support 
the  doctrine,  need  not  feel  the  slightest  mortification  because  it 
was  received  with  ridicule.  The  laughing  state  is  a  kind  of  chry 
salis  condition,  through  which  most  great  truths  and  discoveries 
have  to  pass.  There  are  very  few  important  enunciations  of  this 
nature  which  have  not  provoked  merriment,  from  the  earliest  case 
on  record  down  to  the  latest  and  the  greatest — the  actual  discov 
ery  and  declaration  by  the  member  from  Missouri  to  an  admiring 
world,  that  '  YOID  is  VACANT,  EMPTY,  NOTHING  OF  IT  ! '  Wonderful 
age  this  for  the  advancement  of  the  human  intellect! 

"Dr.  Johnson,  who  was  hired  by  the  British  administration, 
wrote  an  anti-Nebraska  pamphlet  of  that  day,  entitled,  c  Taxation 
no  Tyranny.'  He  laughed  at  this  principle  of  self-government, 
ridiculing  the  idea  that  the  Congress  of  Westminster  was  not  litter 

o  O 

to  govern  colonies  across  the  ocean  than  the  people  themselves, 
just  as  the  idea  is  now  laughed  at,  that  the  Congress  of  Washing 
ton  is  not  fitter  to  govern  Territories  across  the  mountains  and 
deserts,  than  the  ignorant  inhabitants  who  have  squat  down  there. 

"  But,  sir,  this  question  has  passed  through  its  laughing  state. 
Nobody  laughs  at  it  now.  Some  dread  it,  some  dislike  it,  some 
disbelieve  it,  but  all  approach  it  with  perfect  gravity,  and,  judging 
from  the  temper  manifested  by  the  speaker  to  whom  I  have 
alluded,  and  the  vituperative  epithets,  not  scattered  through,  but 
abounding  in,  his  remarks,  I  am  sure  he  must  have  been  in  any 
thing  but  a  laughing  mood;  and  I  do  not  believe  that  a  single 
risible  muscle  was  called  into  action  during  the  whole  period  of 
this  prodigious  mental  effort. 

"  But,  sir,  there  are  other  fatal  argumentative  objections  to  this 
bill,  which  I  have  selected  from  the  same  display  of  genius,  and 
which  I  shall  proceed  to  submit  to  the  solemn  consideration  of  the 
Senate. 

"The  bill  is  a  'silent,  halting,  creeping,  limping,  squinting 
motion,  conceived  in  the  dark,  and  midwifed  in  a  committee 
room,'  &c. 


746  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  '  It  is  crooked,  insidious,  and  pusillanimous.'  '  It  is  a  farrago, 
an  olla-podrida.'  l  It  is  a  juggle,  worthy  of  the  trick  of  one  egg 
under  three  hats,'  &c.  '  It  is  buttered  on  both  sides,'  &c.  '  Why 
kill  the  dead  ?  Why  trip  up  the  heels  of  the  man  already  flat  on 
his  back  on  the  ground  ?'  'It  is  a  farrago  of  nullities,  incongrui 
ties,  and  inconsistencies.'  '  It  is  untrue,  contradictory,  suicidal, 
and  preposterous.'  '  It  is  a  shilly-shally,  willy-won'ty,  don'ty- 
can'ty,  style  of  legislation.'  '  It  is  not  manly.  It  is  not  womanly. 
!N"o  shilly-shally  in  a  woman.' 

"  This  is  a  noble  tribute  to  the  noble  sex.  It  is  a  beautiful 
sentiment,  beautifully  conceived,  and  happily  expressed.  It  is  the 
essence,  the  quintessence,  the  five  times  distilled  essence  of  truth  and 
of  poetry.  What  a  brilliant  imagination  has  been  sacrificed  to 
the  dry  pursuits  of  six  lustrums ! 

" '  It  is  made  up  of  paraphrases,  circumlocutions,  ambidexterity, 
and  ambiguity.'  '  It  is  just  jumping  out  of  the  frying  pan  into 
the  fire.'  '  It  is  a  see-saw  bill  —  it  is  stuffed  with  monstrosities — 
hobbled  with  contradictions — Badgered  with  a  proviso.'  The  hon 
orable  senator  from  North  Carolina,  who  has  pursued  a  noble  and 
patriotic  course  during  all  this  agitating  controversy,  may  well  be 
proud  of  such  characteristic  censure. 

" '  There  is  a  stump  speech  injected  in  the  belly  of  the  bill.' 

"  If  this  new  stump  speech  does  not  eject  its  injected  predecessor, 
and  cause  it  to  be  rejected,  then  there  is  no  emetic  that  will  do  the 
work  in  all  the  materia  medica.  Such  a  stomach  must  be  proof 
against  the  whole  power  of  physic  and  physicians.  These  are 
conclusive  arguments  against  this  bill ;  and  if  it  passes  in  the  face 
of  them,  it  will  be  the  triumph  of  folly  and  wickedness  over  logic 
and  patriotism  and  constitutional  law. 

"And,  worst  of  all,  and  beyond  all,  it  is  '  amphibological.  Yes, 
sir,  amphibological.' 

"Amphibology  '  is  a  monster  of  such  frightful  mien, 
As  to  be  hated  needs  but  to  be  seen.' 

"  I  may  be  pardoned  the  violation  of  prosody,  in  consideration 
of  the  gravity  and  practical  value  of  the  sentiment.  We  have 
also  another  vindication  of  the  truth  of  history,  and  are  told  that 
General  Jackson  rejected  a  bill,  and  returned  it  with  a  message 
to  the  Senate,  refusing  to  sign  it  for  amphibology.  This  vindica 
tion  is  as  erroneous  as  was  a  former  one.  General  Jackson  did 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  747 

not  reject  the  bill  alluded  to,  relating  to  the  public  funds.  But  as 
it  was  the  last  night  of  his  term  of  service,  he  retained  it  without 
action ;  and  he  afterwards  gave  his  reasons  for  so  doing  in  the 
Globe.  He  said  the  bill  was  '  complex '  and  c  uncertain,' 'liable 
to  diversity  of  interpretation,'  and  that  he  c  had  not  time  to  give 
the  subject  deliberate  consideration ' — not  one  hard  word  here. 

"As  to  amphibology,  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  document,  nor 
do  I  believe  the  General  ever  heard  of  the  term  ;  and  I  think  if  it 
had  met  his  eye,  he  would  have  been  as  much  puzzled  as  I  was 
to  discover  its  meaning.  It  sent  me  to  the  dictionary — no,  to  the 
Lexicographical  Thesaurus — and  there  I  found  an  old  acquaintance 
bedizzened  in  such  finery  that  my  power  of  recognition  had  been 
completely  put  to  fault;  and,  after  all,  I  ascertained  that  avwphi- 
lological  means  doubtful.  There  is  no  doubt  of  that.  Learning, 
sir,  is  a  great  element  of  power  and  fame ;  and  so  potent  is  it  in 
its  operation,  that  a  very  little  of  it,  discreetly  managed,  goes  a 
great  way." 


748  LIFE  AXD  TIMES 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

General  Cass' Aversion  to  everything  British  —  The  Second  War— The  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  — The 
Homestead  Bill — The  Employment  of  Indians — The  Anglo-French  Declaration — Slavery  Again — 
Legislative  Instruction  —  The  Senator's  Reply  —  Know-Nothingism — Age  of  General  Cass — His 
Habits— Residence  —  Death  of  Mrs.  Cass— General  Cass'  Private  Affairs— His  Property— His  Viewe 
of  the  Past  and  Future— The  Termination. 

General  Cass  has  always  evinced  an  aversion  to  everything  that 
savored  of  British.  This  trait  in  his  disposition  is  not  surprising, 
when  we  recall  to  mind  that  almost  the  first  words  he  was  taught 
in  infancy  to  utter,  were,  "  no  taxation  without  representation." 
Hostility  to  tyranny  was  born  in  him.  He  would  not  if  he  could, 
and  he  could  not  if  he  would,  eradicate  it.  As  he  grew  to  man 
hood  and  extended  the  field  of  his  reading,  he  ever  and  anon  met 
with  transatlantic  periodicals  and  publications  teeming  with  stric 
tures  upon  republicanism.  In  too  many  instances  he  knew  that 
these  animadversions  were  unjust.  They  strengthened  his  native 
prejudices  against  the  government  of  England,  its  laws,  and  its 
institutions.  He  admired  the  genius  of  many  of  her  statesmen, 
poets  and  scholars,  for  neither  earth  nor  sky  can  fetter  this.  But 
as  he  investigated,  the  more  convinced  he  became  of  the  colossal 
ambition  of  the  Crown.  The  farthest  islet  in  the  most  distant 
seas  escaped  not  the  argus-eyed  cabinet  of  London.  Its  secret 
agents,  its  confidential  ambassadors,  traversed  the  globe. 

In  the  second  war  of  the  United  States  with  Great  Britain, 
General  Cass  felt  the  hand  of  British  supremacy  among  the  wilds 
of  his  own  country.  He  experienced  it  in  a  tenfold  greater  de 
gree  at  the  court  of  St.  Cloud.  He  saw  it  paralyzing  American 
diplomacy  in  the  treaty  of  Washington.  He  could  not  mistake 
it.  Along  the  eastern  coast  of  South  America,  British  domination 
was  quietly  but  surely  penetrating  the  Western  Continent.  Pres 
ident  Monroe  put  his  foot  down  against  foreign  intermeddling. 
Several  of  his  successors  had  renewed  the  protestation.  Isolated 
members  of  Congress,  and  the  people,  had  echoed  and  re-echoed 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  749 

this  sentiment.  And  yet  Congress  had  never  given  its  authori 
tative  assertion  in  the  shape  of  a  resolution  or  by  bill — the  only 
way  to  make  its  way  effectual. 

In  July,  1850,  the  British  government,  through  its  minister, 
Mr.  Bulwer,  and  the  United  States,  by  its  Secretary  of  State,  Mr. 
Clayton,  made  a  treaty,  known  as  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty,  by 
which  the  high  contracting  parties  precluded  themselves  mutually 
from  occupying,  or  fortifying,  or  colonizing,  or  assuming,  or 
exercising  jurisdiction  over  Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica,  the  Mosquito 
Coast,  or  any  part  of  Central  America.  General  Cass,  in  common 
with  other  statesmen,  was  astonished  that  the  American  Secretary 
should  have  suffered  himself  to  be  thus  over-reached  by  the  arts 
of  British  diplomacy.  True,  England  had  stipulated  on  paper 
that  she  would  not  take  possession  of  Central  America,  but  not 
until  the  United  States  had  also  solemnly  plighted  the  faith  of  the 
government  to  an  observance  of  the  same  on  their  part.  In  other 
words,  if  the  republic  of  the  United  States  would  circumscribe 
the  boundaries  of  republicanism,  in  all  this  western  world,  and 
give  the  British  lion  a  carte  llanche  to  pounce  upon  the  proud 
bird  of  Jove,  as  it  winged  its  way  towards  the  southern  skies, 
then,  in  such  case,  the  British  government  would  most  graciously 
condescend  to  withdraw  its  protectorate  over  the  continent. 

But  this  was  not  the  worst  feature  of  the  matter.  Three  years 
had  not  elapsed  after  the  conclusion  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty, 
before  the  wily  cabinet  of  London,  in  fact,  infringed  upon  the 
spirit  if  not  the  letter  of  its  provisions.  The  establishment  of  a 
new  British  colony  in  Central  America,  known  as  the  "Colony  of 
the  Bay  Islands,"  was  publicly  proclaimed.  This  intelligence  was 
startling  to  senators  who  had  voted  for  the  ratification  of  the 
treaty  upon  the  assumption  that  it  was  a  point  gained,  if  this 
shred  of  diplomacy  only  weakened  the  foothold  of  British  power 
among  the  half-civilized  countries  to  the  south  of  Mexico.  Hence, 
the  Senate  at  once  adopted  a  resolution  calling  upon  the  execu 
tive  for  information  upon  this  subject,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
asking  what  measures  had  been  taken  to  prevent  the  violation  of 
the  treaty  of  July  5th,  1850.  The  Department  of  State  replied 
that  the  executive  had  no  information  to  communicate  in  relation 
to  the  subject  of  the  resolution,  but -accompanying  this  reply  were 
various  documents,  which  had  not  been  before  made  public,  being 
the  correspondence  between  the  distinguished  negotiators  of  that 


750  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

treaty,  disclosing  a  state  of  facts  unlocked  for  by  the  Senate. 
From  this  correspondence,  it  appeared  that  when  the  treaty  was 
ratified  by  the  Senate,  that  ratification  was  given  to  the  instru 
ment  itself,  without  any  limitation  or  explanation  to  control  the 
descriptive  terms  employed  in  it.  But  when  it  was  sent  to  Eng 
land  for  the  sanction  of  the  British  o-overnment.  that  sanction  was 

C?  ' 

made  conditional — restrictive — by  a  declaration,  not  denying 
that  British  Honduras  made  part  of  Central  America,  but 
announcing  that  the  British  government  did  not  understand  the 
engagements  of  that  convention  to  apply  to  that  settlement  and 
its  dependencies.  Indeed,  the  instrument  of  exchange  distinctly 
stated  that  "  Her  Majesty's  ratification  of  the  said  convention  is 
exchanged,  under  the  explicit  declaration  above  mentioned."  Yet 
the  treaty  was  proclaimed  by  the  American  government  as  bind 
ing,  without  any  declaration  annexed  to  it,  making  known  the 
restrictive  construction  given  to  it  by  one  of  the  parties,  and 
acceded  to,  in  whole  or  in  part,  by  the  executive  officer  of  the 
other. 

This  subject  was  before  the  Senate,  for  consideration,  on  the 
eleventh  of  January,  1854.  General  Cass  took  part  in  the  dis 
cussion.  The  vote  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  Senate  upon 
the  ratification  of  this  treaty,  was  divided — some  opposing,  and 
some  supporting  it.  During  the  deliberations  upon  the  treaty,  a 
number  of  the  Democratic  members  confidently  predicted  that 
the  arrangement  would  prove  abortive,  and  that  our  government 
would  fail  in  the  effort  to  remove  British  power  and  influence 
from  Central  America.  Says  General  Cass  : 

"  My  friend  from  Indiana,  who  sits  beside  me,  [Mr.  Bright.]  was 
among  the  most  decided  in  his  hostility  to  the  treaty;  and,  as  I 
said  upon  a  former  occasion,  whether  his  prediction  was  the  result 
of  instinct  or  of  judgment,  I  know  not,  but  certainly  time  has  put 
the  seal  of  truth  upon  his  sinister  forebodings  ;  and  he  may  now 
say  to  us,  in  the  words  of  that  comfortable  old  saw,  I  told  you  so. 

"  I  zealously  advocated  the  treaty.  I  had  more  than  one  con 
versation  with  the  senator  from  Delaware  respecting  it,  during 
the  progress  of  the  negotiation.  He  did  me  the  honor  to  consult 
me,  as  well  as  other  senators,  of  both  parties ;  and  I  earnestly 
recommended  him  to  go  on  and  consummate  the  work,  expressing 
my  doubts,  however,  of  the  accomplishment  of  his  expectations, 
but  assuring  him  that  if  he  succeeded,  he  would  render  a  signal 


OF  LEWIS  CAS3.  751 

service  to  his  country.  And  why  did  I  estimate  so  highly  the 
projected  arrangement  ?  Because  it  contemplated  the  removal  of 
British  power  and  influence  from  Central  America — true  Central 
America,  as  I  thought — and  I  considered  that  measure,  both  in 
its  present  and  future  aspects,  a  great  political  object,  most  desir 
able  to  be  peacefully  obtained.  Those  of  us  who  profess  allegiance 
to  the  Monroe  doctrine,  and  who  advocated  the  ratification  of  this 
treaty,  were  accused  of  inconsistency  there  ;  and  the  accusation 
has  been  repeated  since  with  a  good  deal  of  earnestness,  and  not 
a  little  sarcasm  ;  and  also  of  sacrificing  a  great  political  principle 
to  a  mere  temporary  expedient. 

"  Mr.  President,  so  far  as  this  question  of  ratification  is  involved, 
with  the  lights  before  us,  I  had  no  doubts  then,  and  I  have  no 
regrets  now,  respecting  the  course  which  the  Senate  sanctioned. 
It  is  not  a  little  curious,  that  some  of  those  who  urged  this  objec 
tion  with  the  most  pertinacity,  although  they  also  profess  adhe 
sion  to  this  cardinal  principle  of  American  policy,  yet  never  find 
a  resolution  for  its  authoritative  assertion  by  Congress  the  only 
effectual  means  of  its  establishment,  in  such  a  shape,  as  to  secure 
its  co-operation.  Nor  do  they  lend  their  aid  to  put  it  in  a  form 
to  suit  their  own  views,  and  thus  to  command  their  votes.  They 
confine  their  action  to  severe  criticism  and  to  decided  opposition. 
Now,  sir,  I  have  no  desire  to  sacrifice  a  great  national  advantage 
to  a  mere  barren  dogma,  rendered  such  by  our  dissensions.  Em 
body  this  principle  of  European  non-intervention  in  American 
affairs,  in  a  solemn  congressional  act,  and  I,  for  one,  will  adhere 
to  and  support  it,  come  what  may.  But  while  we  dispute  and 
hesitate,  events  move  on  ;  and,  for  the  want  of  proper  decision, 
we  are  obliged  to  accommodate  ourselves,  the  best  way  we  can, 
to  their  course  and  consequences.  I  desire  the  exclusion  of  Euro 
pean  power  and  influence  from  all  portions  of  the  western  conti 
nent  not  actually  held  as  colonies  by  some  European  government ; 
and  I  believe  the  true  principles  of  public  law,  applied  to  the 
position  of  the  American  States,  fully  justify  this  pretension.  As 
to  existing  colonies,  they  will  follow  peaceably,  and  in  good  time. 
Well,  sir,  the  friends  of  this  great  measure  have  in  vain,  for  many 
years,  sought  its  accomplishment.  It  will  come,  it  is  destined  to 
come,  as  surely  as  any  event  in  the  future.  The  country,  even 
now,  is  prepared  for  it,  desires  it,  demands  it ;  but  the  hesitation 
is  here,  in  these  halls  of  legislation,  where  there  ought  to  be  prompt 


752  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

and  decisive  action.  Notwithstanding  the  prognostication  of  the 
senator  from  Delaware,  the  wish,  I  fear,  was  father  to  the  thought, 
that  its  history  is  closed.  It  is  but  just  begun,  sir ;  and  in  our 
glorious  future,  this  emancipation  of  the  western  hemisphere  from 
the  thraldom  and  intrigues  of  the  eastern,  is  yet  to  constitute  one 
of  our  proudest  claims  to  the  respect  of  mankind. 

"  For  myself,  sir,  if  I  can  not  get  the  Monroe  doctrine,  I  will  get 
the  next  best  thing  I  can.  I  will  seek  to  procure,  by  conventional 
arrangements,  the  exclusion  of  European  influence  from  this  hem 
isphere,  step  by  step,  if  necessary  ;  and  in  seeking  to  effect  this 
object,  there  are  peculiar  reasons  which  render  it  highly  desirable 
to  free  all  Central  America  from  impending  transatlantic  intrigues. 
The  position  of  that  region  with  relation  to  the  contemplated  inter- 
oceanic  communication  which  is  to  unite  our  eastern  and  western 
possessions,  and  the  divided  condition  of  its  States,  rivals,  and 
easily  swayed  or  controlled  by  foreign  influence,  gave  great  im 
portance  to  the  effort  to  place  them  beyond  any  external  action 
adverse  to  our  interest ;  and  as  it  was  certain  that  we  could  not 
attain  this  object  by  any  other  course  we  might  adopt,  I  felt 
myself  fully  justified  in  endeavoring  to  attain  it  by  a  conventional 
arrangement  with  the  power  whose  interference  might  be  most 
injurious  to  our  interest.  If  the  failure  has  been  an  utter  one,  as 
recent  disclosures  announce,  the  fault  is  not  with  those  who  voted 
for  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  upon  the  faith  of  its  expressed 
engagements.  That  these  were  the  views  I  entertained  and 
expressed  at  the  time  respecting  the  exclusion  of  British  influ 
ence,  I  have  already  stated,  and  that  statement  has  been  confirmed 
by  a  number  of  the  senators,  some  of  whom  are  yet  among  us." 

From  this  extract,  the  reader  will  perceive  that  General  Cass 
did  not  regret  that  he  voted  for  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  ;  but 
he  did  regret  that  he  had  misapprehended  the  intention  of  the 
British  government.  His  great  desire  was  to  get  some  sort  of 
congressional  recognition  of  the  American  doctrine  promulgated 
by  President  Monroe,  and  affirmed  by  his  Democratic  successors. 
But  the  supplemental  negotiation  after  the  official  action  of  the 
Senate,  he  condemned  as  unauthorized,  unprecedented,  and  dis- 
oraceful  in  its  results  to  our  national  honor. 

Since  the  negotiation  of  the  treaty,  the  legislature  of  Delaware 
had  returned  Mr.  Clayton  to  the  Senate.  And,  in  the  unavoid 
able  absence  of  General  Cass  at  the  executive  session  in  March, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  753 

1853,  at  which  time  Mr.  Clayton  took  his  seat,  that  distinguished 
gentleman  had  taken  occasion  to  comment  upon  some  remarks 
made  by  General  Cass  upon  this  subject  during  the  previous 
winter.  To  set  himself  right  before  the  world,  General  Cass  con 
sidered  it  his  duty,  in  his  speech  of  the  eleventh  of  January,  1854. 
to  notice  these  comments  of  the  American  negotiator,  and  now  one 
of  his  compeers  in  the  Senate  ;  and  in  continuation,  he  proceeded 
to  say: 

"  So  far  as  respects  my  personal  views,  the  declaration  of  the 
senator  from  Wisconsin  [Mr.  Walker]  is  so  true  and  explicit,  that 
I  must  trouble  the  Senate  to  hear  it.  'If  the  senator  will  allow 
me,'  said  the  honorable  member,  addressing  me  while  I  was 
speaking,  i  I  think  I  can  give  nearly  the  words  he  made  use  of. 
He  spoke  in  very  complimentary  terms  of  the  then  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  position  he  had  taken,  and  he  remarked  that  it  was 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Great  Britain  that  she  had  given 
up  territory  without  a  struggle.  I  recollect  that  distinctly,  arid  I 
presume  others  do.7 

"Now,  sir,  I  suppose  no  man  within  these  walls,  or  without 
them,  will  call  in  question  my  right  to  investigate  this  whole 
matter,  and  to  place  myself  upon  true  grounds  before  the  country; 
and  if  the  senator  from  Delaware  has  any  just  cause  of  complaint, 
it  must  be  because  I  failed,  by  uncourteous  or  uncalled-for  remarks, 
or  in  some  other  manner,  to  do  properly  what  I  was  thus  called 
upon  to  do.  Is  this  so?  And  allow  me,  in  the  first  place,  to  sav. 
that  the  honorable  senator,  in  his  remarks  at  the  special  session, 
did  but  justice  to  the  personal  relations  subsisting  between  himself 
and  me,  and  I  assent  cheerfully  to  all  he  said  upon  that  subject. 
The  friendly  intercourse  between  us  had  been  uninterrupted;  and 
there  were  circumstances  to  which  he  rightly  alluded  which  had 
tended  to  strengthen  this  mutual  feeling.  I  had — I  could  have — 
neither  motive  nor  design  unjustly  to  assail  him ;  and  I  say  here 
to  him,  and  to  the  Senate,  that  I  have  carefully  reviewed  all  that 
fell  from  me  upon  that  occasion,  and  I  do  not  find  one  uncourteous 
epithet,  nor  a  personally  harsh  expression.  Whatever  he  may 
consider  unpleasant  is  necessarily  in  the  subject  itself,  and  not  in 
the  language  employed;  and  I  submit  that  a  fair  examination  of 
his  course  in  this  matter  could  give  him  no  just  cause  of  offense, 
especially  as  I  was  not  a  volunteer  in  the  work,  but  was  driven  to 
it  by  self-respect,  and  in  self-defense ;  and  I  shall  proceed  to  my 
48 


754:  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

present  task  in  the  same  spirit,  and  with  kindly  feelings  to  the 
senator  from  Delaware,  but  still  with  a  determination  to  examine 
the  whole  subject  fairly  but  fully,  and  to  show  the  erroneous 
impressions  under  which  I  was  assailed. 

"  Now,  sir,  what  is  the  -complaint  of  the  senator?  In  what  am 
I  his  accuser,  as  he  terms  me?  His  first  charge  is,  that  I  stated 
that  he  '  recognized  the  British  title  in  Honduras,  commonly  called 
the  Balize;'  and  that  I  charged  him  'with  having  admitted  by  his 
letter  that  Central  America  was  not  Central  America  at  all,  and 
that  the  treaty  did  not  apply  to  any  territory  where  Great  Britain 
had  any  sort  of  claim.' 

"Mr.  President,  the  honorable  senator  has  committed  great 
errors  in  this  statement.     How  and  why,  he  alone  can  explain. 
He  can  find  in  no  remarks  actually  made  by  me  upon  that  occasion, 
a  single  word,  not  one,  which  charged  him  with  having  recognized 
the  British  title  to  Honduras,  or  with  having  admitted  that  the 
treaty  did  not  apply  to  any  territory  where  Great  Britain  had  any 
sort  of  claim.     The  senator  says,  that  all  the  reports  of  my  remarks 
which  appeared  on  that  and  the  succeeding  day,  will  show  that  these 
charges  were  made  by  me.     This  is  rather  a  loose  reference  upon 
which  to  found  such  an  accusation.     But  let  that  pass.     I  do  not 
know  what  version  of  my  remarks  he  may  have  met  with  ;  but 
this  I  do  know,  that  in  the  Congressional  Globe,  in  the  Union,  and 
in  the  National  Intelligencer,  where  they  are  correctly  reported, 
not  a  syllable  is  to  be  found  in  support  of  this  statement;  and  no 
person,  in  or  out  of  the  Senate,  should  make  such  an  assertion 
without  turning  to  one,  at  least,  of  the  journals  containing  author 
ized  reports  of  our  proceedings.     I  do  not  know  what  other  papers 
or  letter  writers  may  have  made  me  say.     I  am  not  responsible 
for  their  errors,  nor  had  the  senator  from  Delaware  a  right,  upon 
any  partial  authority,  to  say  '  that  all  the  reports  of  my  remarks' 
concurred  upon  this  subject.     Why,  sir,  independent  of  the  moral 
offense  which  such  a  misrepresentation  would  have  carried  with 
it,  an  assertion  like  that,  wholly  unsupported  by  the  facts,  and 
contradicted  by  the  documents  before  us,  would  have  been  an  act 
of  folly  which,  I  trust,  I  am  little  likely  to  commit. 

"As  to  the  statement  that  I  charged  him  with  '  having  admitted 
by  his  letter  that  Central  America  was  not  Central  America  at 
all,'  I  have,  in  the  first  place,  to  observe,  that  he  has  not  referred 
accurately  to  my  remarks.  What  I  stated  was,  Mr.  Clayton  says, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  755 

'  that  the  negotiators  on  the  part  of  the  governments  understood  the 
matter  alike;  that  is,  that  neither  of  them  understood  Central 
America  to  be  Central  America  at  all,  but  that  both  of  them 
understood  that  upon  the  face  of  the  treaty,  though  Central  Amer 
ica  was  included,  yet  the  British  claims  were  thereon  excluded.' 
In  the  next  place,  it  is  obvious  that  the  only  assertion  I  make  in 
the  above  extract  is,  that  the  negotiators  understood  the  matter 
alike ;  and  that  no  man  will  deny,  for  Mr.  Clayton  has  said  it 
himself.  The  rest  is  a  matter  of  inference,  and  I  do  not  despair 
of  convincing  the  senator  from  Delaware,  and,  certainly,  I  trust  to 
show  to  the  Senate,  that  the  expression  is  quite  within  the  sphere 
of  proper  argumentation.  My  process  of  justification  will  be  very 
brief.  The  provisions  of  the  treaty  extended  to  all  parts  of  Central 
America,  and  by  that  designation  I  understand  the  geographical 
region  of  country  to  which  it  is  applied,  including  all  Honduras, 
as  well  where  the  British  have  obtained  possession  as  where  they 
have  not.  I  am  not  going  into  the  truth  or  error  of  this  opinion, 
at  this  time.  The  subject  has  been  sufficiently  discussed  in  this 
body,  and  to  renewr  the  debate  would  be  a  profitless  consumption 
of  time.  I  have  heard  nothing  which  has  shaken  my  original 
convictions ;  and  the  more  the  matter  has  been  examined,  the 
more  persuaded  have  I  been  that  to  exclude  British  Honduras,  as 
England  holds  it,  from  Central  America,  is  a  mere  arbitrary  act 
of  excision — reducing,  without  justification,  the  limits  of  that  well- 
known  portion  of  our  continent.  I  shall  content  myself  with  refer 
ences  to  an  authority  or  two,  and  then  leave  the  question  to  others. 
tv  Well,  sir,  thus  looking  at  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty,  and 
finding  that,  by  an  act  of  the  British  government,  acceded  to  by 
ours,  the  British  settlement  of  Honduras,  with  its  dependencies, 
was  excepted  from  its  operation,  I  said,  and  had  a  right  to 
say,  with  my  views,  that  this  course  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
admitted  that  Central  America  was  not  Central  America  at  all. 
This  was  not  the  assertion  of  a  fact  that  he  had  formally  made 
this  admission,  but  a  deduction  from  the  premises — logical  or 
illogical,  it  matters  not  for  my  present  purpose — that  his  acquies 
cence  in  the  demands  of  the  British  minister  had  so  changed  the 
.  country  covered  by  the  treaty  that  Central  America  was  no  longer 
Central  America.  And  this  is  so  obvious  from  the  tenor  of  my 
remarks,  which  referred  to  all  the  necessary  facts,  that  any  mis 
conception  must  have  been  a  very  careless  one.  I  repeat,  sir, 


756  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

that  the  charge  was  the  conclusion  I  drew  from  the  official  acts 
and  declarations  of  the  honorable  member. 

"  And  now,  sir,  to  the  references  which  I  have  just  promised. 
They  will  be  to  the  British  government  and  to  the  senator  from 
Delaware,  in  his  capacity  of  Secretary  of  State,  and  I  suppose  that 
these  authorities  wTill,  at  any  rate,  carry  weight  with  them  in  a 
controversy  involving  the  interests  of  the  one,  and,  where  its 
opinion  was  adverse  to  its  interests,  the  official  proceedings  of 
the  other. 

"This  treaty,  after  having  been  ratified  by  the  Senate  upon  its 
language,  and  not  upon  the  understanding  of  the  negotiators,  was 
sent  to  England  for  the  sanction  of  the  government;  and  there, 
circumstances  show,  that  apprehension  was  excited  lest  the  Hon 
duras  settlement  should  be  embraced  within  the  limits  of  the 
region  over  which  it  extended.  To  prevent  this,  it  was  returned 
with  a  quasi  ratification,  or  rather  a  declaration,  that  the  settle 
ment  at  Honduras,  and  its  dependencies,  were  not  subject  to  the 
'engagements' of  the  treaty;  and  this  declaration  was  received 
and  reciprocated  by  the  Secretary  of  State  by  a  similar  act,  which 
the  senator  from  Delaware  calls  a  '  counter  declaration;'  but  why, 
I  confess  my  inability  to  discover,  for  it  does  not  counteract  the 
demand  of  the  British  minister,  but  assents  to  it  by  conceding 
that  the  ;  engagements'  of  the  treaty  do  not  apply  to  British  Hon 
duras  and  its  dependencies.  The  terms  of  this  concession  I  shall 
refer  to  directly,  so  that  the  senator  from  Delaware  may  have  the 
benefit  of  his  own  words  to  establish  his  own  views.  I  will  merely 
say  here  that  I  have  little  belief  in  the  practical  effect  of  his 
limitations. 

"  Now,  sir,  what  was  the  duty  of  the  executive,  when  a  treaty  was 
thus  returned  with  a  declaration  intended  to  control  its  operation 
by  considerations  exterior  to  the  stipulations  ?  Why,  to  send  it 
again  to  the  Senate,  a  constituent  branch  of  the  treaty-making 
power,  for  its  consideration  and  action,  and  not  undertake  to  re 
strict  its  application  by  the  understanding  of  the  negotiators,  at 
the  expense  of  the  language  of  the  convention,  though  one  of 
these  happened  to  be  the  Secretary  of  State, — for  this  union  of 
functions  was  but  an  accident,  and  what  was  done  upon  that 
occasion  may  be  done  upon  any  other,  and  the  understanding 
of  these  agents  of  negotiation  may  become  more  important  than 
the  text  of  the  instrument  itself.  And  what  reason  was  given  by 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  757 

the  Secretary  of  State  for  this  omission  of  a  plain  duty?  He  tells 
Sir  Henry  Bulwer  that  the  difficulty  arises  '  from  the  use  in  our 
convention  of  the  term  '  Central  America.'  To  be  sure  it  does; 
and  I  am  only  surprised  that  the  practiced  and  powerful  intellect 
of  the  senator  from  Delaware  did  not  perceive  that  by  this 
acknowledgment  he  actually  gives  up  the  point  in  controversy, 
indubitably  and  indisputably.  We  did  not  intend  to  include 
your  possessions,  for  this  is  the  purport  of  the  concession,  but  \ve 
used  the  term  Central  America,  which  embraces  them,  and  now 
we  must  remove  the  difficulty  by  substituting  for  the  plain  lan 
guage  of  the  convention  the  'understanding'  of  the  negotiators, 
thus  excepting  from  its  stipulations  regions  over  which  they 
extend.  If  this  is  not  the  true  point  of  the  'difficulty,'  and  the 
'understanding,'  then  there  is  none;  for,  if  Honduras  arid  its  de 
pendencies  are  not  in  Central  America,  there  is  no  difficulty, 
and  no  ground  for  a  demand  on  one  side,  nor  a  concession  on  the 
other. 

"I  can  not  find,  after  a  careful  examination,  that  this  question 
of  the  true  position  of  Honduras,  with  relation  to  Central  Amer 
ica,  is  at  all  met  by  the  Secretary  of  State.  The  British  Minister 
claims  its  exclusion  from  the  operation  of  the  treaty  because  his 
government  '  does  not  understand  the  engagements  of  that  con 
vention  to  apply  to  her  Majesty's  settlement  at  Honduras  or  to  its 
dependencies.'  And  this  declaration  is  met  by  the  avowal  on  the 
part  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  'that  it  was  neither  understood  by 
them  (the  British  government)  nor  by  either  of  us,  (the  negotia 
tors,)  to  include  the  British  settlement  in  Honduras  (commonly 
called  British  Honduras,  as  distinct  from  the  State  of  Honduras,) 
nor  the  small  islands  in  the  neighborhood  of  that  settlement, 
which  may  be  known  as  its  dependencies.  To  this  settlement  and 
these  islands,  the  treaty  we  negotiated  was  not  intended  by  either 
of  us  to  apply.'  And  there  terminates,  of  course,  all  difference, 
so  far  as  the  negotiators  were  concerned. 

"  England  obtains  what  she  wants  by  the  acceptance  of  her 
conditional  ratification,  and  by  the  acknowledgment  with  which 
it  was  received  by  our  executive;  for  though  there  is  no  want  of 
cautious  restrictive  epithets — special  pleadings,  perhaps — in  this 
assent,  yet  it  will  be  found  that  they  will  produce  no  effect  upon 
the  claim  of  England.  One  clear  limitation,  defining  what  we 
gave  up,  would  have  been  true  policy  and  true  sincerity.  "We 


758  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

gave  up  British  Honduras,  in  express  terms,  and  certainly  that 
contains  by  far  the  most  important  portions  of  the  possessions  of 
England,  extending,  as  she  claims,  to  the  Sackatoo  river,  if  not  to 
the  Golfo-Dulce.  The  only  limit  is  to  the  '  dependencies,'  mean 
ing,  I  suppose,  the  islands,  and  restricting  the  claim  to  the  small 
islands  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  settlement,  and  which  may  be 
known  as  dependencies.  What  are  small  islands,  and  what  is  the 
neighborhood  of  a  settlement,  claimed  to  extend  more  than  two 
hundred  miles,  and  what  may  be  known  as  dependencies,  present 
as  fruitful  subjects  for  controversy  as  the  diplomatist,  who  most 
rejoices  in  his  trade,  could  desire.  Honduras  is  excluded  from  the 
treaty,  so  far  as  appears  by  the  papers,  solely  on  the  ground  that 
the  negotiators  did  not  intend  to  include  it;  not  at  all  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  not  covered  by  the  convention.  And,  after 
thus  assenting  to  the  demands  of  the  British  minister,  the  Secre 
tary  of  State  proceeds  to  explain  why  the  term  Central  America 
was  used  in  the  treaty,  and  the  reason  turns  out  to  be,  that  it  was 
'adopted  because  Viscount  Palmerston  had  assented  to  it,  and 
used  it  as  the  proper  term.'  I  am  sorry  that  no  better  reason 
could  be  assigned  for  the  use  of  this  descriptive  epithet  than  a 
wish  to  accommodate  the  British  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  I 
presume  every  senator  who  voted  for  the  treaty  supposed  that  the 
term  i  Central  America '  was  employed  to  designate  a  given  re 
gion  of  country,  with  well-known  limits,  and  that  it  was  not  a 
mere  vague  expression,  used  in  compliment  to  a  foreign  sugges 
tion.  The  Secretary  adds,  that  'we  naturally  supposed,  on  this 
account,  it  would  be  satisfactory  to  your  government.'  The  reason 
for  this  remark  is  not  at  all  obvious.  The  British  minister  had 
made  no  complaint  of  the  terms  used  in  the  treaty.  Nothing 
like  it.  The  words  Central  America  are  not  to  be  found  in  his 
note.  He  merely  claims  the  exemption  he  demands  on  the  ground 
of  the  mutual  understanding,  and  on  that  ground  he  obtains  it. 

"  But  what  follows  is  still  less  susceptible  of  satisfactory  expla 
nation.  'But  if  your  government  now  intend,' says  the  Secre 
tary  of  State.  '  to  delay  the  exchange  of  ratifications  until  \ve  shall 
have  fixed  the  precise  limits  of  Central  America,  we  must  defer 
further  action  until  we  have  further  information  on  both  sides,  to 
which,  at  present,  we  have  no  means  of  resort,  and  which  it  is 
certain  we  could  not  obtain  before  the  term  fixed  for  exchanging 
the  ratifications  would  expire.'  All  this,  sir,  is  very  unaccountable. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  759 

The  British  government  asked  no  delay  of  the  exchange  of  ratifi 
cations.  They  had  then  actually  ratified  the  treaty,  and  the  authen 
ticated  instrument  was  in  possession  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 
And  what  is  still  more  extraordinary,  he  announces  in  this  very 
letter  that  he  accepts  the  declaration  which  accompanied  the  act 
of  ratification,  and  makes  it  absolute  by  his  own  concession  of  the 
fact  stated,  and  proceeds  to  sign  the  letter,  and  to  deliver  it  to  Sir 
Henry  Bulwer,  and,  '  without  further  or  other  action,  to  exchange 
the  ratifications  of  the  treaty.'  Why  talk  of  the  postponement  of 
ratifications  in  order  to  fix  the  limits  of  Central  America,  at  the 
very  moment  when  he  was  exchanging  ratifications  with  the  other 
party  ?  And  why  talk  of  fixing  these  limits  after  he  had  admitted 
what  the  British  claimed — the  exclusion  of  their  colony  from  the 
provisions  of  the  treaty  ?  It  was  shutting  the  stable-door  after  the 
horse  had  escaped.  They  had  gained  their  object,  and  to  them  a 
specific  boundary  was  comparatively  unimportant.  And  why  not 
fix  these  limits  during  the  progress  of  the  negotiations  ?  That 
might  have  been  done,  and  ought  to  have  been  done,  if  there 
were  any  real  doubt  as  to  the  true  extent  of  the  region  covered 
by  the  treaty,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  the  understanding  of  the 


negotiators. 


"  In  this  letter  to  Sir  Henry  Bulwer,  he  is  told,  by  the  Secretary 
of  State,  that  no  alteration  could  be  made  in  the  treaty  without  the 
sanction  of  the  Senate;  but  he  does  not  understand  that  any 
authority  has  been  given  to  the  Minister  by  his  government  to 
propose  any  alteration.  Why  this  remark,  Mr.  President?  The 
Secretary  very  well  knew  what  the  British  government  wanted. 
He  yields  to  their  demands  in  this  very  letter.  He  knew  they 
wanted  the  exclusion  of  Honduras  from  the  '  engagements '  of  the 
treaty,  and  they  ratified  it  upon  the  express  condition  that  such 
was  to  be  the  effect  of  their  action.  The  process  by  which  our 
compliance  with  this  demand  was  to  be  given,  was  a  question  for 
us,  and  not  for  them — a  question  of  internal  administration  with 
which  they  had  nothing  to  do,  and  about  which  they  probably 
cared  as  little.  Why  the  Secretary  started  a  constitutional  point 
respecting  the  divided  functions  of  our  government  in  a  corres 
pondence  writh  a  foreign  minister,  at  the  moment  he  assents  to  his 
application,  is  what  I  am  unable  to  conjecture.  I  presume  Sir 
Henry  Bulwer,  after  completing  the  exchange  of  ratifications, 


760  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

was  perfectly  willing  to  permit  us  to  settle  the  question  in  our 
own  way. 

"  But,  sir,  there  was  an  alteration,  and  a  serious  one,  made  in 
this  treaty,  by  the  rider  annexed  to  it,  quite  as  effectual  for  the 
purposes  of  England  as  if  it  had  been  inserted  in  its  stipulations. 
That  instrument  embraced  Central  America,  and  the  ratification 
of  the  Senate  covered  that  region.  If  a  question  arose  respecting 
its  extent,  what  right  had  the  Secretary  of  State  to  settle  it  by  his 
own  act,  and  to  except  from  the  engagements  of  the  treaty  an 
extensive  and  important  section  of  the  country?  By  the  accept 
ance  of  the  conditional  ratification,  and  by  acquiescence  in  it,  the 
Executive  added  this  restrictive  clause  to  the  treaty  as  effectually, 
so  far  as  the  claims  of  England  are  concerned,  as  if  it  had  made 
part  of  its  provisions,  in  this  formal  manner:  provided,  that  the 
engagements  of  this  convention  shall  not  apply  to  the  ^British  set 
tlement  at  Honduras,  nor  to  its  dependencies.  There  is  no  denying 
or  explaining  away  this  inevitable  consequence  of  Executive 
interference." 

General  Cass  extended  his  remarks  upon  the  pretension  of 
England,  and  justly  took  strong  ground  in  opposition  to  it.  He 
believed  it  to  be  improper  for  the  government  of  the  United  States 
to  do  any  act  recognizing  any  purchase  of  any  part  of  Central 
America  by  individuals  or  companies,  without  the  consent  of  the 
States  interested  in  this  matter.  How  far  England  might  be  dis 
posed  to  favor  individual  schemes  of  aggrandizement,  it  was  not 
for  him  to  say:  but  it  was  better  for  us  to  preserve  our  honor  and 
consistency,  than  to  co-operate  in  any  enterprise,  at  the  expense 
of  national  and  established  rights. 

At  this  same  session  of  Congress,  the  Homestead  bill  was  con 
sidered.  This  measure  was  designed  for  the  benefit  of  the  hardy 
and  enterprising  pioneer,  securing  advantages  to  him  and  his 
family  of  the  utmost  importance.  The  bill  was  violently  opposed 
by  Mr.  Benjamin,  a  senator  from  Louisiana,  and  others.  General 
Cass  would  have  been  false  to  the  experience  of  the  past,  and 
belied  the  constant  professions  of  his  life,  if  he  had  not  approved 
it.  He  was  for  the  measure  on  the  score  of  principle,  of  right, 
and  of  expediency.  He  met  and  refuted  the  objections  arrayed 
against  its  passage,  and  gave  forcible  reasons  for  its  favorable 
consideration  by  Congress.  Of  these,  we  give  the  summary, 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  761 

expressed  by  himself  to  the  Senate,  in  too  lucid  language  to  be 
mistaken  or  misunderstood  : 

"  Now,  sir,  what  are  the  reasons  in  favor  of  this  measure,  prom 
ising  advantages  to  result  from  its  adoption? 

"In  the  first  place,  a  vast  domain,  a  world,  destined  by  nature 
for  the  support  of  man,  will  be  brought  within  the  power  of  man 
to  support  himself.  It  has  been  calculated — I  have  not  examined 
the  data — that  if  the  present  system  continues,  the  whole  region 
which  we  call  ours  will  not  be  settled  for  centuries  to  come,  for  a 
term,  indeed,  equal  to  the  lives  of  the  ancient  patriarchs.  During 
that  period  much  of  this  vast  domain  is  to  remain  uncultivated 
and  unimproved  ;  a  home  only  for  the  Indian  and  for  the  animals, 
his  co-tenants  of  the  forest,  whom  God  has  given  to  him  for  his 
support.  The  injunction  of  the  scripture,  'to  replenish  the  earth 
and  subdue  it,'  is  delayed,  denied,  in  fact,  by  a  Christian  people. 
And  let  me  ask  why?  Why  are  these  extensive  districts  to  be 
shut  out  from  the  use  of  man  ?  The  reason,  sir,  is  not  a  very 
dignified  one,  but  nevertheless  it  is  too  true  to  be  contradicted. 

£7>  ' 

This  interdiction  is  enforced  in  order  that  you  may  make  seven 
hundred  per  cent,  out  of  your  investment.  That  is  the  truth  in 
plain  English.  The  land  cost  you  sixteen  and  a  half  cents  per 
acre,  and  you  will  hold  on  to  it  with  a  tenacious  grasp  till  it  will 
yield  you  $1  25  per  acre.  This  is  not  a  motive  worthy  of  such  a 
country  as  this,  nor  of  the  example  which  we  ought  to  offer  to  the 
other  independent  states  of  the  world.  What  do  the  elementary 
writers  tell  us  on  the  subject  of  uncultivated,  unappropriated 
regions  ?  They  maintain  that  a  civilized  people  may  take  posses 
sion  of  such  countries,  notwithstanding  they  are  held  by  barbarous 
tribes.  And  this  doctrine  is  defended  for  the  reason  that  the  earth 
was  given  for  cultivation,  and  for  the  support  of  man,  and  that 
tribes  occupying  any  portion  of  it,  and  not  applying  it  to  its  legit 
imate  purpose,  may  be  rightfully  confined  within  narrow  limits, 
and  the  residue  of  the  country  taken,  and  themselves  brought 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  stranger.  This  principle  has  been 
adopted  and  practically  enforced,  with  the  consent  of  all  civilized 
nations,  ever  since  the  discovery  of  the  continent.  Were  this 
fund  necessary,  that  consideration  wTould  justify  a  longer  adher 
ence  to  this  system  of  occlusion  than  could  otherwise  be  defended. 
But  we  are  rich,  rich  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  and  I  think 


762  LIFE  AND   TIMES 

it  is  time  we  should  shut  our  eyes  upon  the  seven  hundred  per 
cent.,  and  look  to  our  duty  as  a  Christian  people. 

"But,  in  the  second  place,  there  is  another  benefit  which  will 
result  from  this  project,  and  which  has  already  been  ably  and 
eloquently  touched  by  the  senator  from  Illinois,  [Mr.  Shields.]  I 
shall  add  but  a  few  words  to  his  remarks.  There  are  portions  of 
our  country  where  men  are  crowded  together,  as  they  are  unfor 
tunately  crowded  in  many  parts  of  Europe.  The  effect  of  this 
condensation  already  begins  to  be  visible  ;  but  its  evils  and  its 
dangers  will  go  on  increasing,  till  they  find  a  remedy,  or  make 
one.  There  is  many  a  man  with  strong  physical  and  intellectual 
powers,  who  looks  to  his  own  position,  and  realizing  the.  dark 
prospects  around  him,  considers  society  as  an  enemy  by  whom  he 
is  ill  used,  and  against  whom  he  fights,  and  is  ever  ready  to  fight. 
It  is  a  great  deal  better  to  open  a  way  for  such  a  man  into  the 
woods,  and  thus  turn  his  warfare  from  society  against  the  trees. 
You  will  elevate  him  in  the  scale  of  humanity.  You  will  furnish 
him  with  hopes  to  stimulate  him,  and  with  motives  for  exertion. 
From  an  enemy  to  your  institutions  he  will  become  a  fast  friend. 
A  new  future  will  be  spread  before  him.  He  will  have  free  scope 
for  the  exercise  of  all  his  energies,  without  the  power  or  the  motive 
to  do  injury. 

"But,  again,  sir,  as  a  third  reason  in  favor  of  this  measure;  by 
this  augmentation  upon  your  frontier,  you  will  have  a  hardy, 
vigorous  population,  able  and  ready  to  defend  the  country  in 
times  of  difficulty — a  voluntary  army  worth  all  the  conscriptions 
of  Europe.  They  wrill  be  attached  to  the  government  and  the 
country  by  all  the  motives  that  can  animate  freemen. 

"And,  in  the  fourth  place,  this  act,  if  carried  into  effect,  will 
increase  the  wealth  and  resources  of  the  country  almost  indefi 
nitely.  These  new  settlers  will  soon  become  producers.  They 
will  be  also  consumers,  with  increased  means,  and  thus  production 
and  consumption  will  reciprocally  act  upon  each  other.  The 
effect  of  this  augmentation  will  be  felt  through  the  country;  and 
if  you  look  upon  the  measure  merely  as  a  statistical  question, 
touching  dollars  and  cents,  you  will  find  strong  motives  for  pro 
moting  this  kind  of  emigration. 

"  In  the  fifth  place,  all  experience  shows  that  the  class  of  smaller 
landholders  are  among  the  safest  and  most  natural  defenders  of 
the  country,  and  especially  are  they  so  where  institutions  are  as 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  763 

free  and  equal  as  ours.  Men  living  upon  their  own  farms  are  not 
subject  to  those  agitations,  which,  from  time  to  time,  distract  and 
divide  our  densely  settled  communities.  ]Nro  prudent  man  can 
look  upon  these  forever-recurring  movements  without  being  satis- 
lied  that  our  agricultural  population  is  one  of  our  great  elements 
of  safety,  and  that  the  more  it  is  increased,  the  more  secure  will 
our  institutions  become. 

But,  in  the  sixth  place,  I  desire  this  measure  for  its  effect  upon 
the  world,  and  especially  upon  republican  institutions  throughout 
the  world.  I  think  it  will  furnish  the  noblest  example  ever  held 
out  by  any  other  country  under  Heaven.  The  great  business  of 
governments,  as  we  all  know,  has  heretofore  been  to  tax  the 
people;  to  wring  from  them  as  much  of  their  earnings  as  possible; 
to  take  from  the  mouth  of  labor,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  well  expressed 
it,  the  bread  it  has  earned.  Here  is  an  immense  domain  belong 
ing  to  the  United  States,  and  which  cost  almost  nothing,  and  the 
true  value  of  which  has  been  created  by  the  labors  and  exertions 
of  individual  citizens.  Now  it  is  proposed  to  permit  its  occupa 
tion  by  allowing  every  man  to  select  a  tract  for  his  residence. 
And  I  repeat,  sir,  that  "by  so  doing,  we  shall  present  a  beautiful 
•and  encouraging  spectacle  to  every  lover  of  freedom  through  the 
world." 

In  January,  1855,  the  Army  Appropriation  bill  being  under 
consideration  in  the  Senate,  a  motion  was  made  by  Mr.  Shields,  a 
senator  from  Illinois  and  chairman  of  the  Military  Committee  of 
the  Senate,  to  insert  a  provision  for  raising  an  additional  military 
force  to  include  five  hundred  Indians. 

To  this  last  named  proposition,  General  Cass  was  uncompro 
misingly  opposed.  He  objected  to  it,  because  it  was  opposed  to 
the  moral  sentiment  of  the  nation,  and  in  conflict  with  the  whole 
policy  of  the  government.  He  deemed  it  unnecessary,  because 
lie  thought  that  a  nation  of  twenty-five  millions  of  people  had 
power  enough  in  its  own  citizens  to  protect  itself,  without  calling 
upon  Indians  to  fight  its  battles. 

It  was  urged  in  behalf  of  the  proposition,  that  the  Indians  were 
the  most  skillful  guides  and  successful  hunters.  To  this  General 
Cass  replied,  that  he  had  seen  and  acted  with  good  Indian  guides 
and  hunters,  but,  after  all,  there  was  a  class  of  active  and  enter 
prising  men  upon  our  frontiers — the  pioneers  of  civilization — who 
were  far  better  fitted  than  any  Indians  to  accompany  our  troops 


LIFE  AND  TIMES 

as  scouts,  spies,  guides,  and  Lunters.  They  possessed  more  intel 
ligence  than  the  Indians,  they  were  more  subject  to  control, 
physically  more  powerful,  and  as  well  acquainted  with  prairie 
and  forest  life. 

It  was  argued  that  the  increased  force  was  demanded  by  the 
administration,  and  Democratic  senators  were  called  upon  to  give 
it  their  support.  To  this,  General  Cass  observed  in  effect,  that  he 
chose  to  examine  for  himself  all  the  measures  of  an  administra 
tion,  be  it  friend  or  foe,  and  to  support  such  as  he  approved,  and 
no  other.  He  did  not  subscribe  to  the  doctrine  that  fealty  to 
party  outweighed  fealty  to  the  Constitution.  He  believed  that  he 
was  a  pretty  good  party  man,  but  he  would  bind  himself  in  no 
such  iron  shackles.  When  the  great  points  of  doctrine  and  policy, 
which  have  separated  the  parties  of  the  country  since  the  organi 
zation  of  the  government,  were  brought  into  question,  a  faithful 
partizan  would  come  to  the  rescue.  It  was  no  part  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Democratic  creed,  that  Congress  was  merely  to  register 
the  edicts  of  the  President.  Besides,  he  wanted  no  unnecessary 
increase  of  our  military  force — not  because  he  feared  it,  but 
because  he  did  not  desire  to  see  extended  any  of  the  institutions 
of  the  country  unnecessarily.  There  was  a  constant  pressure  of 
circumstances  to  do  so,  which  requires  the  jealous  effort  of  Con 
gress  to  counteract — embracing  not  only  the  military  organization, 
but  reaching  all  the  divisions  of  power.  He  was  willing  that  an 
additional  force  should  be  raised,  to  be  disbanded  at  the  expiration 
of  five  years,  but,  in  no  case,  to  employ  the  Indians.  And  the 
proposition  to  include  Indians  did  not  receive  the  sanction  of  the 
Senate. 

Alarmed  at  the  authoritative  declaration  of  the  British  and 
French  governments,  that  they  had  come  to  an  understanding 
upon  all  questions  of  policy  throughout  the  globe,  General  Cass,  on 
the  20th  of  February,  1855,  brought  the  subject  before  the  Senate. 
He  took  this  step,  because  he  thought  that  the  attention  of  the 
government  and  country  should  be  directed  to  this  authoritative 
avowal  of  a  course  of  policy,  which,  if  carried  out,  he  believed 
deeply  affected  our  interests  and  our  honor.  And  as  a  senator, 
although  under  the  Constitution  representing  in  part  a  single 
State  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  he  has  always  deemed  it  an 
imperative  duty  to  keep  in  his  memory  the  rights  and  interests  of 
all  the  States.  Such  he  considers  the 'duty  of  every  senator  and 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  765 

of  every  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  And  well  will 
it  be,  and  the  greater  will  be  the  chances  of  preserving  the  Federal 
Union,  if  his  example  is  followed. 

Distrustful  of  the  designs  of  Napoleon  the  Third,  in  the  com 
plications  of  the  Cuban  question,  he  urged  the  necessity  and 
propriety  of  maintaining  a  greater  protective  force  upon  the 
highways  of  nations.  Our  navy  should  be  increased,  and  fleets 
stationed  in  proper  cruising  grounds  in  every  sea. 

"  Certainly,"  said  he,  "it  is  an  extraordinary  fact  that,  in  the 
whole  Antilles,  so  near  us,  and  where  our  vessels  are  daily  passing 
with  their  rich  freights  and  their  numerous  passengers,  we  have  not 
even  so  much  as  an  anchorage  for  our  vessels.  Sixteen  of  those 
islands  belong  to  Great  Britain,  three  to  France,  two  to  Holland, 
two  to  Spain,  three  to  Denmark,  and  one  to  Sweden,  while  one  is 
independent  and  divided  into  two  governments.  I  suppose  if  we 
should  attempt  to  procure  even  a  coal  depot  among  these  islands, 
forming  the  door  through  which  the  commerce  of  the  vast  country 
drained  by  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  as  also  that  of  West 
Florida,  Alabama,  and  Texas  passes,  we  should  receive  an  imperial 
and  royal  rescript,  saying,  Toucli  not,  taste  not,  handle  not;  raise 
not  your  flag  in  these  regions  under  pain  of  our  displeasure.  Be 
sides,  our  communication  with  our  possessions  on  the  Pacific  can 
only  be  preserved  by  the  free  use  of  these  seas.  If  the  hour  has 
not  already  arrived,  it  is  certainly  hastening,  when  imperative 
duty  will  compel  us  to  say,  in  more  distinct  terms  than  we  have 
yet  employed,  to  the  would-be  regulators  of  the  '  balance  of  power' 
in  this  hemisphere,  that  we  understand  our  interest  in  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  in  the  Caribbean  sea,  and  that,  with  God's  blessing, 
we  shall  maintain  it  in  all  time  to  come. 

"As  to  Cuba,  the  avowed  policy  of  intervention  has  lost  none 
of  its  offensive  character  by  this  union.  On  the  contrary,  it  has 
added  physical  strength  to  the  opposition  against  us ;  it  has  added 
also  a  more  resolute  purpose,  and  more  confidence  to  avow  it. 
During  the  presidency  of  Louis  Napoleon,  on  the  5th  of  December, 
1851,  the  French  Chief  Magistrate  informed  the  Duke  of  Valencia 
that  he  had  dispatched  three  ships-of-war  for  the  protection  of  the 
island  of  Cuba,  and  that  the  English  government  had  done  the 
same, '  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  a  repetition  of  attempts  which 
might  bring  up  serious  complications  between  America  and  the 
states  of  Europe.'  And  we  learn  from  the  current  reports  of  the 


766  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

day,  that  a  similar  measure  has  been  adopted,  and  that  French 
and  English  armed  ships  have  recently  been  ordered  on  the  same 
service.  I  suppose,  sir,  the  sound,  public  opinion  of  this  country 
supports,  with  almost  entire  unanimity,  the  views  of  Mr.  Fillmore, 
as  made  known  by  Mr.  Everett  in  his  able  letter  to  the  French 
minister,  dated  December  1st,  1852,  that  '  he  (the  President)  would 
consider  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  by  force,  except  in  a  just  war 
with  Spain,  (should  such  an  event,  so  greatly  to  be  deprecated, 
take  place,)  as  a  disgrace  to  the  civilization  of  the  age.'  Such  a 
case  of  rapacity  will,  I  trust,  never  stain  our  annals.  But  the 
history  of  France  and  England  teaches  no  lesson  of  national  for 
bearance,  and  gives  no  peculiar  right  to  their  governments  to 
preach  homilies  upon  the  duty  of  rigidly  preserving  their  existing 
territorial  limits  to  the  other  independent  communities  of  the 
world.  If  we  were  to  regulate  our  conduct  by  their  examples 
rather  than  by  their  precepts,  and  interpose  ourselves  between 
them  and  the  accomplishment  of  their  projects  of  aggrandizement, 
forming  combinations  with  other  powers  for  this  purpose,  we 
should  have  occasion  for  action  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  of 
the  sun,  in  mighty  continents  as  well  as  in  the  smallest  isles  that 
strew  the  ocean." 

But  in  this  same  month  of  February,  it  was  within  the  line  of 
his  destiny  that  he  should  again  be  called  upon  to  speak  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  —  not  upon  the  merits  of  the  question,  nor 
upon  any  bill,  nor  with  reference  to  any  new  movement.  And 
what,  reader,  do  you  think  it  was?  Why,  in  the  extraordinary 
fluctuations  of  luck,  a  majority  of  the  members  who  happened  to 
be  elected  to  the  legislature  of  the  Peninsular  State,  for  a  wonder, 
wished  him  to  procure  the  passage  of  a  law  through  Congress 
prohibiting  the  introduction  or  existence  of  slavery  in  the  Terri 
tories  of  the  United  States,  and  especially  in  those  highly  desirable 
Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Nor  was  this  all  they 
wished  him  to  do.  They  instructed  him  to  vote  for  the  repeal  of 
the  fugitive  slave  law,  as  they  thought  it  contained  provisions  of 
doubtful  constitutionality,  and  which  were  repugnant  to  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  of  the  free  States.  It  was  not  mentioned  that 
Michigan  was  one  of  those  free  States ;  but  that  Michigan  is  a 
free  State,  might  have  been  stated  with  truth,  coupled  with  the 
additional  remark,  that  in  defense  of  the  same  he  had  often 
periled  his  life,  long  before  many  of  them  were  born. 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  767 

These  very  modest  requests,  neither  General  Cass  nor  his 
respected  colleague,  Mr.  Stuart,  could  conscientiously  comply  with. 
It  was  not  expressly  stated,  to  be  sure,  that  they  must  resign  their 
high  trusts  if  they  failed  to  put  forth  their  exertions  in  these  par 
ticulars,  but  such  was  the  accepted  meaning  of  the  resolutions, 
and  this  the  Michigan  senators  could  not  conscientiously  do,  for 
they  had  other  interests  to  look  after,  of  the  highest  importance  to 
the  people  who  had  sent  them  to  Washington.  As  General  Cass 
had  now  for  over  half  a  century,  in  varied  public  positions,  never 
failed  to  discharge  his  official  duties,  under  all  emergencies  and 
upon  all  occasions,  he  thought  it  was  inadmissible  for  him,  at  this 
late  day  in  his  public  career,  to  turn  his  back  upon  a  constituency 
that  had  evinced  for  him  such  unwavering  and  ardent  attachment. 
He  considered  it  his  duty  to  stand  by  them  and  their  rights  to  the 
last.  He  did  so.  And  that  there  might  be  no  mistake  as  to  the 
course  he  intended  to  pursue,  he  thus  addressed  them,  from  his 
place  in  the  Senate,  after  referring  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been 
once  instructed  to  vote  for  the  Wilmot  proviso,  and  the  instruction 
repealed  before  his  vote  was  called,  and  that  he  on  that  occasion 
recognized  the  right  of  instruction  and  the  duty  of  the  represen 
tative  to  obey,  with  certain  limitations  : 

"  And  thus  has  the  subject  rested  undisturbed  till  within  a  few 
days,  the  delegation  of  Michigan  in  Congress  having  been  left  to 
follow  the  dictates  of  their  conscience  and  judgment  in  relation  to 
this  whole  matter.  Quite  recently,  however,  a  change  has  taken 
place.  The  Democratic  party  in  the  State  has  lost  its  ascendency, 
and  a  new  party,  with  different  views,  and  I  may  add,  in  many 
respects, .with  discordant  ones,  having  obtained  possession  of  the 
legislative  power,  the  resolutions  which  have  just  been  read  are 
the  result  of  its  action,  and  call  upon  me,  as  well  as  upon  the 
other  members  of  the  delegation,  to  vote  for  depriving  American 
citizens  in  the  Territories  of  the  power  to  regulate  one  of  the  most 
important  of  their  domestic  concerns — that  of  the  relation  between 
master  and  servant,  and  for  the  repeal  of  the  existing  fugitive 
slave  act,  passed  to  give  effect  to  a  solemn  guarantee  of  the  Con 
stitution.  As  I  peremptorily  decline  to  do  either,  and  intend  to 
retain  my  place,  it  is  necessary,  in  my  own  vindication  before  the 
people  of  the  State,  whom  I  desire  respectfully  to  address  from 
the  seat  which  I  here  occupy  by  their  favor  and  kindness,  that  I 
should  now  do  what  I  was  not  required  to  do  on  the  former  occa- 


768  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

sion,  to  'ascertain  the  limitations'  upon  the  right  of  instruction, 
or,  to  speak,  perhaps,  with  more  precision,  4  the  extent'  of  the  duty 
of  obelience,  so  far  as  concerns  my  present  position.  And  I  have 
to  say,  sir,  that  the  circumstances  in  which  the  power  to  pass 
these  resolutions  originated  constitute  one  of  the  very  cases  which 
occurred  to  me  at  the  time  those  words  of  caution  were  spoken, 
as  restricting  the  obedience  of  the  representative.  The  practical 
question,  briefly  stated,  is  this  :  Has  a  political  party,  whenever 
it  accedes  to  power,  by  whatever  combinations,  the  right  to  pass 
resolutions  which  its  opponents  in  legislative  trusts  are  bound  to 
obey,  or,  if  prevented  from  obeying  by  their  conscience  and  con 
sistency,  to  resign  their  position  ? 

"  The  consequences  of  such  a  rule  of  action  are  too  obvious  to 
need  detailed  examination,  and  too  serious  to  be  incurred  without 
pressing  necessity.  Into  this  body  it  would  introduce  changes, 
radically  affecting  its  organization,  and  incompatible  with  the 
objects  of  its  institution  as  the  representative  branch  of  the  sove 
reignty  of  the  States.  It  would  lose  every  characteristic  of  perma 
nence,  its  members  going  out,  year  by  year,  as  political  fluctuations 
might  transfer  power  from  one  party  to  another;  for,  at  all  times, 
would  it  be  easy  to  select  questions  for  this  process  of  removal 
winch  no  honest  man,  of  an  opposite  party,  could  support.  Some 
of  these  are  constitutional,  and  others,  scarcely  inferior  to  them  in 
importance,  involving  points  of  policy  forming  the  very  landmarks 
of  the  debatable  ground  where  our  struggles  have  always  hereto 
fore  taken  place.  That  this  power  would  be  used,  abused,  indeed, 
for  this  purpose,  no  man  will  deny.  The  excitements  of  the  past 
warn  us  as  to  what  the  future  would  bring  with  it;  and  that  the 
disadvantage  would  be  the  share  of  the  Democracy  is  certain,  for 
it  is  well  understood  that,  in  the  creed  of  our  opponents,  instruc 
tions  carry  with  them  neither  the  duty  to  obey  nor  the  obligation 
to  resign.  The  two  Whig  senators  who  have  occupied  seats  in 
this  body  from  Michigan,  one  of  them  my  immediate  predecessor, 
and  the  other  my  colleague  during  a  portion  of  my  flrst  term  of 
service — honorable  and  distinguished  citizens — both  disavowed 
the  obligation  of  instructions,  and  both  refused,  at  least  in  one 
instance,  to  obey  the  expressed  will  of  the  legislature,  conveyed  to 
them  by  its  resolutions ;  and  I  believe  their  views  were  in  con 
formity  with  the  opinions  of  their  party  in  the  State. 

"I  am  not  called  upon  to  discuss  the  general  doctrine.     All  I 


OF  LEWIS  CAS3.  769 

seek  is  to  explain  why  I  acknowledged  the  obligations  of  the  for 
mer  instructions  and  deny  those  of  the  present;  and  when  I  deny 
the  power  of  the  existing  majority  of  the  legislature  of  Michigan, 
composed,  as  it  is,  of  political  opponents  whose  efficient  bond  of 
union  is  antagonism  to  the  Democracy,  to  instruct  me  out  of  office, 
I  feel  that  my  object  is  accomplished.  I  presume  there  was  not 
a  member  of  the  general  assembly,  whose  will  is  embodied  in  that 
document,  who  did  not  know  that  no  human  consideration  would 
induce  me  to  support  the  measures  which  find  such  favor  in  their 
eyes.  So  far  as  respects  myself,  it  was  the  vacation  of  the  office 
that  was  hoped  for." 

As  a  rider — this  word  conveys  the  meaning — the  General  took 
the  trouble  to  advise  the  people  of  his  views  on  the  invisible  topic 
of  Know  Xothingism,  which  we  append  to  the  above  : 

"Mr.  President,  strange  doctrines  are  abroad,  and  strange  or 
ganizations  are  employed  to  promulgate  and  enforce  them.  Our 
political  history  contains  no  such  chapter,  in  the  progress  of  our 
country,  as  that  which  is  now  opening.  The  grave  questions  of 
constitutionality  and  policy,  which  have  been  so  long  the  battle- 
cry  of  parties,  are  contemptuously  rejected,  and  intolerance,  relig 
ious  and  political,  finds  zealous,  and,  it  may  be,  they  will  prove 
successful,  advocates  in  this  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
boasting,  with  much  self-complacency,  of  its  intelligence,  and  in 
this  free  country,  founded  upon  emigration,  and  grown  prosperous 
and  powerful  by  toleration.  It  is  a  system  of  proscription  which 
would  exclude  the  first  general  who  fell  at  the  head  of  an  organized 
American  army — and  nobly  and  gallantly  did  he  fall,  while  fight 
ing  for  our  infant  liberties,  under  the  walls  of  Quebec — from  all 
political  confidence,  because  he  happened  to  be  born  on  the  wrong 
side  of  the  Atlantic;  and  would  exclude,  also,  the  last  surviving 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  from  any  similar  token 
of  regard,  because  he  was  a  Catholic,  were  these  eminent  leaders  in 
our  revolutionary  cause  now  living  to  witness  this  appeal  to  local 
and  sectarian  prejudices.  But  Montgomery  and  Carroll  went  to 
their  graves  with  the  weight  of  no  such  ingratitude  upon  their 
hearts.  Two  great  parties,  equally  attached  to  the  principle  of  our 
government,  but  differing  upon  many  questions  of  administration, 
and  alternately  borne  to  power  and  driven  from  it,  and,  whether  in 
place  or  out  of  it,  watching  each  other  with  jealous  scrutiny,  pre 
sent  a  wise  and  fortunate  arrangement  for  the  preservation  of 
49 


770  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

freedom,  and  for  guarding  against  the  abuse  of  authority.  Such 
has  been  our  condition,  and  well  and  wisely  has  its  work  been 
done.  What  more  does  this  lately  awakened  zeal  propose?  As 
a  country,  we  are  in  possession  of  everything  the  heart  of  man 
can  desire — power,  intelligence,  prosperity,  happiness,  abundance, 
freedom,  equality,  the  religion  of  God  and  the  respect  of  man — • 
all  the  elements,  indeed,  which  give  value  to  social  life,  or  security 
for  the  duration  of  political  blessings.  We  want  no  new  parties, 
no  new  platforms,  no  new  organizations,  and  the  sooner  these 
dangerous  efforts  are  abandoned,  the  better  will  it  be  for  us  and 
those  who  are  to  follow  us  in  this  heritage  of  freedom. 

"During  the  process  of  constructing  a  party  upon  this  nar 
row  basis  of  exclusion,  humbly  affecting  to  know  nothing  while 
proudly  aspiring  to  direct  everything,  and,  especially,  of  construct 
ing  one  with  principles  of  organization,  not  only  secret  in  their 
operation,  but  seeking  unity  of  action,  not  in  individual  conviction 
and  responsibility,  but  in  the  surrender  of  the  will  of  each  to  the 
demands  of  those  who  gain  the  direction  of  the  associations — 
during  this  process  the  public  mind  must  be  in  a  state  of  feverish 
excitement  unfriendly  to  calm  deliberation ;  and  majorities,  ac 
quired  by  combinations  arising  out  of  this  state  of  things,  do  not 
act  under  the  '  fair  and  proper  circumstances'  which  I  declared  in 
1850  to  be  indispensable  to  the  obligatory  force  of  legislative 
instructions." 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  February,  1855,  General  Cass  had  the 
pleasure  of  presenting  to  Congress  in  the  name  of  the  family  of 
the  late  General  Robert  Armstrong,  the  sword  of  General  Jack 
son.  "I  hold  in  my  hand,"  said  General  Cass,  "the  sword  of 
General  Jackson,  which  he  wore  in  all  his  expeditions  while  in 
the  service  of  the  country,  and  which  was  his  faithful  companion 
in  his  last  and  crowning  victory  when  New  Orleans  was  saved 
from  the  grasp  of  a  rapacious  and  powerful  enemy,  and  our  nation 
from  the  disgrace  and  disaster  which  defeat  would  have  brought 

O  *D 

in  its  train.  When  the  hand  of  death  was  upon  him,  General 
Jackson  presented  this  sword  to  his  friend,  the  late  General  Arm 
strong,  as  a  testimonial  of  his  high  appreciation  of  the  services, 
worth,  and  courage  of  that  most  estimable  citizen  and  distin 
guished  soldier,  whose  desperate  valor  on  one  occasion  stayed  the 
tide  of  Indian  success  and  saved  the  army  from  destruction.  The 
family  of  the  lamented  depository,  now  that  death  has  released 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  771 

him  from  the  guardianship  of  this  treasure  of  patriotism,  are  de 
sirous  it  should  be  surrendered  to  the  custody  of  the  national 
legislature,  believing  that  to  be  the  proper  disposition  of  a  memo 
rial  which,  in  all  times  to  come,  will  be  a  cherished  one  for  the 
American  people." 

And  most  fit  was  this  final  disposition  of  an  invaluable 
souvenir.  Beside  the  sword  of  Washington,  and  the  cane  of 
Franklin,  another  legacy  of  departed  greatness,  another  weapon 
from  the  armory  of  patriotism,  comes  to  claim  its  place  in  the 
sanctuary  assigned  to  its  predecessor,  and  to  share  with  it  the 
veneration  of  the  country  in  whose  defense  it  was  wielded. 

We  have  already  observed  that  General  Cass  does  not  look  with 
favor  upon  the  political  party  known  by  the  name  of  Know  Noth 
ing;  and  the  public  announcement  of  his  views  upon  this  topic 
in  his  place  in  the  Senate  on  the  fifth  of  February,  1855,  ought  to 
have  foreclosed  all  cavil  with  respect  to  them.  Otherwise,  how 
ever,  is  the  fact.  A  national  convention  of  the  order  at  Phila 
delphia,  in  the  spring  of  1855,  took  grounds  in  its  platform  in 
favor  of  popular  sovereignty  in  territorial  legislation  and  govern 
ment.  Indeed,  the  convention  recognized  the  correctness  of  the 
doctrine  enunciated  in  the  Nicholson  letter  ;  and  more  for  this 
reason  than  because  of  any  pretense  that  the  General  approved  of 
the  political  organization  represented  in  that  convention,  the 
rumor  soon  became  current  that  his  sympathies,  nevertheless, 
were  in  that  direction.  He  paid  no  attention  to  it,  however,  until 
a  letter  appeared  in  the  public  prints,  written  by  General  Houston, 
of  Texas,  in  which  the  statement  was  broadly  made  that  General 
Cass  approved  of  the  platform  of  the  American  order,  clearly 
intending  to  convey  the  impression  that  he  favored  that  political 
party.  Nothing  was  further  from  the  truth.  And  more  to  put 
his  own  political  record  right,  now  near  its  end,  than  because  of 
any  particular  interest  which  he  might  fancy  the  public  to  take  in 
his  private  sentiments  on  this  subject,  especially  as  they  had  been 
referred  to  from  such  a  distinguished  source,  he  reiterated  his 
matured  views  through  the  columns  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press,  in 
the  following  letter: 

'•'DETROIT,  Aug.  22d,  1855. 

"To  the  Editor  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press  : 

"  SIR — The  public  journals  contain  a  letter  dated  July  24th,  writ 
ten  by  General  Houston,  which  has  just  met  my  eye,  and  in  which 


772  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

he  says  he  perceives  by  the  papers  of  the  day,  that  '  General 
Cass  has  approved  the  platform  of  the  American  order,  as  pro 
claimed  to  the  world  by  the  convention  at  Philadelphia.'  I  had 
observed  the  statements  to  which  General  Houston  alludes,  and 
had  let  them  pass  unnoticed,  for  it  would  be  a  hopeless  task  to 
endeavor  to  correct  all  the  misapprehensions  and  misrepresenta 
tions  to  which  it  is  my  lot,  as  well  as  that  of  all  other  public  men, 
to  be  exposed  in  these  days  of  party  strife;  and,  indeed,  I  could 
not  suppose,  that  such  assertions  would  deceive  any  one  who  had 
heard  or  had  read  my  remarks  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
on  the  fifth  of  February  last,  upon  the  presentation  of  the  resolu 
tions  of  the  legislature  of  Michigan,  instructing  the  senators  of 
that  State  to  vote  for  an  act  of  Congress  prohibiting  the  introduc 
tion  of  slavery  into  the  Territories  of  the  United  States.  Upon 
that  occasion,  while  declining  to  comply  with  those  instructions, 
I  took  the  opportunity  to  express  my  sentiments  in  relation  to  the 
new  political  movement  which  sought  to  acquire  and  exercise 
power  by  secret  combinations,  bound  together  by  the  sanctions  of 
an  oath,  which,  it  is  said,  made  it  the  duty  of  its  members  to  sur 
render  their  individual  convictions  to  the  expressed  will  of  a 
majority  of  their  associates.  I  then  observed:  l  Strange  doctrines 
are  abroad,  and  strange  organizations  are  employed  to  promul 
gate  arid  enforce  them.  Our  political  history  contains  no  such 
chapter  in  the  progress  of  our  country,  as  that  which  is  now  open 
ing.  The  questions  of  constitutionality  and  policy,  which  have 
been  so  long  the  battle-cry  of  parties,  are  contemptuously  rejected, 
and  intolerance,  religious  and  political,  finds  zealous,  and  it  may 
be  they  will  prove  successful,  advocates  in  this  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  boasting  with  much  self-complacency  of  its 
intelligence,  and  in  this  free  country,  founded  upon  immigration 

and  grown  prosperous  and  powerful  by  toleration 

We  want  no  new  parties,  no  new  platforms,  no  new 

organizations,  and  the  sooner  these  dangerous  efforts  are  aban 
doned,  the  better  will  it  be  for  us  and  for  those  who  are  to  follow 
us  in  this  heritage  of  freedom.' 

"I  might  well  suppose,  after  the  expression  of  these  views  upon 
the  floor  of  the  Senate,  and  under  circumstances  of  peculiar  respon 
sibility,  that  any  further  action  on  my  part  would  be  unnecessary 
to  prove  my  consistency,  as  a  disciple  of  the  school  of  Washing 
ton,  and  Jefferson,  and  Madison,  and  Jackson,  in  the  rejection  of 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  773 

a  dangerous  innovation,  inconsistent  with  all  the  principles  those 
patriots  taught,  and  which,  in  effect,  aims  to  transfer  the  great 
political  duty  of  an  American  citizen  from  the  light  of  day,  where 
it  should  be  exercised  in  this  land  of  freedom,  to  secret  conclaves, 
as  unfriendly  to  calm  investigation,  as  to  wise  and  patriotic 
decision.  But  the  extract  from  the  letter  of  General  Houston  has 
shown  me  that  these  reports  have  received  more  credit  than  I  had 
believed,  and  this  consideration  has  induced  me  thus  publicly  to 
notice  and  to  contradict  them.  My  opinions,  indeed,  upon  any 
subject  are  but  of  little  consequence  except  to  myself,  but,  if  they 
are  worth  referring  to,  they  are  worth  the  trouble  of  making  the 
reference  a  true  one. 

u  I  have  no  sympathy  with  this  plan  of  political  organization — 
none  whatever;  neither  with  the  means  it  employs,  nor  the  objects 
it  seeks  to  attain.  Its  secresy,  its  oath-bound  obligations,  its  con 
trol  of  the  ballot-box,  its  system  of  proscription,  striking  both  at 
political  rights  and  religious  duties,  and  its  inevitable  tendency 
to  array  one  portion  of  the  community  against  another,  and  to 
carry  deadly  feuds  into  every  corner  of  the  land,  of  which  we  have 
just  had  a  terrible  proof,  written  in  characters  of  blood,  and  are 
doomed  to  have  many  more  if  this  movement  goes  on,  for  this  is 
but  the  first  instalment  of  death,  and  how  many  others  are  to 
follow,  and  to  what  extent,  and  when  the  last  is  to  be  paid,  and 
after  what  lamentable  vicissitudes,  is  known  only  to  Him  who  fore 
sees  events  and  can  control  them, — these  characteristics  mark  it 
as  the  most  dangerous  scheme  which  has  ever  been  introduced 
into  our  country  to  regulate  its  public  action  or  its  social  condition. 
It  is  the  Orangeism  of  a  republic,  scarcely  better  in  principle  than 
its  monarchical  prototype — of  a  republic  whose  freedom  and 
equality  justify  as  little  as  they  invite  the  introduction  of  a 
machinery  whose  operation  is  concealed  from  public  observation, 
but  whose  consequences  are  as  clear  as  they  are  alarming. 

u  General  Houston  gives  credence  to  the  report  that  I  approve 
'  the  platform  of  the  American  order,  as  proclaimed  to  the  world 
by  the  convention  at  Philadelphia.'  I  am  aware  that  changes 
have  been  made,  both  in  the  name  and  in  some  of  the  principles 
of  this  new  organization  ;  but  these  changes  do  not  remove  my 
objections  to  it.  Its  spirit  of  exclusion  and  intolerance  remains, 
and  with  it,  its  evils  and  its  dangers.  It  is  a  book  to  which  lean 
not  be  reconciled,  whatever  edition,  whether  the  new  one  or  the 


774  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

old  one,  is  offered  to  me.  There  is,  indeed,  one  principle  laid  clown 
in  that  convention  which  meets  my  concurrence,  and  that  is,  the 
declaration  that  l  Congress  ought  not  to  legislate  upon  the  subject 
of  slavery  within  the  territory  of  the  United  States.'  I  regret, 
however,  that  the  body  which  has  thus  pronounced  against  the 
exercise  of  the  power  did  not  also  pronounce  against  its  existence, 
but  carefully  pi  etermitted — to  use  its  own  words — the  expres 
sion  of  any  opinion  upon  that  point.  Still,  I  approve  its  action 
upon  the  subject,  so  far  as  it  goes.  It  is  a  step  in  the  right  di 
rection,  and  I  should  rejoice  to  see  it  followed  by  every  polit 
ical  party  in  our  country.  It  is  a  step,  too,  towards  the  security 
of  political  rights  —  this  opposition  to  the  legislation  of  Con 
gress  over  the  internal  affairs  of  the  people  of  the  Territories, 
and,  among  others,  over  the  relation  of  master  and  servant, 
or  that  of  husband  and  wife,  or  parent  and  child  ;  for  these 
matters  of  domestic  policy  are  subjects  which  should  be  left  to 
the  territorial  communities,  and  to  divest  them  of  the  power  to 
regulate  them,  is  an  act  of  unmitigated  despotism.  The  negation 
of  all  power  of  interference  by  Congress  in  the  internal  govern 
ment  of  the  Territories  is  the  true  constitutional  doctrine,  and  the 
only  safe  and  practicable  one,  and  I  am  rejoiced  that,  after  years 
of  opposition — of  obloquy,  indeed — it  is  fast  establishing  itself 
upon  impregnable  grounds. 

"  The  misapprehension  which  has  prevailed  upon  this  grave 
subject  is  among  the  most  extraordinary  political  events  of  my 
time.  One  would  naturally  suppose  that  in  this  country,  the 
dogma  of  internal  government  by  an  irresponsible  legislature  over 
a  distant  community,  unrepresented  in  the  ruling  body,  would  find 
but  little  favor,  and  that  the  power  to  establish  and  put  in  opera 
tion  a  government  might  well  be  defended,  while  the  power  to 
control  all  the  concerns  of  human  life  would  be  left  without  an 
advocate.  The  difference  is  broad  and  practical,  and  should  be 
the  dearer  to  us,  as  it  was  the  very  consideration  urged  by  our 
Revolutionary  fathers  in  their  contest  with  the  mother  country, 
which  began  by  argument,  but  ended  by  arms.  It  was  asserted 
as  early  as  1774,  when  the  Continental  Congress  declared  that  the 
English  colonists  '  are  entitled  to  free  and  EXCLUSIVE  power  of 
legislation  in  their  several  provincial  legislatures,  where  their 
right  of  representation  can  alone  be  preserved,  in  all  cases  of  tax 
ation  and  internal  polity,  &c.'  In  that  great  struggle,  the  patriots 


OF  LEWIS  CAS3.  775 

who  conducted  it  conceded  to  the  British  Parliament  the  authority 
to  organize  colonial  governments,  but  denied  their  right  to  touch 
the  internal  polity  of  the  people.  And  for  the  support  of  that 
great  principle,  denied  and  derided  as  it  is  now,  they  went  to  war. 
"  I  observe  that  a  highly  respectable  and  intelligent  gentleman, 
Governor  Hunt,  of  Hew  York,  in  a  letter  just  published,  speaks  of 
the  Nebraska  bill  as  '  based  on  the  absurd  theory  of  territorial 
sovereignty.'  I  never  heard  a  man  support  that  measure  or 
approve  it  for  such  a  reason.  Governor  Hunt  has  mistaken  the 
sneers  of  its  enemies  for  the  views  of  its  friends.  The  Nebraska 
bill  rests  upon  no  such  theory — upon  no  theory  at  all,  but  upon  the 
stable  foundation  of  the  federal  Constitution,  and  of  the  natural 
rights  of  man. 

O 

"I  know  of  no  one  who  claims  sovereignty  for  the  Territories. 
All  concede  their  dependence  upon  the  United  States.  But 
within  this  relation,  there  are  mutual  rights  and  duties,  and  the 
questions — what  power  may  Congress  lawfully  exercise,  and  are 
the  people  of  the  Territories  divested  of  all  rights — must  be  de 
termined,  not  by  politico-metaphysical  considerations,  arising  out 
of  the  attribute  of  sovereignty,  but  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States, — to  the  law,  and  to  the  testimony.  By  that  Con 
stitution,  the  general  government  is  a  government,  not  only  of 
granted,  but  of  limited  powers,  and  Congress  can  exercise  no 
authority  which  is  not  given  by  the  great  charter  that  brought  it 
into  existence.  Let  any  man  put  his  linger  upon  the  clause  of 
that  instrument  which  confers  this  power  of  internal  interference, 
and  I  will  abandon  the  principle,  long  as  it  has  been  cherished 

bv  me. 

*  -x-  #  *  *  *  % 

"I  have  never  known  the  time  when  the  Democratic  party  was 
called  upon  by  higher  considerations  to  adhere,  faithfully  and 
zealously,  to  their  organization  and  their  principles,  than  they 
are  at  this  day.  Our  confederation  is  passing  through  the  most 
severe  trial  that  it  has  yet  undergone.  Unceasing  efforts  are 
making  to  excite  hostile  and  sectional  feelings,  against  which  we 
were  prophetically  warned  by  the  Father  of  his  Country,  and  if 
these  are  successful,  the  days  of  this  Constitution  are  numbered. 
The  continued  assaults  upon  the  south,  upon  its  character,  its 
constitutional  rights,  and  its  institutions,  and  the  systematic  per 
severance  and  the  bitter  spirit  with  which  these  are  pursued, 


776  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

while  they  warn  the  Democratic  party  of  the  danger,  should  also 
incite  it  to  united  and  vigorous  action.  They  warn  it,  too,  that 
the  time  bas  come  when  all  other  differences  which  may  have 
divided  it  should  give  way  to  the  duty  of  defending  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  when  that  great  party,  coeval  with  the  government, 
should  be  united  as  one  man  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  work 
to  which  it  is  now  called,  and  before  it  is  too  late.  It  is  the 
American  party,  for  it  has  neither  sectional  prejudices  nor  sec 
tional  preferences,  and  its  care  and  its  efforts  extend  wherever  the 
Constitution  of  its  country  extends,  with  equal  regard  to  the  rights 
and  interests  of  all.  I  believe  the  fate  of  this  great  republic  is 
now  in  its  hands,  and  so  believing,  I  earnestly  hope  that  its  action 
will  be  firm,  prompt,  and  united,  yielding  not  one  hair's  breadth 
of  its  time  honored  principles,  and  resisting  to  the  last  the  danger 
ous  efforts  with  which  we  are  menaced;  and,  if  so,  the  victory  of 
the  Constitution,  I  doubt  not,  will  be  achieved. 
"  I  am,  sir,  respectfully, 

"  Your  ob't  ser't, 

"LEWIS  CAS.S." 


Another  presidential  canvass  is  fast  approaching,  and  many 
persons  in  various  sections  of  the  republic  still  cling  with  heart 
felt  tenacity  to  General  Cass,  as  the  needed  pilot  to  guide  the  ship 
of  state  over  the  tempestuous  seas  which  the  future  political 
horizon  indicates  must  befall  it.  But  he  seconds  no  such  move 
ment.  His  age  warns  him  that  he  has  done  his  duty  to  his 
country,  and  beckons  him  to  relinquish  the  turmoil  of  public  life 
for  the  quietude  of  a  retired  and  happy  home. 

He  has  received  many  letters  soliciting  the  use  of  his  name  in 
the  primary  assemblages  of  the  people,  with  the  view  of  formally 
presenting  it  to  the  national  nominating  convention.  To  all  these 
requests,  he  makes  but  one  reply,  and  that  is  contained  in  the 
following  correspondence,  too  explicit  to  require  any  farther 
comment: 

"PHILADELPHIA,  NOT.  5th,  1855. 

"  HON.  LEWIS  CASS — SIR: — As  the  time  is  fast  approaching 
when  it  will  be  necessary  for  the  Democratic  party  to  select  dele 
gates  to  make  their  nominations  for  President  and  Vice-Presi 
dent,  and  inasmuch  as  we,  the  undersigned,  feel  great  interest  in 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  7<7 

selecting  the  proper  candidate  for  President,  and  believing  you  to 
be  the  most  competent  and  most  available  candidate,  and  one 
that  the  people  would  take  pride  in  electing  if  nominated,  we 
therefore  most  respectfully  ask  you  for  an  answer,  in  reply  to  our 
note,  saying  if  you  will  confer  a  favor  on  your  friends  and  fellow- 
citizens. 

"  ANDREW  J.  WEBSTER, 

"  And  others." 

"DETROIT,  Nov.  23d,  1855. 

"  GENTLEMEN — I  have  received  your  letter  asking  me  if  I  am  a 
candidate  for  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  and  ex 
pressing  the  gratification  it  would  give  you  to  support  me  for  that 
high  station. 

"  While  thanking  you  for  this  manifestation  of  your  kindness 
and  confidence,  of  which  I  shall  always  preserve  a  grateful  recol 
lection,  I  reply  that  I  am  not  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  nor 
do  I  desire  that  my  name  should  be  presented  in  connection  with 
it  to  the  consideration  of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  Union. 
"  1  am,  gentlemen, 

"  With  great  regard, 

"  Truly  yours, 

"LEWIS  CASS. 
"ANDREW  J.  WEBSTKK,  ESQ.,  and  others,  Philadelphia." 

General  Cass  is  now  verging  upon  seventy-three  years  of  age. 
Fifty  years  of  his  life  have  been  passed  in  public  position,  and 
during  three-fourths  of  that  long  period,  as  the  reader  of  these 
pages  has  perceived,  he  has  filled  a  large  space  in  the  political 
affairs  of  the  world.  Possessed  naturally  of  a  robust  constitution, 
his  physical  energies  have  enabled  him  to  endure  the  fatigues 
incident  to  activity  and  labor,  and  have  enabled  Lim  to  bear  up 
under  the  most  exhausting  intellectual  effort. 

His  habits  are  simple,  his  manners  and  disposition  democratic; 
his  style  of  living  plain,  but  substantial ;  and  his  residence  not 
ostentatious,  but  elegant.  Averse  to  idleness  and  dissipation,  he 
is  merry  with  his  companions  and  strong  in  his  friendship.  lie 
is  remarkable  for  his  affability  to  young  persons  ;  and  surrounded 
by  them  at  his  own  table,  he  can  be  as  hilarious  and  happy  as  the 
gayest  of  them.  Fond  of  his  study,  and  pleased  with  his  own 
reflections  in  retirement,  he  is  not  a  recluse,  but  on  all  occasions 


778  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

his  admirers,  friends,  and  fellow-citizens,  are  welcome  to  his  large 
and  hospitable  mansion,  on  the  corner  of  Fort  and  Cass  streets, 
in  the  prosperous  and  beautiful  city  of  Detroit.  General  Cass  is 
a  member  of  the  ancient  fraternity  of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons. 
He  has  repeatedly  held  the  office  of  Grand  Master.  He  believes 
the  institution  eminently  useful  in  its  quiet  and  gentle  offerings 
of  heartfelt  philanthropy.  Co-extensive  with  civilization,  the 
order,  in  his  judgment,  is  capable  of  doing  great  good  to  its  mem 
bers  all  over  the  globe.  He  has  seen  the  sign  of  recognition,  and 
felt  the  grip  of  friendship  among  the  savages.  He  never  regretted 
that  he  became  a  member.  The  aged — the  sick — the  unfortunate 
— all  find  refreshment  in  the  south,  and  reward  in  the  west. 

In  his  daily  walk  he  forgets  not  a  companion  of  many  years. 
She  who  was  the  partner  of  his  inmost  thoughts  from  early  man 
hood — Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cass — deceased  March  5th,  1853,  at  her 
residence  in  Detroit.  She  had  long  been  an  invalid,  and  was 
ready  to  obey  the  summons  of  her  Divine  Master  in  Heaven. 
She  was  a  lady  of  exemplary  piety — of  sweet  and  confiding  dis 
position — of  the  most  unobtrusive  deportment.  None  knew  her 
but  to  love  her,  none  spoke  of  her  but  to  praise  her.  .  Her  virtues 
are  embalmed  in  the  remembrance  of  her  most  affectionate 
survivor. 

General  Cass  passes  his  congressional  vacations  for  the  most 
part  at  home.  Occasionally,  he  accepts  an  invitation  to  deliver 
an  address.  His  invitations  to  do  so  are  numerous.  To  a  judi 
ciously  selected  library,  he  makes  constant  additions  from  the 
numerous  publications  of  the  day.  He  delights  to  pass  an  hour 
or  so,  for  recreation,  most  every  day,  in  the  perusal  of  romances, 
such  as  those  of  Scott,  Cooper  and  Irving,  and  the  like.  In  the 
enjoyment  of  excellent  health,  his  mental  powers  still  remain 
vigorous  and  active.  Born  during  the  Avar  of  independence,  he 
is  among  the  few,  very  few,  surviving  links  which  connect  the 
men  of  the  revolution  with  the  present  generation.  Often,  in  early 
youth,  did  he  converse  with  a  venerable  relative  then  at  the 
extremity  of  a  long  life,  who  was  a  cotemporary  of  Peregrine 
White  — the  first  child  born  to  the  pilgrims  after  their  arrival  in 
America.  lie  is  among  the  few,  very  few,  survivors  who  ever 
saw — much  less  conversed  with — Washington.  What  an  appal 
ling  image  of  the  progress  and  destiny  of  this  matchless  federative 
empire,  do  these  simple  facts  present !  But  one  life  passed  away 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  779 

between  the  first  and  latest  born  of  one  of  its  greatest  communi 
ties — between  its  infancy  and  maturity — between  the  oldest  born 
of  one  great  portion  of  the  new  race  destined  to  occupy  this  hem 
isphere,  and  the  twenty-five  millions  of  people  \vho  are  now 
fulfilling  that  mighty  mission,  commenced  in  weakness  but  con 
summated  in  power  ! 

His  private  affairs  are  so  arranged  as  to  require  but  little  of  his 
personal  attention.  His  property  has  grown  with  the  country 
where  he  resides,  and  has  now  attained  to  a  large  estate.  With 
no  projects  of  ambition,  pecuniary  or  political,  to  perplex  or  annoy 
him,  in  his  venerable  age  he  feels  that  the  lines  have  fallen  to 
him  in  pleasant  places,  and  that  he  has  a  goodly  heritage. 

He  has,  in  the  course  of  an  eventful  lite,  passed  through  many 
trying  scenes.  lie  lias  been  a  leading  actor,  with  undisguised 
position  and  affirmative  acts,  in  the  great  political  questions  of  the 
age.  His  opinions  and  views  are  fully  and  unequivocally  before 
the  world.  By  them  he  has  been  willing  to  live;  and  by  them, 
in  God's  own  good  time,  he  is  content  to  die.  His  great  desire — 
so  far  as  the  hopes  of  earth  are  concerned — is  that  the  blessings 
of  a  republican  government  may  be  enjoyed  by  his  descendants 
to  the  most  remote  generation. 

He  has  as  little  personal  interest  in  all  these  questions  as  any 
man,  be  the  other  whom  he  ma}7.  Having  passed  the  term  of 
human  existence  assigned  to  man  by  the  Psalmist — three  score 
years  and  ten — he  is  warned  that  his  hold  upon  life  is  frail  and  fleet 
ing.  Among  the  very  few  men  now  living — perhaps  the  only  one 
—appointed  to  important  civil  offices  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  he  prizes 
this  testimonial  of  the  confidence  of  that  great  man  and  pure  states 
man  as  one  of  the  most  precious  memorials  left  to  him.  He  feels 
that,  for  half  a  century,  he  has  adhered  to  the  political  doctrines 
of  the  Father  of  Democracy,  and  done  nothing  to  forfeit  his  confi 
dence,  were  he  yet  living. 

During  a  long  and  active  public  career,  he  has  received  far 
more  important  proofs  of  the  favor  of  his  country  than  he  ever 
expected;  and  to  her  service  he  has  always  carried  the  desire  to 
do  his  duty.  And  now,  when  his  aspirations  for  political  distinc 
tion  are  among  the  things  that  have  been,  if  he  can  make  no  other 
return  for  all  this  kindness,  he  will  make  the  return  of  fidelity,  by 
an  undeviating  adhesion  to  those  principles  which  have  so  long 
been  the  rule  of  his  public  conduct. 


780  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"With  no  griefs  to  assuage — no  resentments  to  gratify — no  pur 
poses  to  attain  but  the  great  purposes  of  the  Democratic  party, 
closely  interwoven,  as  it  is,  with  the  most  prosperous  government 
that  the  light  of  day  ever  shown  upon — his  heart  is  filled  with 
gratitude  for  what  he  has  received,  and  not  with  regret  because 
he  has  not  received  more.  Animated  by  these  sentiments,  he  will 
hold  on  to  his  party  and  its  doctrines  until  his  hold  is  broken  by 
that  final  change  which,  sooner  or  later,  comes  to  all. 

The  example  of  his  public  career  will,  in  future  time,  be  referred 
to  as  an  instructive  lesson  of  wisdom  ;  the  principles  which  have 
guided  him  are  but  the  rules  upon  which  he  conducted  the  ad 
ministration  of  all  his  duties  as  a  citizen,  expanded  and  applied 
to  a  more  enlarged  sphere  of  action.  The  purity  and  simplicity 
of  his  life  have  made  a  lasting  impression  on  the  minds  of  his 
countrymen,  and  contributed  most  essentially  to  elevate  the  stand 
ard  of  political  morality  among  the  public  men  of  his  time. 

Sometimes  the  shadows  of  by-gone  days  pass  over  him,  arid  he 
awakes  as  from  a  dream,  asking  himself,  Is  this  great  country, 
north  of  the  Ohio  and  west  of  the  lakes,  teeming  with  life,  liberty, 
and  prosperity — is  this  the  country  he  entered  fifty  years  ago,  shut 
out  from  the  light  of  heaven  by  the  primitive  forests  that  covered 
it?  Is  this  the  country  which  then  contained  one  Territory  and 
now  six  States  of  the  Union  ;  whose  population  then  numbered  a 
few  thousands,  and  now  five  millions  of  people?  and  the  great 
rivers,  unsurpassed  upon  the  face  of  the  globe — mighty  arteries, 
ready  for  all  the  varied  intercourse  of  civilization  ;  mountains, 
rich  in  their  mineral  products,  and  emboweling  the  wealth  of  the 
earth;  prairies  and  plains,  still  stretching  onward,  as  boundless  in 
their  extent  as  in  their  fertility;  and,  over  all,  a  climate  mild, 
equable,  and  admirably  adapted  to  the  human  constitution  ; — are 
these  the  rivers  he  navigated,  the  mountains  he  climbed,  the 
prairies  and  plains  he  traversed,  when  the  silence  of  the  land  was 
unbroken  by  the -cheerful  hum  of  human  industry,  and  its  solitude 
uninterrupted  but  by  the  wandering  Indian  and  the  animals  that 
administered  to  his  wants — when  a  world  of  primitive  gigantic 
vegetation  extended  its  sway  across  the  country,  and  on  to  the 
distant  shores  of  the  Pacific,  where  the  flag  of  our  fathers  and  our 
own  now  waves  in  the  breeze  that  is  wai'ted  from  the  far  off  con 
tinent  of  Asia!  And  the  flourishing  towns  and  populous  cities — 
the  seats  of  civilization  and  of  commerce — could  he  there  have 


OF  LEWIS  CASS.  781 

often  slept  under  wide-spreading  trees,  throwing  their  broad 
branches  over  a  virgin  soil?  And  the  railroad,  does  it  follow  the 
war-path,  where  he  followed  the  Indian?  And  the  church  bell, 
which  now  summons  a  Christian  community  to  prayer  and  praise, 
how  brief  to  him  seems  the  interval  since  the  loneliness  was  broken 
by  the  war-drum  and  the  war-song!  Truly,  a  better  genius  than 
him  of  Aladdin's  lamp — the  genius  of  industry  and  enterprise — 
is  doing  that  mighty  work  whose  ultimate  issue  it  is  not  given  to 
human  sagacity  to  foretell.  The  events  of  ages  elsewhere  here 
seem  to  be  compressed  within  the  ordinary  life  of  man.  With  no 
past — born  but  yesterday — we  have  grown  to-day.  We  have  no 
monuments  far  back  in  the  haze  of  time — glorious  in  their  ruins — 
telling  the  story  of  former  magnificence  in  the  very  solitude  that 
tells  the  story  of  present  decay. 

Of  Lewis  Cass'  earthly  career  yet  to  come,  we  can  not  better 
bring  this  work  to  a  termination  than  by  repeating  his  words  to 
the  Senate,  a  few  days  prior  to  its  last  adjournment: 

"For  myself,  sir,  if  Providence  permit,  I  shall  remain  in  the 
position  I  occupy  during  the  residue  of  my  term  of  service,  unless, 
indeed,  the  Democracy  of  Michigan  should  require  me  to  do  what 
my  convictions  of  duty  would  prohibit  me  from  doing;  in  which 
event  I  should  retire,  without  hesitation,  to  private  life,  where, 
indeed,  I  am  sufficiently  warned,  by  the  years  that  have  passed 
over  me,  I  must  soon  retire,  come  what  may.  But,  as  my  life 
draws  towards  its  close,  age,  as  it  advances,  instead  of  enfeebling, 
adds  strength  to  my  love  of  country,  and  continues  to  console  me 
with  bright  hopes  of  her  future  power  and  stability." 


\ 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY — TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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(J9096slO)476-A-32 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

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U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


321745 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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